International
The first World Conference on Women was held in Mexico City from June 19–2 July . The 1975 conference and IWY were part of a larger United Nations program which developed over the Decade of Women (1976–85), and included the drafting and of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), agreed at the second conference in 1979. The 1985 third conference in Nairobi, Kenya not only closed the decade of women, but set a series of member state schedules for removal of legislated gender discrimination in national laws by the year 2000. The 1973-5 planning of the IWY, led by Assistant Secretary General for Social and Humanitarian Affairs Helvi Sipila was very much influenced by the rise of Second Wave Feminist movements throughout the developed world in the early 1970s. Delegates sought to deepen these advances in legal recognition of female equality and bring them to the developing world, and promote the role of women as an aid for economic development.
The 1975 Mexico City Conference was attended by over a thousand delegates. Prominent attendees included:
- Australia: Elizabeth Reid and Margaret Whitlam
An International Women's Year Tribune was also organised and attended by 4,000 women in 1975.
Read more about this topic: International Women's Year