Shifting the Focus on Women in the United Nations, 1970–90

Abstract

With the wide range of women’s international organizing evident between 1970 and 1990, one would expect to see an equivalent increase in attention on women’s concerns within the United Nations structures. As this chapter shows, this is not the case. There have been some significant shifts, such as in the language around the inclusion of women in development, the increased attention given to women’s concerns through the United Nations Decade for Women and the systematic inclusion of women’s concerns in the United Nations framework following 1985. But the work of international women’s movements remains largely separate from these, the shifts within the United Nations have done little to change the situations of many women and in some parts of the world women’s situations have even become worse. While states agreed to international standards to promote equality for women and established national machineries to monitor and promote women’s equality, they also pursued policies of structural adjustment and internationalization of production, which have had the effect of stifling and actually reversing many changes that could have helped women.