Introduction

Abstract

Unlike the previous world conferences on women, the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, held in the post-Cold War context, was not characterized by intense ideological disputes over grand theories or between the left and right. This was a more action-oriented conference, with practical solutions and pragmatic compromises overriding theory and ideology. The final document of the conference, the Platform for Action, reflects this orientation. Yet, during the preparatory sessions as well as at this historic conference itself, two important trends that reflected certain old international divisions of political, cultural (especially religious), and economic nature became more prominent. The first was related to a new transnational and cross-cultural conservative and religious alliance against equal rights for women, and the second concerned the growing implications of globalization for women and gender politics.