Minerva Bernardino
| Minerva Bernardino | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Dominican |
| Occupation | Diplomat |
| Known for | Charter of the UN signee |
Minerva Bernardino (1907 – August 29, 1998) was a diplomat from the Dominican Republic who promoted women’s rights internationally, and is best known as one of the four women to sign the original charter of the United Nations.
Bernardino was born in El Seibo in 1907 to an “unusually liberal” family. She was orphaned at age 15 and moved to Santo Domingo, where she finished secondary school as part of a new generation of Normalistas—Latin American women pursuing education beyond primary school—and began a career in the Dominican Republic's civil service. Bernardino's attention was drawn to issues of inequality and women's rights when she received a promotion within the civil service but no increase in pay because the government refused to pay any woman more than it paid her male co-workers. In her autobiography, she says “fue éste el impacto que me lanzó a la lucha por los derechos de la mujer.” This background in the civil service which launched Bernardino's fight for women's rights distinguishes her from many of the feminists of her time: she was not a member of the elite or professional class, but a single woman who had worked part-time jobs, and would continue to work similar jobs even as she became more involved in activism and diplomacy.
Bernardino was admired for her bravery and honesty, often pioneering women's rights not only in official documents, but also in her everyday interactions. Kathleen Tesch highlights these traits in an anecdote included in Akmaral Arystanbekova's article "Diplomacy: Too important to be left to men?":
Once, the person presiding a General Assembly session addressed the women delegates as ‘Dear Ladies’, instead of ‘Distinguished Delegates’. Before he could finish what he was saying, Ms. Bernardino had asked for the floor on a procedural motion. 'You can call us ladies when you offer us a cup of coffee or tea, or ask us out to lunch; here, in this room, we are not ladies, we are delegates, and should be addressed accordingly.'
At the end of her life, Bernardino reflected on her fight for the rights of women with some satisfaction, but admitted to having wanted more change more rapidly: “Fue una época, que parece que no se va repetir. Pero me siento contenta, porque se avanzó bastante; sembré buena semilla, y ha ido dando sus frutos, aunque no con la celeridad que me hubiera gustado.”
Bernardino worked mainly to advance political rights, and especially to improve women's suffrage in Latin American states. Her achievements include the 1954 Convention on the Political Rights of Women, which asserted women's rights to vote, run for office and hold office. Bernardino also supported international law that would ensure the equality of women in marriage and divorce, such as the Montevideo Convention on the Nationality of Married Women of 1933.
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