informative speech on women's rights

11 superb speeches to inspire us to keep fighting for gender equality, even when we're exhausted

Moving forward requires focus. Mashable's Social Good Series is dedicated to exploring pathways to a greater good, spotlighting issues that are essential to making the world a better place.

It's been a particularly distressing year full of chaos, heartbreak, and loss. And though circumstances are tough and constantly striving for a better world can be exhausting, it's crucial that women (and men, too) continue in the fight for gender equality.

Gender discrimination and the gender pay gap are still realities that women face on a daily basis. And in 2020, women's rights to abortion and more may be at risk if a conservative winds up filling Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Supreme Court seat.

Thankfully, a whole lot of strong women role models are out there to help lift us up and lead the way. Here are 11 speeches to inspire you to keep fighting for equality, no matter how challenging or hopeless things may feel.

1. Hillary Clinton's "Women's Rights are Human Rights" speech

You may recall Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential concession speech as one of her most memorable, but another truly remarkable address took place in September 1995.

During an impassioned speech at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China, Clinton memorably declared, "Human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights."

The then first lady of the United States went on to passionately argue for the rights and freedom of women around the world. She highlighted the need for women to be protected and respected. She called for an end to violence against women and demanded that women be treated equally. She asked that women be given the same access to education, the same freedom of speech, and the same societal and political rights as men. And she lifted women up, as she's done so many times during her career.

2. Leymah Gbowee's 2012 Ted Talk

Leymah Gbowee, a Liberian peace activist, was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for the role she played in ending the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. Gbowee's nonviolent organizing efforts were historic, and the social worker and women's rights advocate went on to deliver a powerful TED Talk in March 2012 called, "Unlock the intelligence, passion, greatness of girls."

Gbowee shared several formative personal experiences she's had while traveling around the world to speak. She talked about girls she's met and shared bits of their stories. She spoke about her work and the issues she fights for. And she spoke about hope.

"I don't have much to ask of you. I've also been to places in this U.S. and I know that girls in this country also have wishes — wishes for a better life," Gbowee said. "Somewhere in the Bronx... wish for a better life. Somewhere in downtown LA... wish for a better life. Somewhere in Texas... wish for a better life... Somewhere in New Jersey... wish for a better life. Will you journey with me to help that girl?… All they are asking us to do is create that space to unlock the intelligence, unlock the passion, unlock all of the great things that they hold within themselves. Let's journey together."

3. Julia Gillard's famous misogyny speech

In October 2012, Julia Gillard, a former Australian politician who served as Australia's 27th prime minister from 2010 to 2013, delivered a powerful parliamentary speech on misogyny.

In response to opposition leader Tony Abbott's request to have Peter Slipper removed as Speaker over texts sent to an aide, Gillard took the mic and called Abbott out for his own sexist, misogynistic behavior.

"The Leader of the Opposition says that people who hold sexist views and who are misogynists are not appropriate for high office. Well, I hope the Leader of the Opposition has got a piece of paper and he is writing out his resignation. Because if he wants to know what misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn't need a motion in the House of Representatives, he needs a mirror. That's what he needs," Gillard began.

Over the course of the nearly 15-minute address, she proceeded to call out Abbott's "repulsive double standards" on misogyny and sexism.

In a September 2013 appearance on Australian's Kitchen Cabinet interview show, Abbott spoke about Gillard's speech. "Look, politics is about theater and at the time I didn't think it was very effective theater at all," he said. "But plainly it did strike a chord in a lot of people who had not followed the immediate problem that had brought on that particular parliamentary debate."

Strike a chord it did. Though Gillard's speech was seen as controversial by some, it resonated with so many women who had experienced similar behavior, and her words remain unforgettable.

4. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "We should all be feminists" TEDx talk

Some of you may be familiar with We Should All Be Feminists , the personal essay by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie that was published as a book in 2014. But did you know the New York Times bestseller is an adapted version of a TEDx talk that the writer delivered in December 2012?

"We teach girls that they can have ambition, but not too much... to be successful, but not too successful, or they'll threaten men," the writer says to the audience. You may recognize bits of audio from the song "Flawless" off of Beyoncé's 2016 album, Lemonade , but Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's full 30-minute discussion of feminism, the role gender plays in today's society, the double standards among men and women, and her own personal experiences is required listening of its own.

5. Malala Yousafzai's 16th birthday address to the United Nations

When Nobel Prize-winning activist Malala Yousafzai turned 16 years old in July 2013, she delivered a profoundly inspiring address at the United Nations. Yousafzai spoke about how she had been shot by the Taliban in 2012, talked of her recovery and how grateful she was to be alive, and laid out an impassioned plea for equality.

"We call upon all communities to be tolerant — to reject prejudice based on cast, creed, sect, religion, or gender. To ensure freedom and equality for women so that they can flourish. We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back," Yousafzai said.

"Dear brothers and sisters, we want schools and education for every child's bright future. We will continue our journey to our destination of peace and education for everyone," she continued. "No one can stop us. We will speak for our rights and we will bring change through our voice. We must believe in the power and the strength of our words. Our words can change the world."

6. Emma Watson's gender equality speech at the United Nations

In September 2014, Emma Watson — British actor, activist, and United Nations Women Goodwill Ambassador — delivered a powerful address on gender equality at a UN Women's HeForShe campaign event.

"Why has the word [feminism] become such an uncomfortable one? I am from Britain, and I think it is right I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and decisions that will affect my life. I think it is right that socially, I am afforded the same respect as men," Watson said. "But sadly, I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to see these rights. No country in the world can yet say that they achieved gender equality."

Watson went on to explain how she came to understand the word "feminism." She shared personal experiences, discussed how harmful gender stereotypes are, and directly addressed men to remind them, "Gender equality is your issue, too."

7. Lupita Nyong'o speaking at a Black Women in Hollywood event

At Essence 's 2014 Black Women in Hollywood event, actor Lupita Nyong'o was honored for her role in 12 Years a Slave. Nyong'o received the award for "Best Breakthrough Performance" and proceeded to give a truly moving speech about what it means to be a Black woman in Hollywood.

Nyong'o began by sharing a passage from a fan letter she received. A young girl wrote to the actor to say, "I think you're really lucky to be this Black but yet this successful in Hollywood overnight. I was just about to buy Dencia's Whitenicious cream to lighten my skin when you appeared on the world map and saved me."

"My heart bled a little when I read those words," Nyong'o said. "I remember a time when I too felt unbeautiful. I put on the TV and only saw pale skin, I got teased and taunted about my night-shaded skin. And my one prayer to God, the miracle worker, was that I would wake up lighter-skinned."

Nyong'o shared her own struggles with self-image and self-acceptance growing up, expressing why diversity and on-screen representations are so important in the world.

8. Ruth Bader Ginsburg's comments about women on the Supreme Court

The world continues to mourn the loss of the great Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Sept. 18, 2020. But her legacy as a Supreme Court justice and fierce advocate for women's rights and equality will never be forgotten.

Justice Ginsburg gave her fair share of powerful speeches on gender equality over the course of her remarkable career, but several beloved RBG quotes were made when she visited Georgetown University in February 2015 and spoke about the many challenges women in her profession face.

"People ask me sometimes when do you think it will be enough? When will there be enough women on the court? And my answer is, 'When there are nine,'" Justice Ginsburg said. You can watch the full conversation here .

9. Michelle Obama's International Women's Day remarks

Like Justice Ginsburg, Michelle Obama has given a number of touching speeches over the course of her career. But on International Women's Day in 2016, the first lady gave an especially moving one at a Washington, D.C., event for Let Girls Learn , the White House initiative she launched to help fight for girls' education around the world.

"The more I traveled and met with girls and learned from experts about this issue, the more I realized that the barriers to girls' education isn't just resources. It's not just about access to scholarships or transportation or school bathrooms. It's also about attitudes and beliefs — the belief that girls simply aren't worthy of an education; that women should have no role outside the home; that their bodies aren't their own, their minds don't really matter, and their voices simply shouldn't be heard," she said.

After touching on additional issues of inequality, such as discrimination and violence against women, Obama went on to remind people there are still so many rights and freedoms to fight for.

"These issues aren't settled. These freedoms that we take for granted aren't guaranteed in stone. And they certainly didn't just come down to us as a gift from the heavens. No, these rights were secured through long, hard battles waged by women and men who marched, and protested, and made their voices heard in courtrooms and boardrooms and voting booths and the halls of Congress."

10. Raquel Willis calling to protect Black trans lives

Raquel Willis , writer and Black transgender activist, gave an extremely empowering speech to a crowd of 15,000 people at a Brooklyn rally for Black trans lives in June 2020.

"I am gonna talk to my Black trans folks first and model what it looks like to put us first," Willis said into the mic. "We have been told to be silent for too long. We have been told that we are not enough to parents, to family, to lovers, to Johns, to organizations, to schools, to our government, to the world. And the truth is that we're more than enough." 

Willis went on to remind Black trans folk to never doubt their power, to never fall silent, and to keep fighting for equality in workplaces, organizations, and every aspect of life. And she called on others to be active allies to the Black trans community.

"Don't ever doubt the faith that you should have for yourself and your people, cause we are the ones changing shit, and we are the lifeblood of everything they've built and tried to lock us out of," Willis said.

"I want you to all also remember, whether you are Black or trans or not, you have a duty and responsibility to elevate Black trans power," she added.

11. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's response to Congressman Ted Yoho

In the two years since Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won the Democratic primary election for New York's 14th congressional district, she's made her fair share of striking, inspirational speeches. After Justice Ginsburg died, the Congresswoman delivered raw, deeply emotional comments on Instagram Live that inspired many continue to fight for issues, like gender equality, that were so close to Ginsburg's heart.

One of AOC's most memorable speeches of 2020 took place in July when she spoke on the House floor to address the hateful comments that Republican Rep. Ted Yoho made toward her. After Yoho reportedly confronted AOC on the steps of Capitol Hill and called her "disgusting" and a "fucking bitch," the Congresswoman spoke out on behalf of herself and all women.

"When you do that to any woman, what Mr. Yoho did was give permission to other men to do that to his daughters," she said. "In using that language in front of the press he gave permission to use that language against his wife, his daughters, women in his community. And I am here to stand up to say that is not acceptable."

"I do not care what your views are. It does not matter how much I disagree, or how much it incenses me, or how much I feel that people are dehumanizing others. I will not do that myself," Ocasio-Cortez continued, noting that she would never use such disrespectful language toward Yoho or anyone else. "I will not allow people to change and create hatred in our hearts."

"Treating someone with dignity and respect makes a decent man, and when a decent man messes up, as we all are bound to do, he tries his best and does apologize," the Congresswoman said. "Not to save face. Not to win a vote. He apologizes genuinely to repair and acknowledge the harm he has done so that we can all move on."

Topics Activism Social Good

Nicole is a Senior Editor at Mashable. She primarily covers entertainment and digital culture trends, and in her free time she can be found watching TV, sending voice notes, or going viral on Twitter for admiring knitwear. You can follow her on Twitter @nicolemichele5 .

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• Feminist persuasive speech topics

108 feminist persuasive speech topics

- the top current women's rights & feminist issues.

By:  Susan Dugdale   | Last modified: 07-20-2022

There are 108 persuasive speech topics here covering many current feminist issues. For example:

• that copy-cat fast fashion reinforces the relentless consumer cycle and the poverty trap,
• that the advertising industry deliberately manufactures and supports body image insecurities to serve its own ends,
• that gendered language reinforces the patriarchal structure of society...

They're provocative and challenging topics raising issues that I like to think should be of concern to us all! 

Use the quick links to find a topic you want to explore

• 25 feminist persuasive speech topics about beauty and fashion
• 16 the media and feminism topics
• 8 the role of language and feminism speech ideas

8 feminist speech ideas about culture and arts

9 topics on education and gendered expectations, 27 feminist topics about society & social inequality, 8 business & work related feminist speech topics.

• Resources for preparing persuasive speeches
• References for feminism

What is 'feminism'?

Feminism is defined as belief in and advocacy of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes, expressed especially through organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests.

(See: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/feminism )

Return to Top

25 feminist speech topics about beauty & fashion

• that from puberty onward a woman is targeted by cosmetic companies
• that the shape of woman’s body is valued over its health
• that physical beauty in a woman is conferred by popular beliefs
• that striving for what is regarded as the epitome of female physical perfection destroys women
• that physical perfection is a myth
• that compassion and collaboration is needed between women (and men) rather than competition and comparison
• that beauty, fashion and feminism can co-exist
• that clothing reflects social position or class
• that the fashionable clothing of any era reflects its dominate cultural beliefs
• that a modern feminist does not need to ban either the bra or the razor
•  that prescriptive beauty norms (PBNs) reinforce sexism, racism, colorism, classism, ableism, ageism, and gender norms
• that western feminine beauty standards dominate globally
• that there is no legitimate historical or biological justification for the ‘white’ beauty myth
• that modern beauty standards were used as “political weapons" against women’s advancement (see Naomi Wolfe - The Beauty Myth )
• that the beauty industry cynically and callously exploits women through “self-empowerment” campaigns – eg L'Oreal's  “Because you're worth it”
• that beauty shaming of any sort is shameful
• that health and beauty need to work together for the empowerment of women
• that beauty and fashion role models need to be independent of major brands
• that fashion and cosmetic industries have a moral responsibility to use the immense power they have in shaping people’s lives for their betterment
• that the unfair balance of power between the consumers of fashionable clothing and those who make it is a feminist issue
• that copy-cat fast fashion reinforces the relentless consumer cycle and the poverty trap
• that genuinely sustainable fashion is only responsible way forward
• that clothing/fashion can make a feminist statement. For example: the 1850s “freedom” or “bloomer” dress named after women’s rights and temperance advocate Amelia Bloomer , the wearing of trousers, shorts, or mini skirts by women, or skirts and dresses by men
• that boss dressing for women is unnecessary and toxic
• that establishing superiority through wearing elitist fashion is an age old ploy

16 the media and feminism speech topics

• that feminism in mainstream media is often misrepresented through lack of understanding
• that some media deliberately encourages a narrow polarizing definition of feminism to whip up interest and drama for its own sake
• that mainstream media plays a significant role in keeping women marginalized
• that social media has created an independent level playing field for feminists globally
• that the #metoo movement reaffirmed the need for community and solidarity amongst feminists
• that the advertising industry deliberately manufactures and supports ongoing body image insecurities to serve its own ends
• that the advertising industry decides and deifies what physical perfection looks like
• that the ideal cover girl body/face is a myth
• that eating disorders and negative body image problems are increased by the unrealistic beauty standards set by mainstream media
• that women get media coverage for doing newsworthy things and being beautiful. Men get media coverage for doing newsworthy things.
• that social media gives traditionally private issues a platform for discussion and change: abortion, domestic abuse, pay equity
• that print media (broadsheets, magazines, newspapers...) have played and continue to play a vital role in feminist education
• that ‘the women’s hour’ and similar radio programs or podcasts have been and are an important part in highlighting feminist issues
• that ‘feminist wokeness’ has been hijacked by popular media
• that social media reinforces prejudices rather than challenges them because the smart use of analytics means we mainly see posts aligned with our viewpoints
• that social media has enabled and ‘normalized’ the spread of pornography: the use of bodies as a commodity to be traded

8 the role language and feminism speech ideas

• that frequently repeated platitudes (eg. girls will be girls and boys will be boys) are stereotypical straitjackets stifling change
• that the derogatory words for females and female genitalia frequently used to vent anger or frustration demonstrate the worth and value placed on women
• that feminism is neither male nor female
• that gendered language reinforces the patriarchal structure of society
• that sexist language needs to be called out and changed
• that gendered language limits women’s opportunities
• that gendered languages (French, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi...) need to become more inclusive
• that the real enemy of feminism is language
• that limitations in any arena (work, sports, arts) placed on woman because they are women need challenging
• that male bias in the organizations awarding major awards and grants needs to change
• that the ideal woman in art is a figment of a male imagination
• that historically art has objectified women
• that heroic figures should be celebrated and honored for their deeds – not for what they look like or their gender
• that strong feisty female characters in literature can inspire change eg. Elizabeth Bennet from Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre from Charlotte Bronte’s novel of the same name, and Offred from Margaret Atwood’s The Hand Maiden’s Tale.
• that the role of feminist art in any field: literature, film, theatre, dance, sculpture..., is to transform and challenge stereotypes. Examples of feminist artists: Judy Chicago, Miriam Shapiro, Barbara Kruger (More: feminist art ) 
• that feminist musicians have used their influence as agents of change, and to inspire: Beyonce, Queen Latifah, Pussy Riot, Lorde, Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Nina Simone
• that there no subjects more suitable for boys than girls, or subjects more suitable for girls than boys
• that toys, clothing, and colors should be gender neutral
• that student achievement and behavioral expectations should be gender free
• that feminism should be actively modelled in the classroom
• that eligibility for educational institutions should be merit based  
• that boys should not ‘punished’ or blamed for our patriarchal history
• that gendered performance is actively supported and encouraged by some educational philosophies and schools in order to maintain the status quo
• that the belief that ‘male’ and ‘female’ intelligence are different and that male intelligence is superior is false
• that education is vital for the advancement of black feminism
• that rigidly adhered to gendered workplace and domestic roles sustain and support inequalities
• that domestic violence is typically a male gendered crime
• that patriarchal attitudes toward women make sexual harassment and rape inevitable
• that a safe legal abortion is a fundamental right for every person who wants one
• that humiliation and control either by fear and threat of rape, or rape itself, is an act toxic entitlement
• that a person is never ever ‘asking for it’: to be sexually harassed, or to be raped
• that safe methods of birth control should be freely available to whomever wants them
• that full sexual and reproductive health and rights for all people is an essential precondition to achieving gender equality
• that men should not have control over woman's sexual and reproductive decision-making
• that the increase in sperm donation is a feminist victory
• that a person can be a domestic goddess and a feminist
• that there is a positive difference between assertive and aggressive feminism
• that the shock tactics of feminist anarchists is justified
• that powerful feminist role models open the way for others to follow
• that intersectional feminism is essential to fully understand the deep ingrained inequalities of those experiencing overlapping forms of oppression
• that a feminist’s belief and practices are shaped by the country they live in, its dominant religious and cultural practices
• that female circumcision is an example of women’s oppression disguised as a cultural tradition
• that honor crimes are never justifiable
• that period poverty and stigma is a global feminist issue
• that we need to accept that some women want to remain protected by patriarchal practices and beliefs
• that environmental issues are feminist issues
• that everybody benefits from feminism
• that feminism works towards equality, not female superiority
• that anti-feminist myths (that feminists are angry women who blame men for their problems, that feminists are anti marriage, that feminists have no sense of humor, that feminists are not ‘natural’ mothers, that feminists are anti religion, that feminists are actually all lesbians ...) are desperate attempts to maintain the patriarchal status quo
• that toxic femininity is a by-product of fear and insecurity eg. The need to ridicule another woman in order to impress a man, shaming a man for not being ‘manly’, raging against a women for being seen to be powerful, competent and successful in a leadership position ...
• that blaming the patriarchy is far too simple
• that one can hold religious beliefs and be feminist
• that gendered jobs and job titles belong in the past
• that pay scales should be based on merit, not gender
• that adequate maternity and child care plus parental leave provisions should be mandatory
• that flexible working hours benefits both the business and its employees
• that token feminism is not enough
• that corporate feminism is for wealthy white women
• that feminism and capitalism are in conflict
• that women in power owe it to other women to work for their empowerment

Useful resources

The first three resources below provide an excellent starting point to get a broad overview of feminism: its history, development and current issues.

I've included the fourth link because I'm a New Zealander, and proud of what its women's suffrage movement achieved: the vote for women in 1893.  

• What’s the definition of feminism? 12 TED talks that explain it to you
• An overview of feminist philosophy – Stanford University, USA
• Britannica: an excellent over of the history and development of feminism
• The symbolism of a white camellia and the Suffrage Movement in New Zealand

How to choose a good persuasive speech topic and preparing a great speech

For a more in-depth discussion about choosing a good persuasive topic, and crafting a persuasive speech please see:

• persuasive speech ideas and read all the notes under the heading “What make a speech topic good?"
• writing a persuasive speech . You’ll find notes covering:
• setting a speech goal,
• audience analysis,
• evidence and empathy (the need for proof or evidence to back what you’re saying as well as showing you understand, or empathize with, the positions of those for and against your proposal),
• balance and obstacles (to address points against your proposal, the obstacles, in a fair and balanced way),
• varying structural patterns (ways to organize you material) and more. And click this link for hundreds more persuasive speech topic suggestions . ☺

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WOMEN’S RIGHTS: Why are women’s rights important?

• 15.12.2018 18.10.2021

Gender equality is at the very heart of United Nations values. Equality between men and women has been among the most fundamental guarantees of human rights and a fundamental principle of the United Nations Charter adopted by world leaders in 1945 is “ equal rights of men and women “, and protecting and promoting women’s human rights is the responsibility of all States.. [1] It proclaimed the equal entitlements of women and men to the rights contained in it, “without distinction of any kind, such as … sex, ….” This prohibition of discrimination based on sex is repeated in its Articles 13 (mandate of the General Assembly) and 55 (promotion of universal human rights).

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights guarantees, among other rights, the right to life, freedom from torture, freedom from slavery, the right to liberty and security of the person, rights relating to due process in criminal and legal proceedings, equality before the law, freedom of movement, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of association, rights relating to family life and children, rights relating to citizenship and political participation, and minority groups’ rights to their culture, religion and language. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights guarantees, for instance, the right to work, the right to form trade unions, rights relating to marriage, maternity and child protection, the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to health, the right to education, and rights relating to culture and science. [2]

Yet millions of women around the world continue to experience discrimination:

• Laws and policies prohibit women from equal access to land, property, and housing
• Economic and social discrimination results in fewer and poorer life choices for women, rendering them vulnerable to trafficking
• Gender-based violence  affects at least 30% of women globally
• Women are denied their sexual and reproductive health rights
• Women human rights defenders are ostracized by their communities and seen as a threat to religion, honour or culture
• Women’s crucial role in peace and security is often overlooked, as are the particular risks they face in conflict situations [3]

Moreover, some groups of women face compounded forms of discrimination — due to factors such as their age, ethnicity, disability, or socio-economic status — in addition to their gender.

Effectively ensuring women’s human rights requires, firstly, a comprehensive understanding of the social structures and power relations that frame not only laws and politics but also the economy, social dynamics and family and community life.

Harmful gender stereotypes must be dismantled, so that women are no longer viewed in the light of what women “should” do and are instead seen for who they are: unique individuals, with their own needs and desires. [4]

Which international documents and institutions are important?

United Nations

The founding United Nations charter (1945) included a provision for equality between men and women (chapter III, article 8). Subsequently, from 1945 various female officials within the United Nations and leaders of women’s movements on the global stage attempted to turn these principles into action.  

The Convention on the Political Rights of Women adopted in 1953 by UN General Assembly is a first international legislation regarding political rights of women and it aims to codify a basic international standard for women’s political rights. It has 122 state parties.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is an international treaty adopted by UN General Assembly in 1979. The Convention defines discrimination in its article 1 as “… any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field .” [5]

The Convention articulates the nature and meaning of sex-based discrimination and lays out State obligations to eliminate discrimination and achieve substantive equality. As with all human rights treaties, only States incur obligations through ratification. However, the Convention articulates State obligations to address not only discriminatory laws, but also practices and customs, and discrimination against women by private actors. [6]

Both civil and political rights (rights to vote, to participate in public life, to acquire, change or retain one’s nationality, equality before the law and freedom of movement) and economic, social and cultural rights (rights to education, work, health and financial credit) are covered by The Convention. CEDAW and its Optional Protocol from 1999 are referred to as the international bill of rights for women. Structured around the concepts of equality and non-discrimination, the Convention asserts: “…the equality of women and men and the right of women to be treated equally in every sphere of life. Focusing on civil and political as well as economic and social rights, the Convention urge[s] States to take positive measures in the field of public administration, education, health, employment and the family to ensure that women enjoy full equality with men.” [7]

CEDAW encompasses a variety of possible  discriminatory actions (any distinction, exclusion or restriction) having  either the express purpose or the actual effect of discriminating against  women. The Convention goes further than other human rights treaties in also describing in detail the State obligations and actions to be taken to  achieve gender equality in practice. It not only requires equality between  women and men, but also prohibits practices that can perpetuate women’s inequality. Substantive gender equality and formal gender equality, as well as de facto discrimination and de jure discrimination, are central concepts in the Convention’s equality framework. [8] Among the countries that have ratified CEDAW few have a legal bar to the eligibility of women, yet women remain seriously underrepresented at all levels of government. [9]

Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (DEVAW) was adopted by UN General Assembly in 1993.

For the purposes of this Declaration, the term “violence against women” means any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.

DEVAW became the first international instrument explicitly addressing violence against women, providing a framework for national and international action. It defines violence against women as any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. [10]    

Fourth World Conference on Women convened by the United Nations in 1995 had a key outcome in Beijing Declaration . This document, alongside its Platform for Action set up a visionary agenda for the empowerment of women. It still remains today the most comprehensive global policy framework and blueprint for action and is a current source of guidance and inspiration to realize gender equality and the human rights of women and girls, everywhere. The Beijing Declaration is an agenda for women’s empowerment. It aims at removing all the obstacles to women’s active participation in all spheres of public and private life through a full and equal share in economic, social, cultural and political decision-making. It emphasizes that equality between women and men is a matter of human rights and a condition for social justice and is also a necessary and fundamental prerequisite for equality, development and peace [11] .

In 2012 UN General Assembly adopted a resolution called A Future We Want which calls for enhancing gender equality and women’s rights. Resolution supports prioritizing measures to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in all spheres of societies, including the removal of barriers to their full and equal participation in decision-making and management at all levels, and emphasizes the impact of setting specific targets and implementing temporary measures, as appropriate, for substantially increasing the number of women in leadership positions, with the aim of achieving gender parity . [12]

The Special Rapporteur on violence against women is a part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world.

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights in resolution 1994/45 , adopted on 4 March 1994, decided to appoint a Special Rapporteur on violence against women.

According to his/her mandate the Special Rapporteur is requested among others to:

• recommend measures, ways and means at the local, national, regional and international levels to eliminate all forms of violence against women and its causes, and to remedy its consequences
• work closely with all special procedures and other human rights mechanisms of the Human Rights Council and with the treaty bodies, taking into account the request of the Council that they regularly and systematically integrate the human rights of women and a gender perspective into their work, and cooperate closely with the Commission on the Status of Women in the discharge of its functions [13]

One of the latest urges that Special Rapporteur on violence against women, pointed was regarding the topic of violence against women in politics called “Stop violence against women in politics” . She pointed that violence against politically active women is, when it results in a tragic outcome in particular, a form of highly visible violence against women that aims to discourage their political participation. It constitutes a major barrier to women’s political participation and thus denies them their civil and political rights. It also hinders the participation of half of the world’s population, thus undermining the democratic exercise and good governance and as such is creating a democratic deficit. [14]  

Council of Europe

In 2011 the Council of Europe adopted the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention). [15]

By ratifying The Istanbul Convention, states are obliged to implement in their legislation a document whose main task, as the name implies, is protection of women from all forms of violence and consequently eliminating violence against women and domestic violence.

This is the first legal-binding international instrument which criminalizes acts such as physical, mental and sexual violence, sexual harassment, forced marriage, female genital mutilation and forced abortion. It practically means that states that ratify it for the first time are obliged to introduce these serious criminal offenses into their criminal procedures.

This Convention for the first time includes enabling financial aid to victims as well as the obligation of the state to annually finance an adequate number of shelters for women.

GREVIO is a body that oversees the implementation of the Convention. It consists of 10 to 15 persons who ought to be distinguished in the field of human rights protection, protecting women from violence and must not be members of political parties. GREVIO can collect information about the implementation of the Convention from NGOs and civil society, as well as from national institutions for the protection of human rights [16] .

States are obliged to undertake measures for promoting programs and activities for empowerment of women and prevention of violence through various campaigns for informing the public. Campaigns such as these will also be undertaken to eliminate gender stereotypes.

Responsibility for ensuring a certain form of legal aid to the victims is also provided in order for victims to gain information and access to regional and international mechanisms of complaints as well as to free phone lines for help.

All 28 EU member states have individually signed the convention, but only 18 of them have ratified it.

In 2003 Commite of Ministers of Council of Europe brought up Recommendation Rec (2003)3 on balanced participation of women and men in political and public decision making . This document sets out the standard which has since been followed by other organisations and countries: balanced participation of women and men is defined as a minimum 40% representation of each sex in any decision-making body in political and public life. A set of legislative, administrative and supportive measures is recommended to member states in order to achieve balanced participation and equal sharing of decision making power between women and men. Its implementation by member states has been monitored to provide member states with information on progress and existing gaps [17] .

There are vast disparities between European countries in terms of the representation of women in national parliaments. The average representation of women in January 2005 stood at 21.2 percent for the Lower Houses in EU member states, accession countries and the Balkans. [18]

Representation of women in national parliaments by country [19] :

Bosnia and Herzegovina: 9/42

Croatia: 28/151

Kosovo: 32/120

Montenegro: 19/81

Serbia: 31/250 [20]

Despite the widespread movement towards democratization in most countries, women are largely underrepresented at most levels of government, especially in ministerial and other executive bodies, and have made little progress in attaining political power in legislative bodies. The equitable distribution of power and decision-making at all levels is dependent on Governments and other actors undertaking statistical gender analysis and mainstreaming a gender perspective in policy development and the implementation of programmes. Having that in mind, equality in decision-making is essential to the empowerment of women.

[1] http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/WRGS/Pages/WRGSIndex.aspx

[2] Women’s Rights are Human Rights , United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner, New York and Geneva, 2014

[5] http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/econvention.htm#part1

[6] Women’s Rights are Human Rights , United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner, New York and Geneva, 2014

[7] Handbook for the protection of women and girls , Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2008

[8]   Women’s Rights are Human Rights , United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner, New York and Geneva, 2014

[9] Women’s Rights are Human Rights , United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner, New York and Geneva, 2014

[10] http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/global-norms-and-standards

[11] Handbook for the protection of women and girls , Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees , 2008

[12]   Resolution adopted by the General Assembly of United Nations on 27 July 2012, “The future we want”

[13] http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/SRWomen/Pages/SRWomenIndex.aspx

[14] http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21652&LangID=E

[15] Women’s Rights are Human Rights , United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner, New York and Geneva, 2014

[16] https://www.coe.int/en/web/istanbul-convention/grevio

[17] Gender Equality and Women’s Rights , Council of Europe Standards, Council of Europe

[18] Introducing Parity Democracy: The Role of the International Community and the European Women’s Lobby , International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA)/CEE Network for Gender Issues Conference, Budapest, 2004

[19] http://archive.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm ; http://www.kuvendikosoves.org/?cid=2,102

[20] approx.

Photo: Study Breaks Magazine

Privacy Overview

Read Hillary Rodham Clinton’s ‘Women’s Rights’ Speech From 1995

“Now it is time to act on behalf of women everywhere.”

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered the following address to the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women, in Beijing, 25 years ago. Then the first lady of the United States, Clinton famously declared that “women’s rights are human rights,” while criticizing the Chinese government’s coercive family-planning policy and the hardships faced by women around the world. You can read her reflections about this speech upon its 25th anniversary here .

Below, the full text of Clinton’s speech as delivered.

Thank you very much, Gertrude Mongella, for your dedicated work that has brought us to this point. Distinguished delegates and guests, I would like to thank the secretary-general for inviting me to be part of this important United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. This is truly a celebration—a celebration of the contributions women make in every aspect of life: in the home, on the job, in the community, as mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, learners, workers, citizens, and leaders.

It is also a coming together, much the way women come together every day in every country.

We come together in fields and factories. In village markets and supermarkets. In living rooms and boardrooms. Whether it is while playing with our children in the park or washing clothes in a river or taking a break at the office watercooler, we come together and talk about our aspirations and concerns. And time and again, our talk turns to our children and our families.

However different we may appear, there is far more that unites us than divides us. We share a common future. And we are here to find common ground so that we may help bring new dignity and respect to women and girls all over the world—and in so doing, bring new strength and stability to families as well.

By gathering in Beijing, we are focusing world attention on issues that matter most in our lives, the lives of women and their families: access to education, health care, jobs, and credit, the chance to enjoy basic legal and human rights and participate fully in the political life of our countries.

There are some who question the reason for this conference. Let them listen to the voices of women in their homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces.

Hillary Clinton: How far have women come?

There are some who wonder whether the lives of women and girls matter to economic and political progress around the globe. Let them look at the women gathered here and at Huairou, the homemakers and nurses, the teachers and lawyers, the policy makers and women who run their own businesses.

It is conferences like this that compel governments and peoples everywhere to listen, look, and face the world’s most pressing problems.

Wasn’t it, after all, after the women’s conference in Nairobi 10 years ago that the world focused for the first time on the crisis of domestic violence?

Earlier today, I participated in a World Health Organization forum. In that forum, we talked about ways that government officials, NGOs, and individual citizens are working to address the health problems of women and girls.

Tomorrow, I will attend a gathering of the United Nations Development Fund for Women. There, the discussion will focus on local and highly successful programs that give hardworking women access to credit so they can improve their own lives and the lives of their families.

What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations do as well. That is why every woman, every man, every child, every family, and every nation on our planet does have a stake in the discussion that takes place here.

Over the past 25 years, I have worked persistently on issues relating to women, children, and families. Over the past two and a half years, I have had the opportunity to learn more about the challenges facing women in my own country and around the world.

I have met new mothers in Indonesia who come together regularly in their village to discuss nutrition, family planning, and baby care.

I have met working parents in Denmark who talk about the comfort they feel in knowing that their children can be cared for in safe and nurturing after-school centers.

I have met women in South Africa who helped lead the struggle to end apartheid and are now helping to build a new democracy.

I have met with the leading women of my own hemisphere who are working every day to promote literacy and better health care for children in their countries.

I have met women in India and Bangladesh who are taking out small loans to buy milk cows, or rickshaws, or thread in order to create a livelihood for themselves and their families.

I have met the doctors and nurses in Belarus and Ukraine who are trying to keep children alive in the aftermath of Chernobyl.

The great challenge of this conference is to give voice to women everywhere whose experiences go unnoticed, whose words go unheard.

Women comprise more than half the world’s population, 70 percent of the world’s poor, and two-thirds of those who are not taught to read and write. We are the primary caretakers for most of the world’s children and elderly. Yet much of the work we do is not valued—not by economists, not by historians, not by popular culture, not by government leaders.

At this very moment, as we sit here, women around the world are giving birth, raising children, cooking meals, washing clothes, cleaning houses, planting crops, working on assembly lines, running companies, and running countries.

Women also are dying from diseases that should have been prevented or treated; they are watching their children succumb to malnutrition caused by poverty and economic deprivation; they are being denied the right to go to school by their own fathers and brothers; they are being forced into prostitution; and they are being barred from the bank-lending offices and banned from the ballot box.

Those of us who have the opportunity to be here have the responsibility to speak for those who could not. As an American, I want to speak for women in my own country—women who are raising children on the minimum wage, women who can’t afford health care or child care, women whose lives are threatened by violence, including violence in their own homes.

I want to speak up for mothers who are fighting for good schools, safe neighborhoods, clean air, and clean airwaves; for older women, some of them widows, who find that after raising their families, their skills and life experiences are not valued in the marketplace; for women who are working all night as nurses, hotel clerks, or fast-food chefs so that they can be at home during the day with their children; and for women everywhere who simply don’t have time to do everything they are called upon to do each and every day.

Speaking to you today, I speak for them, just as each of us speaks for women around the world who are denied the chance to go to school, or see a doctor, or own property, or have a say about the direction of their lives, simply because they are women. The truth is that most women around the world work both inside and outside the home, usually by necessity.

We need to understand there is no one formula for how women should lead our lives. That is why we must respect the choices that each woman makes for herself and her family. Every woman deserves the chance to realize her own God-given potential.

We also must recognize that women will never gain full dignity until their human rights are respected and protected.

Our goals for this conference—to strengthen families and societies by empowering women to take greater control over their own destinies—cannot be fully achieved unless all governments, here and around the world, accept their responsibility to protect and promote internationally recognized human rights.

The international community has long acknowledged—and recently reaffirmed at Vienna—that both women and men are entitled to a range of protections and personal freedoms, from the right of personal security to the right to determine freely the number and spacing of the children they bear.

No one should be forced to remain silent for fear of religious or political persecution, arrest, abuse, or torture. Tragically, women are most often the ones whose human rights are violated. Even now, in the late 20th century, the rape of women continues to be used as an instrument of armed conflict. Women and children make up a large majority of the world’s refugees. And when women are excluded from the political process, they become even more vulnerable to abuse.

I believe that, now on the eve of a new millennium, it is time to break the silence. It is time for us to say here in Beijing, and for the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights.

These abuses have continued because, for too long, the history of women has been a history of silence. Even today, there are those who are trying to silence our words.

But the voices of this conference and of the women at Huairou must be heard loudly and clearly:

It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls.

It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are sold into the slavery of prostitution for human greed, and the kinds of reasons that are used to justify this practice should no longer be tolerated.

It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set on fire, and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small.

It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war.

It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own homes, by their own relatives.

It is a violation of human rights when young girls are brutalized by the painful and degrading practice of genital mutilation.

It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions or being sterilized against their will.

If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all.

And among those rights are the right to speak freely and the right to be heard. Women must enjoy the right to participate fully in the social and political lives of their countries if we want freedom and democracy to thrive and endure. It is indefensible that many women in nongovernmental organizations who wished to participate in this conference have not been able to attend or have been prohibited from fully taking part.

Let me be clear: Freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize, and debate openly. It means respecting the views of those who may disagree with the views of their governments. It means not taking citizens away from their loved ones and jailing them, mistreating them, or denying them their freedom or dignity because of the peaceful expression of their ideas and opinions.

In my country, we recently celebrated the 75th anniversary of women’s suffrage. It took 150 years after the signing of our Declaration of Independence for women to win the right to vote. It took 72 years of organized struggle before that happened on the part of many courageous women and men. It was one of America’s most divisive philosophical wars. But it was a bloodless war. Suffrage was achieved without a shot being fired.

But we have also been reminded, in V-J Day observances last weekend, of the good that comes when men and women join together to combat the forces of tyranny and to build a better world. We have seen peace prevail in most places for a half century. We have avoided another world war. But we have not solved older, deeply rooted problems that continue to diminish the potential of half the world’s population.

Now it is time to act on behalf of women everywhere.

If we take bold steps to better the lives of women, we will be taking bold steps to better the lives of children and families too. Families rely on mothers and wives for emotional support and care; families rely on women for labor in the home; and increasingly everywhere, families rely on women for income needed to raise healthy children and care for other relatives.

As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace everywhere in the world, as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled, subjected to violence in and out of their homes, the potential of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized.

Let this conference be our—and the world’s—call to action.

Let us heed that call so that we can create a world in which every woman is treated with respect and dignity, every boy and girl is loved and cared for equally, and every family has the hope of a strong and stable future.

That is the work before you; that is the work before all of us who have a vision of the world we want to see for our children and our grandchildren. The time is now. We must move beyond rhetoric; we must move beyond recognition of problems to working together to have the common efforts to build that common ground we hope to see.

God’s blessings on you, your work, and all who will benefit from it. Godspeed and thank you very much.

Notable Speeches and Addresses by U.S. Women, 1849–present

• Susan B. Anthony

On Women's Right to Vote Monroe County, N.Y., 1873

• Mary McLeod Bethune

What Does American Democracy Mean to Me? New York, N.Y., Nov. 23, 1939

• Barbara Bush

Commencement Address: Choices and Change Wellesley College, Mass., June 1, 1990

• Carrie Chapman Catt

The Crisis Atlantic City, N.J., 1916

• Shirley Chisholm

Equal Rights For Women Washington, DC, May 21, 1969

• Mary Church Terrell

What It Means to be Colored in the Capital of the United States Washington, DC, Oct. 10, 1906

• Hillary Rodham Clinton

Women's Rights Are Human Rights; UN Fourth World Conference on Women Beijing, China, Sept. 5, 1995

• Geraldine Ferraro

Speech accepting the Democratic Vice-Presidential Nomination San Francisco, Calif., July 19, 1984

Mary Fisher

Address to the Republican National Convention: A Whisper of AIDS Houston, Tex., Aug. 19, 1992

Related Links

• Women's History Month
• Timeline: U.S. Women's Rights Movement
• Women's Hall of Fame
• Famous Firsts by American Women

Biographies

Emma goldman, fannie lou hamer, mother jones, barbara jordan, helen keller, florence kelley, ursula leguin, lucretia mott, ann richards, eleanor roosevelt, margaret sanger, anna howard shaw, margaret chase smith, elizabeth cady stanton, sojourner truth, ida b. wells.

Address to the Jury New York, N.Y., July 9, 1917

Democratic National Convention Speech Atlantic City, N.J., July 22, 1964

Opening Statement: Sexual Harrassment Hearings Washington, DC, Oct. 11, 1991

Labor Speech to Coal Miners Charlestown, West Virginia, Aug. 15, 1912

Statement on the Articles of Impeachment to the House Judiciary Committee Washington, DC, July 25, 1974

Speech at the Democratic National Convention New York, N.Y., July 12, 1976

Strike Against War New York, N.Y., Jan. 5, 1916

On Child Labor and Women's Suffrage Philadelphia, Pa., July 22, 1905

A Left-Handed Commencement Address Mills College, Mills College, Oakland, Calif., 1983

Discourse On Woman Philadelphia, Pa., December 17, 1849

Democratic National Convention Address Atlanta, Ga., July 18, 1988

Speech on civil liberties to the members of the ACLU Chicago, Ill., Mar. 14, 1940

The Struggle for Human Rights Paris, France; Sept 28, 1948

The Morality of Birth Control Park Theatre, N.Y., Nov. 18, 1921

The Fundamental Principle of a Republic Ogdenburg, N.Y., June 21, 1915

Declaration of Conscience Washington, DC, June 1, 1950

The Solitude of Self U.S. Congress, Washington, DC, Jan. 18, 1892

Declaration of Sentiments Seneca Falls, New York, 1848

The Progress of Fifty Years World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893

Ain't I a Woman? Women's Rights Convention, Akron, Ohio, 1851

NAACP Speech Against Lynching Baltimore, Md., Feb. 12, 1909

Sheila Widnall

Digits of Pi: Barriers and Enablers for Women in Engineering S.E. Regional NAE Meeting GA Tech, April 26, 2000

• More from Women's History Month

Here are the facts and trivia that people are buzzing about.

03 Nov 2001 Susan B. Anthony on a Woman’s Right to Vote – 1873

Woman’s Rights to the Suffrage

by Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906)

This speech was delivered in 1873, after Anthony was arrested, tried and fined $100 for voting in the 1872 presidential election. 

Friends and Fellow Citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen’s rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any State to deny.

The preamble of the Federal Constitution says:

“We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people–women as well as men. And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government–the ballot.

For any State to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people is to pass a bill of attainder, or an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are for ever withheld from women and their female posterity. To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the right govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters of every household–which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord and rebellion into every home of the nation.

Webster, Worcester and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office.

The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no State has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several States is today null and void, precisely as in every one against Negroes.

The National Center for Public Policy Research is a communications and research foundation supportive of a strong national defense and dedicated to providing free market solutions to today’s public policy problems. We believe that the principles of a free market, individual liberty and personal responsibility provide the greatest hope for meeting the challenges facing America in the 21st century. Learn More About Us Subscribe to Our Updates

Home / End of the Twentieth Century, 1977-2001 / The Information Age, 1991-2001 / Women’s Rights are Human Rights

Women's Rights are Human Rights

Hillary Clinton’s speech about women’s rights.

Hillary Clinton at the United Nations Conference on Women

Sharon Farmer, Photograph of First Lady Hillary Clinton at the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing, China, September 5, 1995. National Archives.

Hillary Clinton speech at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women

Hillary Clinton, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton remarks for the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, 1995. Fourth World Conference on Women by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women Secretariat.

At the UN Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993, it became clear that there was much work to be done on women’s rights globally. While the conference wrote a declaration that confirmed the rights of women as human rights, it specifically excluded reproductive rights due to disagreement between nations. The UN organized another conference with a specific focus on women’s rights in Beijing in 1995. 

The Beijing conference was a major turning point for global women’s rights. The significant outcome was the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which laid out key areas of improvement for gender equality across the world. The declaration was adopted unanimously by the 189 countries represented at the conference. Over 17,000 representatives attended the conference. The Chinese government did not allow a separate conference for women’s nongovernmental organizations to be held in Beijing. Instead, the conference took place about 40 miles away in Huairou with limited facilities.

About the Document

The UN invited Hillary Clinton, First Lady of the United States, to speak at the conference. One of the members of the team that worked on the speech was Madeleine Albright, who was the United States representative to the UN. President Bill Clinton appointed her as the first female Secretary of State in 1997, a position Hillary Clinton would hold under President Barack Obama.

White House aides tried to persuade Hillary Clinton not to give the speech, arguing that the First Lady should avoid diplomatic issues. Because the conference was held in China, the State Department expressed concern that her speech would upset the Chinese government. Nevertheless, Hillary Clinton delivered her provocative speech in Beijing and indirectly called out the Chinese government over its treatment of women and girls.

Discussion Questions

• What is Hillary Clinton’s overarching argument in her speech? Which phrases stand out to you?
• How does Hillary Clinton address issues of women’s rights on a global level? 
• How did Hillary Clinton’s position as First Lady of the United States impact the reception of the speech?

Suggested Activities

• AP Government Connection: 5.7: Groups Influencing Policy Outcomes
• Have the students watch Hillary Clinton give the speech here . Which phrases did she emphasize? How does watching and listening to the speech impact your perception?
• Combine this resource with Maxine Waters on the Rodney King verdict . How do these two speeches compare in rhetoric and making arguments? How could a white woman speak differently on political issues from a Black woman?
• Pair this resource with the life story of Eleanor Roosevelt . How did both women change the role of the First Lady? Compare this speech to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and discuss the progress in women’s rights that had been made by 1995.
• For a larger lesson on women in American politics during this period, combine this resource with Anita Hill’s testimony , the Year of the Woman , Monica Lewinsky , Maxine Waters on the Rodney King verdict , and the life story of Barbara Lee .

AMERICA IN THE WORLD; POWER AND POLITICS

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A demonstrator raises a sign that says, "Human rights are women's rights" at the Women's March in Los Angeles in 2018. Though the concept had long been controversial, the United Nations declared that women's rights are human rights in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.

• HISTORY & CULTURE

'Women's Rights are Human Rights,' 25 years on

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s speech at a UN conference propelled this idea into the mainstream after centuries of society sidelining gender equality as “women’s issues.”

When Hillary Rodham Clinton approached the podium at a United Nations conference on women in September 1995 in Beijing, she faced an uncertain audience. Only a few people had read the speech, which was a well-guarded secret even to high-ranking members of the president’s cabinet. “Nobody knew what to expect,” recalls Melanne Verveer , the then first lady’s chief of staff, who later served as the first U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues when Clinton became secretary of state.

Twenty-five years later, a single phrase from Clinton’s speech has entered mainstream parlance: “Women’s rights are human rights.” The concept wasn’t new. But the excitement and energy that Clinton’s speech generated at the Fourth World Conference on Women helped elevate the idea to one that fuels modern feminism and international efforts to achieve gender parity.

Women’s rights advocates have long argued that gender equality should be a human right—but were thwarted for years by those who claimed their rights were subordinate to those of men. During the infancy of the American feminist movement of the 1830s, abolitionists and women’s rights advocates tussled over whether it was more important to seek freedom for enslaved people or equality for women. As women pushed for their rights to vote, access educational opportunities, and own property, male abolitionists like Theodore Weld urged them to wait, arguing that they should first fight for the abolition of slavery as a matter of human rights.

Some women, such as educator Catharine Beecher , argued that women deserved rights because of their morality—as they were uniquely positioned to edify and enlighten men—not their humanity. She cautioned that their roles in public life should not extend into equality in the home. In response, abolitionist and women’s rights advocate Angelina Grimké wrote , “I recognize no rights but human rights,” noting that a society that didn’t give women power or a political voice violated their innate human rights. She was just one of a group of women who invoked the idea throughout the 19 th century. (Grimké later went on to marry Weld, who was her mentor.)

In the 1970s, the idea resurfaced as so-called second-wave feminists, who believed women should have access to full societal and legal rights, attempted to put women’s rights on the international agenda. In many countries, there was no consensus that women had a right to equal partnership in marriage, power over their finances, an equal education, or a life free of sexual assault or harassment. Between 1975 and 1995, the United Nations convened four landmark Conferences on Women that made gender parity a global priority. ( Here are the best and worst countries to be a woman. )

The first conference, held in Mexico City in 1975, recognized women’s equality. Eighty-nine of the 133 nations that participated adopted a framework to help women gain equal access to all facets of society; several western nations abstained , and the United States opposed the framework. In 1980, a follow-up conference in Copenhagen called for stronger protections for women, with an emphasis on property ownership, child custody, and a restructuring of inheritance laws. A third in Nairobi in 1985 called attention to violence against women. But though these conferences brought women’s issues to the international stage, each one fell short because of a lack of consensus and failure to implement the adopted platforms. By 1995, global women’s leaders had agreed it was time to create an action plan to guarantee equality for women.

Slated for Beijing in September 1995, the Fourth World Conference on Women took place in an atmosphere of intense international condemnation of the host nation’s treatment of its own citizens. Human rights groups and governments criticized China’s history of political imprisonment, torture, detention, and denial of religious freedom. The nation’s one-child policy , which put family planning decisions under state control, came under particular fire.

Women watch Hillary Rodham Clinton speak to the abuse against women at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Her call for women's rights to be considered human rights has since become mainstream.

News that Clinton would attend and speak at the meeting prompted an American outcry. “There were serious efforts not to make [the speech] happen,” Verveer recalls. “You had a cacophony of voices that were trying to keep this from being meaningful or successful.” The first lady faced outrage from human rights advocates who objected to the China visit on principle, conservative politicians who disapproved of her outspoken feminism, and people who worried the speech could threaten the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and China.

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“I wanted to push the envelope as far as I could for girls and women,” Clinton said in a virtual public event hosted on September 10 by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security , of which Verveer is the executive director. ( A century after women’s suffrage in the U.S., the fight for equality isn’t over. )

On September 5, 1995, the second day of the conference, Clinton took the podium in front of representatives from all over the world. As Clinton spoke, Verveer watched the delegates’ faces closely. The speech cited a “litany of violations against women,” including rape, female genital mutilation, dowry burnings, and domestic violence—which Clinton labeled as human rights violations. She excoriated those who forcibly sterilized women and condemned those who restricted civil liberties, a jab at China, which restricted news coverage of the event.

The room was “filled with women who were in the trenches of those issues,” says Verveer. “The audience was completely pulled into their struggle.” The mostly female delegation applauded and cheered during the 20-minute speech, sometimes even pounding their fists on the tables to underscore their approval.

“The reaction was extraordinary,” Verveer says. On September 15, the phrase “women’s rights are human rights” was unanimously adopted as part of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action , which defined 12 areas—including education, health, economic participation, and the environment—in need of urgent international action. The document still governs the global agenda for women’s issues and is credited with helping narrow the education gap, improve maternal health, and reduce violence against women. ( Around the world, women are taking charge of their futures. )

Fourth World Conference on Women participants (from left) Benedita Da Silva of Brazil, Vuyiswa Bongile Keyi of Canada, and Silvia Salley of the United States cheer at the conclusion of the "Women of Color" press briefing where they stated that racism was not adequately addressed in the declaration.

Today, the idea that human rights and women’s rights are synonymous is considered mainstream. “I have rarely seen a single message carry such [an] important meaning and have such a durable life,” former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security event commemorating the anniversary.

But the work of gender equality is not yet done—and 25 years after Beijing, women still face systemic inequities and gaps in terms of safety, economic and political mobility, and more. “Girls need to know that they stand on the shoulders of other people who struggled to gain the rights they enjoy today,” says Verveer. “They need to play a role in ensuring the work goes on. There has been progress, but there is a long journey ahead.”

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10 Famous Speeches To Ignite The Feminist Fire Within You

Be inspired by the words of these powerful women

Throughout history, so many of the people to make us stop and take note with their famous speeches have been women. From the women's suffrage movement in the 1800s and feminism's second wave in the 1970s to the global Women's March in 2017, the words and actions of famous figures such as Emmeline Pankhurst, Virginia Woolf, Maya Angelou and Gloria Steinhem (to name just a few) have transformed society.

It might explain then why the theme of International Women's Day 2021 was #ChooseToChallenge. We can learn so much from the powerful actions and inspiring words of the women who came before us – but, also, there's still so much work we have to do. It's our duty to carry on their work, challenging and changing and speaking up for equality .

And so here, we've rounded up the most famous speeches from a new era of women, who are continuing the task of transforming opinions, breaking boundaries and inspiring us all to keep choosing to challenge. Listen, learn and take note.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Will Not Accept Your Apology

After Florida Representative Ted Yoho reportedly called Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 'a f*cking b*tch' on the steps of the Capitol in July 2020, he tried to excuse his behaviour by saying he has a wife and daughters. In response, AOC (as she's commonly referred to) took to the House floor with what has since been hailed 'the most important feminist speech of a generation' – fluently and passionately detailing why his 'apology' was, simply, not good enough.

Quotes of note:

'I am someone's daughter too. My father, thankfully, is not alive to see how Mr Yoho treated his daughter. My mother got to see Mr. Yoho's disrespect on the floor of this House towards me on television, and I am here because I have to show my parents that I am their daughter and that they did not raise me to accept abuse from men.

'What I believe is that having a daughter does not make a man decent. Having a wife does not make a decent man. Treating people with dignity and respect makes a decent man, and when a decent man messes up, as we all are bound to do, he tries his best and does apologise.'

Natalie Portman On Dismantling The Patriarchy

From her smart quip of 'here are all the male nominees' at the 2018 Golden Globes , calling out the women directors snubbed for the category, to her rousing 'f*ck up and thrive, sisters' speech at the ELLE Women In Hollywood event in 2019, Portman consistently calls out inequality in the film industry. And the actor's address at Variety's Women of Power event in 2019 was no different. In what is now referred to as 'Natalie Portman's Step-by-Step Guide to Toppling the Patriarchy', she made a strong case for all the ways in which we, as individuals, can make a difference.

'Be embarrassed if everyone in your workplace looks like you. Pay attention to physical ability, age, race, sexual orientation, gender identity and make sure you've got all kinds of experiences represented.

'Stop the rhetoric that a woman is crazy or difficult. If a man says a woman is crazy or difficult, ask him: What bad thing did you do to her? It's code that he is trying to discredit her reputation. Make efforts to hire people who've had their reputations smeared in retaliation.'

Michelle Obama On The Inequality Of Failure

Let's be honest: there are so many Michelle Obama speeches to choose from – the former FLOTUS is renowned for her passion for equality and her ability to uplift others with her words. But in a poignant keynote conversation with Tracee Ellis Ross at the United State of Women Summit in 2018, Obama spoke openly about the often-overlooked inequality of failure, and the disparities in repercussions for men and women.

Quote of note:

'I wish that girls could fail as bad as men do and be OK. Because let me tell you, watching men fail up, it is frustrating. It's frustrating to see a lot of men blow it and win. And we hold ourselves to these crazy, crazy standards.

'Start with what you can control. You start there. Because thinking about changing your workplace and changing the way the world thinks – that's big; that's daunting. And then you shrink from that. So start with what you can control. And that's you, first. And those questions start within. First, we must ask ourselves, "Are we using our voices? And when are we not? When are we playing it safe?" And at least be cognisant of that and understand, "These are the times that I shrunk away from doing more than I could, and let me think about why that was."'

Gina Martin On Misogyny, The Power Of Anger And How She Changed The Law

As she tells us in this refreshing TEDx talk from 2020, Gina Martin is not the kind of woman you'd expect to change the law. And yet, she did. The activist discusses the moment in 2017 when a stranger took a picture of her crotch at a festival without her consent – and how, after years of relentless campaigning, she succeeded in making upskirting a criminal offence. Martin makes it clear that anyone can make a change, no matter who they are or where they're from. And that's a lesson we all need to hear.

'Anger is a very normal response to having your human rights compromised. That's important to say. We have to stop using it to delegitimise people, with "angry feminist" or "angry Black woman" – all of these stereotypes. People are allowed to be angry about this stuff. And we have to hold space for them there. We have to realise it's not about us.

'Think about where you hold privilege – it might be in your job, as a parent, as a teacher, or just in the colour of your skin – and start this work now. Stop laughing at the jokes, buy the book, go to the event, diversify your social feeds, ask the questions. Sympathy is soothing, but it doesn't go far enough. Action does. And listen, you'll get things wrong. We all do, I've had some clangers. But it's not about perfection, it's about progress, it's about doing it because it's the right thing to do. We are so done with waiting for society to "change things" for us. We literally are society.'

Lady Gaga On Reclaiming Your Power

When Lady Gaga accepted her ELLE Women In Hollywood award in 2018, her career appeared to be at an all-time high, with Oscar buzz for her role in A Star Is Born , and her song 'Shallow' at number one in the US. But, as she explained, what people perceive a woman, especially in Hollywood, isn't always the reality.

Gaga may have made this moving speech several years ago, but it feels particularly poignant to revisit it during a period in which violence towards women is a more devastating and pressing topic than ever. In it, Gaga recounts how being sexually assaulted caused her to 'shut down' and 'hide'. She explores the debilitating effect of shame on her mental health and also the power of kindness and support in overcoming it.

Importantly, Gaga explains that she eventually found her power within herself – and how, once she took it back, she was able to use it to move beyond the prescribed expectations society puts upon women.

'What does it really mean to be a woman in Hollywood? We are not just objects to entertain the world. We are not simply images to bring smiles or grimaces to people's faces. We are not members of a giant beauty pageant meant to be pit against one another for the pleasure of the public. We women in Hollywood, we are voices. We have deep thoughts and ideas and beliefs and values about the world and we have the power to speak and be heard and fight back when we are silenced.'

'I decided today I wanted to take the power back. Today I wear the pants... I had a revelation that I had to be empowered to be myself today more than ever. To resist the standards of Hollywood, whatever that means. To resist the standards of dressing to impress. To use what really matters: my voice.'

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie On Redefining Feminism

You may not have knowingly heard to author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's speech before, but there's a good chance you will have listened to her words without realising – Beyoncé actually weaved a key part of Adichie's feminist manifesto into her track '***Flawless'. In her speech, Adichie reflects on the gender disparities still evident our society, with a focus on those in her native Africa, and dissects the meaning of 'feminist' – both the connotations and myths it carries – and how she came to define the term for herself.

'We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller, we say to girls, "You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful, otherwise you would threaten the man." ...But what if we question the premise itself? Why should a woman's success be a threat to a man?

'I want to be respected in all of my femaleness because I deserve to be. Gender is not an easy conversation to have. For both men and women, to bring up gender is sometimes to encounter almost immediate resistance... Some of the men here might be thinking, "OK, all of this is interesting, but I don't think like that." And that is part of the problem – that many men do not actively think about gender or notice gender is part of the problem.'

Kamala Harris On Setting A New Standard For The Next Generation

On November 7 2020, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris delivered her first national address after Joe Biden 's position as President was secured. As the first woman to hold the position and the first person of colour to do so, Harris' presence alone was enough to break boundaries. But then came her words. In the speech, she reflected on triumph of democracy and credited the work of the women who came before us, plus that of 'a new generation of women in... who cast their ballots and continued the fight for their fundamental right to vote and be heard'.

'While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last, because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities. And to the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message: Dream with ambition, lead with conviction, and see yourselves in a way that others may not, simply because they've never seen it before, but know that we will applaud you every step of the way.'

Amanda Gorman On Finding Your Voice

If you didn't know Amanda Gorman before this year, you'll definitely know her now, thanks to her reading at US President Joe Biden's swearing-in ceremony. The United States' first-ever youth poet laureate's powerful, rhythmic poem 'The Hill We Climb' made the world stop and listen, highlighting the many inequalities in our society and reminding us that we need to work together to overcome them.

While 2021 was the year that catapulted Gorman into the spotlight, it wasn't the first time she'd spoken out about the world around her. In her 2018 TED Talk, she discusses the power of speech, learning to find her voice and how 'poetry is actually at the centre of our most political questions about what it means to be a democracy'.

'I had a moment of realisation, where I thought, "If I choose not to speak out of fear, then there's no one that my silence is standing for."'

'When someone asks me to write a poem that's not political, what they're really asking me is to not ask charged and challenging questions in my poetic work. And that does not work, because poetry is always at the pulse of the most dangerous and most daring questions that a nation or a world might face.'

'If I choose, not out of fear, but out of courage, to speak, then there's something unique that my words can become... It might feel like every story has been told before, but the truth is, no one's ever told my story in the way I would tell it.'

Frances McDormand Demands Inclusion In Hollywood

It's one thing to make a great acceptance speech at the Oscars. But to share that honour with your fellow nominees and use it as a platform to highlight where your industry needs to do better? That's a whole other story, and one told by McDormand in a speech that got everybody on their feet as she accepted the Oscar for Best Actress at the 2018 Academy Awards.

'I want to get some perspective. If I may be so honoured to have all the female nominees in every category stand with me in this room tonight, the actors... the filmmakers, the producers, the directors, the writers, the cinematographers, the composers, the songwriters, the designers... We all have stories to tell and projects we need financed. Don't talk to us about it at the parties tonight. Invite us into your office in a couple days, or you can come to ours, whatever suits you best, and we'll tell you all about them. I have two words to leave with you tonight, ladies and gentlemen: "inclusion rider".'

Meghan Markle On Realising The Magnitude Of Individual Action

Long before she made headlines as the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle had already made the world take notice. At the UN Women Conference back in 2015, she spoke about 'accidentally' becoming a female advocate when at just 11 years old, when she convinced a dish soap company to change their sexist tagline from 'Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans' to 'People all over America…' instead. Here, she discusses the power of individual action, and why we need to remind women that 'their involvement matters'.

'It is just imperative: women need a seat at the table, they need an invitation to be seated there, and in some cases, where this is not available, well then, you know what, they need to create their own table. We need a global understanding that we cannot implement change effectively without women's political participation.

'It is said that girls with dreams become women with vision. May we empower each other to carry out such vision – because it isn't enough to simply talk about equality. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to simply believe in it. One must work at it. Let us work at it. Together. Starting now.

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5 Powerful speeches by women in the 21st century

This women's equality day, join us in celebrating some of the most powerful speeches by women..

We may only be two decades in, but the 21st century has seen monumental shifts regarding gender equality. Movements such as #metoo, global fights for abortion rights, and the Saudi Arabian women's driving ban are a few that have highlighted the issue.

When you think of great speeches in history, images of Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, and Barack Obama may spring forth. Due to ingrained biases, women have always needed to 'speak louder to have their voices heard'. Women's Equality Day, often referred to as Gender Equality Day, commemorates when Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby signed the proclamation granting American women the right to vote . On this Women's Equality Day (26th August 2021), we celebrate powerful speeches by women on the world stage fighting for equal rights. 

Oprah Winfrey

While receiving an award for 'Outstanding Contributions to the World of Entertainment' at the 2018 Golden Globes, Oprah Winfrey gave one of the most moving speeches by a woman at the awards. 

As someone born into poverty to a single mother who overcame discrimination with race and gender to succeed, she gave a rousing speech addressing the evolution of women's equality. Even more fitting, she was the first black woman to have received that award.

Key points of interest

[00:05:20] 

'In 1944, Recy Taylor was a young wife and a mother. She was just walking home from a church service she attended in Abbeville, Alabama, when she was abducted by six armed white men raped and left blindfolded by the side of the road coming home from church. They threatened to kill her if she ever told anyone. But her story was reported to the NAACP, where a young worker by the name of Rosa Parks became the lead investigator on her case'

[00:08:21] 

'So I want all the girls watching here now to know that a new day is on the horizon. And when that new day finally dawns. It will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say me too again.'

Read the entire transcript here .

Frances McDormand

Upon receiving her 2nd Oscar in 2018, Frances McDormand's speech received a standing ovation after highlighting the integral role women have in Hollywood - both in front of and behind the camera. 

The 'mic drop' moment was the mention of the ' inclusion rider .' An inclusion rider is a clause actors and filmmakers can insert into their contracts to ensure an appropriate level of diversity in a cast, from women to people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and people with disabilities.

Key points of interest: 

[00:03:16] 

'And now I want to get some perspective. If I may be so honored to have all the female nominees in every category stand with me in this room tonight. [...] OK, look around, everybody, look around, ladies and gentlemen, because we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed'

[00:04:15] 

'I have two words to leave with you tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, Inclusion Rider.'

Read the whole speech here .

Emma Watson

From actress to activist, Emma Watson is an outspoken supporter of gender equality. In a passionate women's rights speech at the UN in 2014, she declared gender equality an issue for both males and females to advocate. She asserted that 'feminism' has almost become a dirty word and that it is down to the inadvertent feminists to strengthen the movement. 

She also talked about gender equality from a male perspective, highlighting mental health and gender stereotypes, demonstrating that men do not have gender equality either. 

Key points of interest:

[00:01:51] 

'The more I've spoken about feminism, the more I have realized that fighting for women's rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain. It is that this has to stop. For the record, feminism, by definition, is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.'

[00:04:05] 

'I am from Britain. And I think it is right that I am paid the same as my male counterparts. I think it is right that I should be able to make decisions about my own body. I think. I think it is right that women be involved on my behalf in the policies and the decisions that will affect my life. I think it is right that socially I am afforded the same respect as men. But sadly, I can say that there is no one country in the world where all women can expect to receive these rights. No country in the world can yet say that they have achieved gender equality.'

[00:08:35] 

'If men don't have to be aggressive in order to be accepted, women won't feel compelled to be submissive. If men don't have to control, women won't have to be controlled. Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive, both men and women should feel free to be strong. It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals.'

The entire transcript can be found here .

Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai is one of the leading women's rights activists globally and the youngest person (and first Pakistani) to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. In her acceptance speech, she delivered a heartfelt message advocating a women's right to education. She sheds light on women's rights from a unique cultural point of view.

[00:03:39] 

'I have found that people describe me in many different ways. Some people call me the girl who was shot by the Taliban and some the girl who fought for her rights. [...] As far as I know, I'm just a committed and even stubborn person who wants to see every child getting quality education. Who wants to see women having equal rights and who wants peace in every corner of the world.'

Read the transcript in Trint .

Greta Thunberg

The youngest on our list, Greta Thunberg, is a name synonymous with activism. This is more of an honorable mention as her speech at the UN Climate Action Summit in 2019 focused on climate change rather than gender equality. However, even at the age of 16, and speaking in her non-native tongue, Thunburg faced gender-based bias following the speech. There was online backlash due to her emotional tone and age, proving that women's rights have a long way to go before equality is reached. 

Key point of interest:

[00:00:54] 

'You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words, yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is the money and fairy tales of his time of economic growth. How dare you?'

The speech transcript is here for you to read .

What's next for women's equality?

Thanks to these speeches by women, the topic of gender equality remains at the forefront of the public's mind. Having said that, there is still some way to go in the case of equal pay and gender stereotypes and other global issues. However, these speeches have given women a platform in which to make their voices heard. 

Trint is an employer committed to equality for both genders with a number of initiatives like our Women in Tech and Diversity and Inclusion groups. We are committed to providing equal opportunities to our employees. 

We used Trint to transcribe the MP4 files of these speeches, try it out for yourself .

Your free trial awaits, learn more about trint for enterprise.

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Women's Rights Are Human Rights: The United States and the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women

“If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that women’s rights are human rights, and human rights are women’s rights, once and for all.”

The United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, hosted in Beijing in 1995, was one of the largest multilateral events ever convened. It welcomed 6,000 official delegates representing almost every country in the world, 4,000 members of the press, countless observers and civil servants, and more than 30,000 civil society leaders and activists at a parallel NGO Forum. The 189 participating nations signed on to a Declaration that remains the most ambitious international commitment to gender equality. Following the conference, attendees “brought Beijing home,” creating new NGOs, reinvigorating local women’s movements, running for office, and launching a cascade of legal reforms across the globe.

Beijing was a watershed moment in the history of women’s rights. This exhibition explores how the United States prepared for and participated in this historic event, and its echoes in U.S. diplomacy, defense, and development efforts. It draws on memos, posters, brochures, souvenirs, letters, and photographs from the archives of Ambassador Melanne Verveer—the first Ambassador-at-large for Global Women’s Issues, and Chief of Staff to First Lady Hillary Clinton—and other members of the U.S. delegation to the Beijing conference.

The Georgetown University Library would like to thank Ambassador Verveer for her generous donation of many of these exhibition items and other materials to the Library's Booth Family Center for Special Collections. This remarkable collection will be made accessible for research, instruction, and public programs.

(Image: NGO Forum Poster. Illustration by Coco Masuda, design by DPI Design Section. Published by the U.N. Department of Public Information, November 1994.)

Preparation

Preparing for the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women was an opportunity to spotlight women’s issues at home. The official U.S. delegation reflected a wide cross section of America’s women—with representatives of all regions, professions, races, and ages—who joined bi-partisan congressional envoys. The State Department conducted extensive outreach, hosting meetings in Washington and across the country so women’s groups and civil society organizations could provide input on what America’s priorities should be. They faced some political controversies in preparing a unified platform, including disagreements over issues of the definition of gender, LGBT rights, and U.S.-China relations.

Poster Reproductions from Previous World Conference on Women Meetings: The Beijing Conference built on momentum from previous United Nations convenings. Between 1975 and 1985, the U.N. hosted three World Conferences on Women, and women’s rights increasingly became part of broader human rights conversations at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna and the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo. This progress was codified at Beijing, by far the largest gathering to focus on women. To this day The Beijing Declaration represents a high-water mark for international commitments to women’s rights.

Official Lapel Pins from 1975 Mexico City Conference: These pins were produced for the First World Conference on Women, hosted in Mexico City in June 1975 and attended by 8,000 people. The Mexico City conference launched many of the networks that would reconvene over the next decades.  On loan from Rebecca Turkington.

Hillary Rodham Clinton Speaking at the World Summit for Social Development: First Lady Hillary Clinton spoke at the 1995 World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen, Denmark, just months before traveling to Beijing. In her remarks, she emphasized “the vital role that girls and women play in the economic, social, and political life of our societies.”

U.S. State Department Preparation

State Department Release Announcing Beijing Preparatory Committee: A year in advance, the White House announced its preparatory plans for the Fourth World Conference on Women. The Global Conference Secretariat, housed at the Department of State, would lead coordination for Beijing, as well as upcoming conferences on development.

Global Conference Secretariat Team: Members of the Global Conference Secretariat team—from the State Department and the First Lady’s office—pose in Beijing, after months of hard work.

National Outreach

State Department Calendar of Public Outreach: State Department officials worked to engage a wide spectrum of civil society in the consultative process around developing the U.S. negotiating position. A calendar of public outreach efforts for the Conference shows staff traveling to California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Washington state to bring the platform's principles to the broader American public and seek input from a diverse range of organizations.  

Schedule of Public Meetings: The State Department also convened public meetings at its Washington, D.C. headquarters, open to those who wished to contribute the draft U.S. platform. Meeting topics ranged from education and poverty to U.N. bureaucracy.

On The Road to Beijing, April 1994:  A periodical included regular updates on conference developments, guest contributions from leading American women, and information on the primary issues that would be included in the Beijing Platform for Action.

U.S. Delegation

The U.S. Delegation to the Fourth World Conference on Women: In choosing delegates to represent the United States, the Secretariat balanced geography, race, religion, occupation, and political leanings. A bipartisan Congressional delegation joined the official delegation: Representatives Maloney (D-NY), Harman (D-CA), Morella (R-MD), and Smith (R-NJ). Close to 8,000 U.S. citizens attended in their own capacity, as civil society representatives to the Huairou NGO Forum.

List of U.S. Delegates: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and future U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright chaired the delegation. Members included Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, former Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, and disability rights activist and Assistant Secretary of Education Judith (Judy) Heumann.

Meeting with U.N. Planning Team: The U.S. Global Conference Secretariat team, led by Ambassador Madeleine Albright and First Lady Hillary Clinton, meets with the United Nations planning team, led by Secretary-General of the Conference Gertrude Mongella, to accelerate conference preparation.

The Politics of Gender

The National Review , May 15, 1995: A critical vignette in the National Review ridicules the debate over the term “gender” in the draft Platform for Action. “The State Department’s marching orders: fight for the change—five genders are better than two.”

Memo on Gender Consultation, June 6, 1995 Gender Talking Points for the U.S. Delegation, April 7, 1995 Draft Chairperson’s Statement on “Gender,” May 31, 1995 The definition of “gender” was a point of contention in 1994, just as it is today. The National Review article set off enough controversy for the State Department to specifically refute it—noting in this draft statement that the word was “a commonly used term in sociological analysis that has been conventionally used in U.N. documents since the 1970’s,” and that no U.N. member was seeking to redefine it. A U.N. group formed to consider the issue affirmed the use of "gender" in conference documents.

LGBT+ Rights

Contingency Guidance on Lesbian Rights – Fax Cover Sheet from the Conference Secretariat to Melanne Verveer, October 14, 1994 U.S. Position on Lesbian Rights

The Beijing Conference had a mixed record on LGBT+ issues. The final declaration did not include language on “sexual orientation,” though many activists had fought for it—even convening a protest in the conference hall at which two women were arrested. However, the Conference did feature South African activist Beverley Ditsie, the first openly lesbian woman to address the UN, and began a conversation in which LGBT+ concerns were formally discussed within a human rights framework. This contingency guidance outlines talking points on the official U.S. position "on lesbian rights."

Hillary Clinton’s Attendance in China

Letter from Barbara Cubin and Sue Kelly to Hillary Clinton, August 25, 1995 Letter from Nancy Pelosi to Hillary Clinton, September 1, 1995

The decision to send a high-level delegation to the Beijing Conference had critics on both the right and the left. Congresswomen Barbara Cubin (R-WY) and Sue Kelly (R-NY) warned Clinton in an August 25, 1995 letter that her attendance would grant “unwarranted credibility to an agenda that does not reflect the mainstream values of the American people.” On the other side of the aisle, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) agreed in her September 1, 1995 letter that Clinton’s “presence affords China's hardliners an opportunity to market it as a validation of the current leadership…”

Final Draft Platform for Action

In March and April, final preparatory meetings took place at the UN Commission on the Status of Women to hammer out a draft Platform for Action to be adopted during the Beijing Conference. Some of the most controversial text was left bracketed—to be debated in Beijing. The document outlines the U.S. priorities for the Beijing negotiations. It emphasizes that “the only way to bring about equality, development and peace is to empower women by integrating them into the mainstream where they can work in partnership with men in all levels and structures of society.”

The Conference

The Fourth World Conference on Women was the largest U.N. conference in history, convening more than 6,000 official delegates from almost every country in the world (only Saudi Arabia, Granada, Somalia, and Yugoslavia did not participate). Over twelve days, participants developed a unified Declaration and Platform of Action that laid out an ambitious vision and concrete commitments for achieving equality. The Chinese government made the decision to house the NGO Forum in the town of Huairou, thirty-five miles outside Beijing. More than 30,000 activists showed up—sharing tactics and stories that inspired a renewed wave of global organizing.

U.S. Delegation Pin, Card and T-Shirt

U.S. Delegation Pin and Card: This laminated delegate card provided its bearer access to the conference venue and “all necessary facilities.” The pin, made especially for the U.S. delegation, features the silhouette of a woman and girl against a modified flag.

U.S. Delegation T-Shirt: This t-shirt was provided to conference delegates when they arrived in China.

Welcome Brochure: Conference attendees were welcomed with a short informational brochure compiled by Women of China , a magazine published by the All-China Women’s Federation, China’s state-sponsored NGO for women’s rights.

Map of Beijing: Handwritten annotations by the First Lady's Chief of Staff Melanne Verveer on this map of downtown Beijing indicate the location of the conference plenary session; the hotels where the White House team, other members of the U.S. Delegation, and NGO representatives were staying; and the Great Hall of the People, a state building on Tiananmen Square where the conference opening ceremony would be held.

"The Situation of Chinese Women" Informational Brochure: Alongside logistics materials, guests received informational brochures about China’s own efforts to improve the status of women. The publications provide a optimistic view of women’s lives—lauding high levels of economic participation and education thanks to Communism—and describe Chinese government programs to implement goals developed at the previous world conference on women, hosted in Nairobi, Kenya in 1985.

On the floor of the Plenary Room: Melanne Verveer leans in to speak with Leia Maria Boutros-Ghali, the wife of UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, as she and Clinton listen to a panel discussion on women’s health.

Congressional Delegation: U.S. Delegation co-chairs Albright and Clinton speak with the bipartisan congressional delegation prior to Clinton’s plenary speech. 

Speechwriters: Clinton speaks with staff on the morning of her keynote speech, including Melanne Verveer and Lissa Muscatine, her speechwriter.

Posters and Documents

NGO Forum Poster (French translation): By all accounts, the Huairou Forum was chaos: hundreds of events planned simultaneously, last-minute venue changes, and inclement weather. But many attendees reported that it was a defining moment in their careers. Designated tents for disabled women, indigenous women, older women, refugees, youth, and LGBTQ women built critical transnational friendships and networks, and helped launch a new wave of global activism. Poster on loan from Theresa Loar.

Official Beijing Declaration: Signed by 189 countries, the Beijing Declaration remains, to this day, the high-water mark in international commitments to women’s equality. The declaration affirmed that “Women's empowerment and their full participation on the basis of equality in all spheres of society, including participation in the decision-making process and access to power, are fundamental for the achievement of equality, development and peace,” and—in what became a rallying cry of the conference—“women’s rights are human rights.”

Official Beijing Platform for Action: The Beijing Platform for Action outlines well over 100 pages of an ambitious global agenda to advance equality through twelve strategic objectives: poverty; education and training; health; violence against women; armed conflict; the economy; power and decision-making; institutional mechanisms; human rights of women; the media; the environment; and the girl child. It sets clear benchmarks for governments. Many were later incorporated into the Millennium Development Goals. Many have yet to be met 26 years later.

The Huairou Forum

Strategies for Effective Lobbying Brochure: FEMNET—a pan-African feminist network—developed this "Strategies for Effective Lobbying" brochure to aid NGO participants in lobbying their national delegations during the forum. Beijing was the first global conference where email was widely used, and the brochure’s guidance included how to access digital resources developed for the conference. A computer center on the Huairou premises, staffed entirely by women, helped hundreds of attendees sign up for an email address for the first time.

Arriving in Huairou: In addition to her explosive speech at the conference plenary, the First Lady made the hour-long drive to Huairou to address NGO activists. In this photo, she has just arrived at the venue during a pouring rain storm with Donna Shalala and Melanne Verveer.

Official NGO Forum Program Book: The official program includes the schedule of activities planned for the Huairou Forum. On loan from Theresa Loar.

Forum Venue Controversy

Letter from Representative Patricia Schroeder, May 10, 1995 News Release from the Office of Representative Nancy Pelosi, July 18, 1995 Letter from Amnesty International Executive Director William F. Schulz, May 17, 1995

The Chinese government's decision to move the NGO Forum to Huairou, more than an hour’s drive from the downtown conference, worried many participants and drew heavy criticism. In these communications, U.S. Congresswomen Schroeder and Pelosi express concerns over the venue change, and Amnesty International formally registers a complaint with the U.N. Secretary General.

Bilingual Map of the Beijing Workers’ Sports Service Center: The Beijing Workers’ Sports Service Center was the original planned location for the NGO Forum in downtown Beijing. In March, the Chinese Organizing Committee announced the venue was structurally unsound, leading to a months-long, ultimately unsuccessful lobbying effort to keep the stadium space. According to press reports, organizers ultimately agreed to the move because the Chinese government offered to increase the participant cap from 20,000 to 36,000. 

Opening Ceremony

Huairou Opening Ceremony Program: The description of the logo on the back of this NGO Forum program explains: “The logo depicts eight women dancing. Each has her own energy and dynamism. Each one is tied to the other through a common center. Thus, they all together generate more energy and power than each of them could generate singly. The logo celebrates women and risk-takers, doers, and active shapers of their own destinies. The red and white motif represents celebration.” On loan from Theresa Loar.

Commemorative Philatelic Album: Designed by Yan bing wu, Issued by the Beijing East District Stamp Company, 1995. This commemorative album includes sixteen pages of Chinese stamps and first day of issue cards. The text reads: “Chinese government is greatly concerned with improvement of women’s status and has achieved great success that attracts worldwide attention. In China’s opening to the outside world and social construction, the people’s government is much more concerned with woman’s work by encouraging and supporting women to participate in development, actively helping women improve their quality, practically solving women’s problems, protecting women’s legal rights, promoting the equality between man and woman and trying to make all these efforts to reflect women’s features of the age.” On loan from Theresa Loar.

Through Women's Eyes Music CD: Singer-songwriter Rosemary Loar wrote “Take a Look (Through Women’s Eyes)” for the Huairou Forum opening ceremony. A CD was produced to raise money for the Virginia Gildersleeve International Fund—a foundation committed to women’s empowerment, named for the only female U.S. delegate at the 1945 United Nations Conference on International Organization. On loan from Theresa Loar.

Hillary Clinton’s stirring plenary speech became one of the defining moments of the conference, and of her time as First Lady. Clinton’s role leading the U.S. delegation was decried from both sides of the aisle, but once her speech was broadcast across the globe, letters poured in with praise from the most unlikely corners. The phrase “women’s rights are human rights” was pioneered by activists, and Clinton’s speech cemented it as a rallying cry for Beijing. Her words have lived long beyond the conference. Clinton’s leadership on global women’s issues characterized the rest of her tenure as First Lady. She built on the momentum of the conference creating the Vital Voices Democracy Initiative to promote women’s advancement through U.S. foreign policy, and repeated the tenets of her Beijing remarks in speeches across the globe.

Invitations

Invitation from U.N. Secretary-General: U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali invites Clinton to attend the conference as his special guest, noting the conference would benefit from “the prestige and respect which you command.”

Cover Sheet for U.N. Secretary-General Invitation: A July 20, 1995 memo from Melanne Verveer outlines the major speaking invitations Clinton has received, including: an address to the NGO Forum in Huairou; chairing a panel convened by Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association in India, and Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.

Reception Invitation: Clinton also received invitations to social events, such as this reception hosted by Gertrude Mongella, the Secretary-General of the Conference.

Cartoon by Tom Tolles published in the Buffalo News , September 7, 1995: On July 8, 1995, just two months before the Beijing Conference was set to begin, Chinese-American human rights activist Harry Wu was arrested by Chinese customs officials. His detention led many to pressure the United States, and particularly First Lady Hillary Clinton, to boycott the conference.

Official Announcements

White House Press Statement, August 25, 1995: Hillary Clinton’s visit to Beijing was put on hold until Wu’s fate became clear. After a series of negotiations, Wu was deported on August 24. The next day, the White House Press Secretary announced that Hillary Clinton would lead the American delegation to the Beijing conference. 

"Talking It Over" column, September 2-3, 1995: Inspired by Eleanor Roosevelt’s syndicated newspaper column “My Day,” Clinton published conversational weekly updates called “Talking It Over," published on the White House website and often reprinted elsewhere. In this edition she introduces some of the key figures in the U.S. Beijing delegation and addresses critics who are "trying to spread the notion that the U.N. gathering is really the work of radicals and atheists bent on destroying our families.”

Departure for China: First Lady Hillary Clinton and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright wave as they board the plane to China.

Arrival in Beijing

Hillary Clinton Addressing the Beijing Delegates: Much of Clinton’s speech was written overnight, miles above the Pacific Ocean, as the First Lady’s delegation traveled to Beijing on an Air Force jet. Before finalizing the draft, Clinton asked speechwriter Lissa Muscatine, Verveer, and Albright to “push the envelope on women’s rights” as much as they could.

Hillary Clinton After Delivering her Speech: Following Clinton’s speech, the conference hall erupted in delayed applause as her words were translated into numerous languages. Here she shakes hands with a Mongolian delegate, followed by members of her staff.

Briefing Book, September 3-8, 1995:  The official White House briefing book for the China-Mongolia trip includes day-by-day schedules and key personnel.

Briefing Book Page for September 5, 1995: This page of the First Lady’s briefing book shows the schedule for her speech at 2:45 p,m, in the Plenary Hall of the Beijing International Conference Center.

Updated Schedule for September 7, 1995: This is an updated page to Clinton’s briefing book, showing minute-by-minute daily schedules for her travel to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Commemorative Speech Booklet: The first half of Clinton’s speech focused on the profound benefits of women’s access to education, employment, and freedom from violence—and the lost potential caused by silencing their voices. She then listed the many harmful practices that victimize women. Many had never been talked about in such a public way. Her most enduring line, “Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all,” became the Conference’s call to action. This commemorative booklet was created after the trip and includes the full text of the speech.

Cartoon by Mike Peters published in the Chicago Tribune , September 9, 1995: In enumerating the myriad human rights violations faced by women across the globe, Clinton toed a fine line between overtly offending her Chinese hosts, and calling out their abuses. This political cartoon shows an alarmed Chinese President Jiang Zemin reacting to the thoughts of “Chairman Hillary.”

The Congressional Record , September 6, 1995: Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi had urged Clinton to boycott the conference so as not to legitimize China’s leadership. After the speech, Pelosi praised the First Lady in the Congressional Record for “the strongest statements made on human rights in China, in Asia, and in the world by this administration to date.”

Letter to the Editor of Newsday , September 6, 1995: Clinton’s speech drew praise from unlikely places. GOP Councilman Christopher Bodkin sent a letter to the editor of Newsday , giving a surprising endorsement to the First Lady from someone belonging to “a culture that pays little or no attention to” Hillary Rodham Clinton. He writes, “I was proud to see America’s First Lady let them have both barrels….Right on!”

After Effects

Blank Notecard by Emily’s List Women’s Rights Are Human Rights Journal Page from the 2016 Hillary Clinton Campaign Coloring Book by Allison Cole The slogan “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights” had been employed by feminist groups throughout the 1980s and 90s, and activists organized around the slogan in preparation for the 1993 Vienna Conference on Human Rights. Clinton’s speech immortalized the phrase, cementing both the words and the concept in the global imagination, as she stated, “once and for all.” Today it can be found adorning a variety of memorabilia including journals, stationery, and even coloring books. Card and Coloring Book on loan from Rebecca Turkington.

White House Luggage Tags from International Trips, 1995-1998: Following the Beijing conference, Clinton traveled to more than 40 countries, ultimately spending more time outside the U.S. than her husband during his presidency. She made a special effort to meet with women and women’s rights organizations during each trip. She would continue that practice in her later tenure as U.S. Secretary of State. These assorted luggage tags commemorate each official White House trip.

Hillary Clinton, Melanne Verveer, and Lissa Muscatine Meeting with Women in Mongolia Hillary Clinton Poses with Mongolian Nomadic Family Hillary Clinton Dances with Women in South Africa Hillary Clinton Meets with Women at an Early Vital Voices Conference From Mongolia to South Africa, Clinton meets with women and women’s rights groups to hear their concerns.

Commemorative Booklets of Hillary Clinton’s Speeches from 1995-98

In speeches around the globe, Clinton reprised the tenets she had laid out at Beijing. In these commemorative booklets, her remarks from appearances at the United Nations, trips through Africa and Central Asia, and numerous Vital Voices conferences draw the links between women’s rights and human rights, economic prosperity, and democracy.

Participants at the Fourth World Conference on Women pledged to “Bring Beijing Home,” taking lessons and inspiration back to their own countries. Many of them ran for office, created new NGOs, and led feminist movements that continue today. Their advocacy spurred the proliferation of laws on violence against women, the rapid adoption of gender quotas, and the creation of women’s ministries and bureaus around the world. In the United States, commitments made by the Clinton Administration following the Beijing Conference laid the groundwork for advancing gender equality through U.S. diplomacy, defense, and development efforts. From the creation of an Interagency Council on Women, to new directives at the State Department and the Agency for International Development (USAID), these efforts further institutionalized gender equality as a foreign policy. Their legacy today can be seen in the 2019 Women, Peace, and Security Act, the State Department Office of Global Women’s Issues, the Gender Policy Council, and strong legislation on human trafficking.

Delegation Report to the President

A month after returning, the U.S. delegation submitted a formal conference report to the President. As early as October 1995, new endeavors focused on women and girls were already underway at agencies across the executive branch.

Illustrated Chinese Proverb

This print—a gift from Madeleine Albright to Melanne Verveer—recalls a children’s rhyme that asks “what can we do with a girl?” A co-chair of the Beijing Delegation, Albright brought the spirit of the conference with her when she became the first female Secretary of State in 1997. In her first year in office, she proclaimed “Advancing the status of women is not only a moral imperative; it is being actively integrated into the foreign policy of the United States. It is our mission.”

President's Interagency Council on Women:

President Bill Clinton announced the creation of an Interagency Council on Women on August 26, 1995—the 75th anniversary of women’s suffrage, and just days before the U.S. delegation left for Beijing. The Council was created with the explicit intention that it take on the Conference’s Platform for Action—or as the President said, “make sure that all the effort and good ideas actually get implemented when we get back home.” This photo, showing the Council members in 1999, is inscribed by Secretary Madeleine Albright.

Presidential Announcement of U.S. Commitments

In January 1996, the White House released a fact sheet detailing the ways in which the United States would work to enact the Beijing Platform for Action. President Clinton’s cover letter points to domestic reforms pursued by his administration, and notes the Beijing Conference offers “a historic opportunity – and a solemn responsibility – to lead the world in our efforts to better the lives of women.”

U.S. Follow-Up to the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women

In May 1996, eight months after the Beijing Conference, the President’s Interagency Council on Women published a brief that formally reported on U.S. follow-up to the goals laid out in the Beijing Platform. On loan from Theresa Loar.

America’s Commitment: Highlights from Women 2000

The five-year anniversary of the Beijing Conference in 2000 served as an important opportunity to reflect on progress, as the Clinton Administration prepared to leave office. Just as the State Department had convened regional meetings in 1995 to inform the U.S. delegation’s negotiating platform at the Conference, the Interagency Council conducted 13 events across the country to learn more about what women’s organizations had achieved in the five years since. On loan from Theresa Loar.

Women 2000 Interagency Council Report

The Interagency Council also took stock of the accomplishments of each executive branch agency, detailing changes to domestic and foreign policy; new offices, initiatives, research, and programs; and an impressive array of new funding streams created in the wake of Beijing. On loan from Theresa Loar.

USAID Commitment: Beijing Plus Five

The USAID Office of Women in Development detailed the agency’s achievements. The Girls’ and Women’s Education Initiative was launched in 1995 on the heels of Beijing. The number of women entrepreneurs receiving microloans tripled. In 1996, USAID began formally ‘gender mainstreaming’ its operations.

Vital Voices Commemorative Booklet: We Are Listening

Determined to maintain the momentum from Beijing, the First Lady’s office created the Vital Voices Democracy Initiative in 1997, co-chaired by Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Led by many of the same staff who had worked on the Beijing Secretariat, the Initiative hosted conferences around the world to build regional networks of women leaders. When the Clinton Administration left the White House, the initiative’s work continued in the Vital Voices Global Partnership, still an active NGO.

Secretary's Office of Global Women's Issues

Secretary Clinton and Ambassador Verveer sit at the center of the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues staff. The office has a mandate to “promote the rights and empowerment of women and girls through U.S. foreign policy.”

Melanne Verveer’s Oath of Office, April 6, 2009

In 2009, the Obama Administration created the position of Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, charged with coordinating foreign policy relating to the political, economic and social advancement of women. Such a position had not existed before anywhere in the world. Melanne Verveer was the first to serve in the role.. She traveled to nearly 60 countries during her tenure. Since 2009, more than a dozen other nations have created similar envoy posts, elevating the issue of gender equality to a core foreign policy priority.

National Action Plan

The U.S. National Action Plan for Women, Peace, and Security, released in 2011, mandates that the Departments of State, Defense, Justice, Treasury, Homeland Security, and USAID work to ensure that women participate equally in preventing conflict and building peace. In 2019, Congress passed bipartisan legislation formalizing these commitments in the Women, Peace, and Security Act, the first-ever law of its kind.

National Action Plan Speech

• As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton announces the U.S. National Action Plan during a speech at Georgetown University in December, 2011.
• Hillary Clinton poses with Melanne Verveer and other senior U.S. government colleagues at Georgetown on the occasion of her 2011 speech.

Trafficking Bill, October 28, 2000

Beyond foreign policy, the influence of the Beijing Conference can be seen in domestic legislation such as the landmark 2000 statute on human trafficking, the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act. The Act established the anti-trafficking infrastructure in place today, including the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons in the State Department, the annual Trafficking in Persons Report, and the Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking.

Beijing's Global Legacy

The photographs below feature an array of international activists who attended the 1995 Beijing conference, illustrating the legal reforms, civil society organizing, and political advancement for women that occurred as a result of their work.

China - Guo Jianmei

Guo Jianmei (center, in white) is a pioneering lawyer and human rights activist. Inspired by the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women, she founded China’s first legal aid clinic, The Center for Women’s Law Studies and Legal Services of Peking University, and introduced the concept of pro bono legal services for marginalized populations. Since 1995, she and her teams have offered free legal counselling to more than 120,000 women all over China and have been involved in more than 4,000 lawsuits to enforce women’s rights and advance gender equality.  

Photo: United States Department of State

Kuwait - Rola Dashti

In 1995, economist Rola Dashti refused to join the official Kuwaiti state delegation to the Beijing Conference because it was led by a public opponent of women’s political rights, and instead arranged to send an alternative group of women activists.  “Kuwaiti women did not have the right to vote,” she said in an interview, “We took the Declaration and we used it to change the electoral laws.” In 2009, Dashti herself became one of the very first women to be elected to the Kuwaiti parliament. 

Photo by Michael Buholzer, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Peru - Tarcila Rivera Zea

Tarcila Rivera Zea, a Quechuan activist, founded the Center for Indigenous Cultures of Peru (Chirapaq) and is a member of the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. In 1995, initiatives like the Indigenous Women’s Tent at the Huairou Forum provided an unprecedented chance for connection. “For us indigenous women of Latin America, the poorest of the poor, it was an opportunity to communicate with indigenous women from other parts of the world,” she said. Since then, Zea has helped form numerous regional coalitions including the Continental Network of Indigenous Women of the Americas (ECMIA). 

Photo by U.N. Women/Ryan Brown, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Bulgaria - Irina Bokova

Irina Bokova was the first woman to lead the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ECOSOC), where she served two terms as Director-General. During her decades of diplomatic service, Bokova was a Bulgarian delegate to the 1995 Beijing Conference, as well as the 1980 and 1985 World Conferences on Women in Copenhagen and Nairobi. She was a leading candidate for U.N. Secretary General in 2016, and made eradicating violence against women and girls a central pillar of her platform.  

Photo by Rama, CC BY-SA 2.0 FR

Cambodia - Mu Sochua

After returning from exile to war-torn Cambodia in 1989, Mu Sochua became involved in anti-trafficking work, ensured women’s rights provisions in the 1993 Cambodian Constitution, and helped organize a Cambodian delegation to the Beijing Conference. Hearing Hillary Clinton’s speech inspired Sochua to run for office, and in 1998 she was elected to parliament, then appointed to the Cabinet as Minister of Women’s and Veterans’ Affairs. She set her sights on the next generation, mobilizing 12,000 female candidates to run in the 2002 local elections. 

Photo: Vital Voices/Mickey Wiswedel, used with permission

Somalia - Hibaaq Osman

Women’s rights advocate Hibaaq Osman attended the Huairou Forum in 1995, meeting other activists from across the world. “The time we spent together was liberating,” she wrote, “it was a novelty for me to see women’s issues discussed so openly among a diverse group and in a supportive, communal space.” Remembering the power of those connections, she founded Karama in 2005, a civil society organization that builds coalitions across the Arab region to advance women’s rights, providing training, strategic guidance, and financial support to local campaigns.  

Photo by Hubert Burda Media, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Hillary Clinton “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” Speech at 1995 Women’s Conference Beijing Transcript

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton gave a speech at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women on September 5, 1995 in Beijing, China. Read the full transcript of her speech remarks here.

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Hillary Rodham Clinton: ( 00:20 ) Thank you very much, Gertrude Mongella, for your dedicated work that has brought us to this point. Distinguished delegates and guests, I would like to thank the Secretary General for inviting me to be part of this important United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. This is truly a celebration, a celebration of the contributions women make in every aspect of life, in the home, on the job, in the community, as mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, learners, workers, citizens, and leaders. It is also a coming together much the way women come together every day in every country. We come together in fields and factories, in village markets and supermarkets, in living rooms and board rooms, whether it is while playing with our children in the park, or washing clothes in a river, or taking a break at the office water cooler, we come together and talk about our aspirations and concerns.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: ( 01:41 ) Time and again our talk turns to our children and our families. However different we may appear, there is far more that unites us than divides us. We share a common future and we are here to find common ground so that we may help bring new dignity and respect to women and girls all over the world, and in so doing bring new strength and stability to families as well. By gathering in Beijing we are focusing world attention on issues that matter most in our lives, the lives of women and their families, access to education, healthcare, jobs, and credit, the chance to enjoy basic legal and human rights, and to participate fully in the political life of our countries.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: ( 02:42 ) There are some who question the reason for this conference. Let them listen to the voices of women in their homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces. There are some who wonder whether the lives of women and girls matter to economic and political progress around the globe. Let them look at the women gathered here and at Huairou, the homemakers and nurses, the teachers and lawyers, the policymakers, and women who run their own businesses. It is conferences like this that compel governments and peoples everywhere to listen, look, and face the world’s most pressing problems. Wasn’t it, after all, after the women’s conference in Nairobi 10 years ago that the world focused for the first time on the crisis of domestic violence?

Hillary Rodham Clinton: ( 03:39 ) Earlier today I participated in a World Health Organization forum. In that forum we talked about ways that government officials, NGOs, and individual citizens are working to address the health problems of women and girls. Tomorrow I will attend a gathering of the United Nations Development Fund for Women. There the discussion will focus on local and highly successful programs that give hard-working women access to credit so they can improve their own lives and the lives of their families. What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations do as well. That is why every woman, every man, every child, every family, and every nation on this planet, does have a stake in the discussion that takes place here.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: ( 04:56 ) Over the past 25 years I have worked persistently on issues relating to women, children, and families. Over the past two and a half years I’ve had the opportunity to learn more about the challenges facing women in my own country and around the world. I have met new mothers in Indonesia who come together regularly in their village to discuss nutrition, family planning, and baby care. I have met working parents in Denmark who talk about the comfort they feel in knowing that their children can be cared for in safe and nurturing afterschool centers.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: ( 05:33 ) I have met women in South Africa who helped lead the struggle to end apartheid and are now helping to build a new democracy. I have met with the leading women of my own hemisphere, who are working every day to promote literacy and better healthcare for children in their countries. I have met women in India and Bangladesh who are taking out small loans to buy milk cows, or rickshaws, or thread, in order to create a livelihood for themselves and their families. I have met the doctors and nurses in Belarus and Ukraine who are trying to keep children alive in the aftermath of Chernobyl.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: ( 06:14 ) The great challenge of this conference is to give voice to women everywhere whose experiences go unnoticed, whose words go unheard. Women comprise more than half the world’s population, 70% of the world’s poor, and two thirds of those who are not taught to read and write. We are the primary caretakers for most of the world’s children and elderly, yet much of the work we do is not valued. Not by economists, not by historians, not by popular culture, not by government leaders. At this very moment as we sit here, women around the world are giving birth, raising children, cooking meals, washing clothes, cleaning houses, planting crops, working on assembly lines, running companies, and running countries.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: ( 07:09 ) Women also are dying from diseases that should have been prevented or treated. They are watching their children succumb to malnutrition caused by poverty and economic deprivation. They are being denied the right to go to school by their own fathers and brothers. They are being forced into prostitution, and they are being barred from the bank lending offices, and banned from the ballot box. Those of us who have the opportunity to be here, have the responsibility to speak for those who could not. As an American, I want to speak for women in my own country. Women who are raising children on the minimum wage, women who can’t afford healthcare or childcare, women whose lives are threatened by violence, including violence in their own homes.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: ( 07:59 ) I want to speak up for mothers who are fighting for good schools, safe neighborhoods, clean air, and clean airwaves. For older women, some of them widows, who find that after raising their families their skills and life experiences are not valued in the marketplace. For women who are working all night as nurses, hotel clerks, or fast-food chefs, so that they can be at home during the day with their children. And for women everywhere who simply don’t have time to do everything they are called upon to do each and every day. Speaking to you today I speak for them just as each of us speaks for women around the world who are denied the chance to go to school or see a doctor or own property, or have a say about the direction of their lives, simply because they are women.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: ( 08:57 ) The truth is that most women around the world work both inside and outside the home, usually by necessity. We need to understand there is no one formula for how women should lead our lives. That is why we must respect the choices that each woman makes for herself and her family. Every woman deserves the chance to realize her own God-given potential. But we must recognize that women will never gain full dignity until their human rights are respected and protected. Our goals for this conference to strengthen families and societies by empowering women to take greater control over their own destinies cannot be fully achieved unless all governments, here and around the world, accept their responsibility to protect and promote internationally recognized human rights.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: ( 10:00 ) The international community has long acknowledged, and recently reaffirmed at Vienna, that both women and men are entitled to a range of protections and personal freedoms, from the right of personal security, to the right to determine freely the number and spacing of the children they bear. No one should be forced to remain silent for fear of religious or political persecution, arrest, abuse, or torture. Tragically, women are most often the ones whose human rights are violated. Even now in the late 20th century the rape of women continues to be used as an instrument of armed conflict. Women and children make up a large majority of the world’s refugees, and when women are excluded from the political process they become even more vulnerable to abuse.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: ( 11:20 ) I believe that now on the eve of a new millennium, it is time to break the silence. It is time for us to say here in Beijing and for the world to hear that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights. These abuses have continued because for too long the history of women has been a history of silence. Even today there are those who are trying to silence our words. But the voices of this conference and of the women at Huairou must be heard loudly and clearly. It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls. It is a violation of human rights when women and girls are sold into the slavery of prostitution for human greed, and the kinds of reasons that are used to justify this practice should no longer be tolerated.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: ( 13:01 ) It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set on fire, and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small. It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their own communities, and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war. It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide among women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own homes by their own relatives. It is a violation of human rights. When young girls are brutalized by the painful and degrading practice of genital mutilation. It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions or being sterilized against their will.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: ( 14:46 ) If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all. And among those rights are the right to speak freely and the right to be heard. Women must enjoy the right to participate fully in the social and political lives of their countries if we want freedom and democracy to thrive and endure. It is indefensible that many women in nongovernmental organizations who wish to participate in this conference have not been able to attend or have been prohibited from fully taking part. Let me be clear, freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize, and debate openly. It means respecting the views of those who may disagree with the views of their governments. It means not taking citizens away from their loved ones and jailing them, mistreating them, or denying them their freedom or dignity because of the peaceful expression of their ideas and opinions.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: ( 16:23 ) In my country we recently celebrated the 75th anniversary of women’s suffrage. It took 150 years after the signing of our Declaration of Independence for women to win the right to vote. It took 72 years of organized struggle before that happened on the part of many courageous women and men. It was one of America’s most divisive philosophical wars, but it was a bloodless war. Suffrage was achieved without a shot being fired. But we have also been reminded in V-J Day observances last weekend of the good that comes when men and women join together to combat the forces of tyranny and to build a better world. We have seen peace prevail in most places for a half century. We have avoided another world war. But we have not solved older, deeply rooted problems that continue to diminish the potential of half the world’s population.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: ( 17:35 ) Now it is the time to act on behalf of women everywhere. If we take bold steps to better the lives of women, we will be taking bold steps to better the lives of children and families too. Families rely on mothers and wives for emotional support and care. Families rely on women for labor in the home. And increasingly everywhere, families rely on women for income needed to raise healthy children and care for other relatives. As long as discrimination and inequities remain so commonplace everywhere in the world, as long as girls and women are valued less, fed less, fed last, overworked, underpaid, not schooled, subjected to violence in and outside their homes, the potential of the human family to create a peaceful, prosperous world will not be realized.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: ( 18:41 ) Let this conference be our, and the world’s, call to action. Let us heed that call so we can create a world in which every woman is treated with respect and dignity, every boy and girl is loved and cared for equally, and every family has the hope of a strong and stable future. That is the work before you. That is the work before all of us who have a vision of the world we want to see for our children and our grandchildren. The time is now. We must move beyond rhetoric. We must move beyond recognition of problems to working together to have the common efforts to build that common ground we hope to see. God’s blessings on you, your work, and all who will benefit from it. Godspeed, and thank you very much.

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ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, “ADDRESS ON WOMAN’S RIGHTS” (SEPTEMBER 1848)

[1] Ladies and gentlemen, when invited some weeks ago to address you I proposed to a gentleman of this village to review our report of the Seneca Falls convention and give his objections to our Declaration, resolutions and proceedings to serve me as a text on which to found an address for this evening “the gentleman did so, but his review was so laconic that there was the same difficulty in replying to it as we found in replying to a recent sermon preached at Seneca Falls-there was nothing of it.

[2] Should that gentleman be present this evening and feel disposed to give any of his objections to our movement, we will be most happy to answer him.

[3] I should feel exceedingly diffident to appear before you wholly unused as I am to public speaking, were I not nerved by a sense of right and duty-did I not feel that the time had fully come for the question of woman’s wrongs to be laid before the public-did I not believe that woman herself must do this work-for woman alone can understand the height and the depth, the length and the breadth of her own degradation and woe. Man cannot speak for us-because he has been educated to believe that we differ from him so materially, that he cannot judge of our thoughts, feelings and opinions by his own. Moral beings can only judge of others by themselves-the moment they give a different nature to any of their own kind they utterly fail. The drunkard was hopelessly lost until it was discovered that he was governed by the same laws of mind as the sober man. Then with what magic power, by kindness and love, was he raised from the slough of despond and placed rejoicing on high land. Let a man once settle the question that woman does not think and feel like himself and he may as well undertake to judge of the amount of intellect and sensation of any of the animal creation as of woman’s nature. He can know but little with certainty, and that but by observation.

[4] Among the many important questions which have been brought before the public, there is none that more vitally affects the whole human family than that which is technically termed Woman’s rights. Every allusion to the degraded and inferior position occupied by woman all over the world, has ever been met by scorn and abuse. From the man of highest mental cultivation, to the most degraded wretch who staggers in the streets do we hear ridicule and coarse jests, freely bestowed upon those who dare assert that woman stands by the side of man-his equal, placed here by her God to enjoy with him the beautiful earth, which is her home as it is his-having the same sense of right and wrong and looking to the same Being for guidance and support. So long has man exercised a tyranny over her injurious to himself and benumbing to her faculties, that but few can nerve themselves against the storm, and so long has the chain been about her that however galling it may be she knows not there is a remedy.

[5] The present social, civil and religious condition of women is a subject too vast to be brought within the limits of one short lecture. Suffice it to say for the present, that wherever we turn the history of woman is sad and drear and dark, without any alleviating circumstances, nothing from which we can draw consolation. As the nations of the earth emerge from a state of barbarism, the sphere of woman gradually becomes wider but not even under what is thought to be the full blaze of the sun of civilization is it what God designed it to be. In every country and clime does man assume the responsibility of marking out the path for her to tread,-in every country does he regard her as a being inferior to himself and one whom he is to guide and controul. From the Arabian Kerek whose wife is obliged to steal from her Husband to supply the necessities of life,-from the Mahometan who forbids pigs dogs women and other impure animals to enter a mosque, and does not allow a fool, madman or women to proclaim the hour of prayer,-from the German who complacently smokes his meerschaum while his wife, yoked with the ox draws the plough through its furrow,-from the delectable gentleman who thinks an inferior style of conversation adapted to women-to the legislator who considers her incapable of saying what laws shall govern her, is this same feeling manifested. In all eastern countries she is a mere slave bought and sold at pleasure. There are many differences in habits, manners, and customs, among the heathen nations of the old world, but there is little change for the better in woman’s lot-she is either the drudge of man to perform all the hard labour of the field and the menial duties of the hut, tent, or house, or she is the idol of his lust the mere creature of his ever varying whims and will. Truly has she herself said in her best estate,

I am a slave, a favoured slave At best to share his pleasure and seem very blest, When weary of these fleeting charms and me,

There yawns the sack and yonder rolls the sea, What! am I then a toy for dotards play To wear but till the gilding frets away?

[6] In christian countries, boasting a more advanced state of civilization and refinement, woman still holds a position infinitely inferior to man. In France the Salic law tells much although it is said that woman there has ever had great influence in all political revolutions. In England she seems to have advanced a little- There she has a right to the throne, and is allowed to hold some other offices and some women have a right to vote too- But in the United States of America woman has no right either to hold office, nor to the elective franchise, we stand at this moment, unrepresented in this government-our rights and interests wholly overlooked.

[7] Let us now glance at some of the popular objections to this whole question. There is a class of men who believe in the natural inborn, inbred superiority both in body and mind and their full complete Heaven descended right to lord it over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, the beast of the field and last tho’ not least the immortal being called woman. I would recommend this class to the attentive perusal of their Bibles-to historical research, to foreign travel-to a closer observation of the manifestations of mind about them and to an humble comparison of themselves with such women as Catharine of Russia, Elizabeth of England distinguished for their statesmanlike qualities, Harriet Martineau and Madame de Stael for their literary attainments, or Caroline Herschel and Mary Summerville for their scientific researches, or for physical equality to that whole nation of famous women the Amazones. We seldom find this class of objectors among liberally educated persons, who have had the advantage of observing their race in different countries, climes, and under different phases, but barbarians tho’ they be in entertaining such an opinion-they must be met and fairly vanquished.

Man superior, intellectually, morally and physically.

[8] 1st Let us consider his intellectual superiority. Man’s superiority cannot be a question until we have had a fair trial. When we shall have had our colleges, our professions, our trades, for a century a comparison may then be justly instituted. When woman instead of being taxed to endow colleges where she is forbidden to enter, instead of forming societies to educate young men shall first educate herself, when she shall be just to herself before she is generous to others-improving the talents God has given her and leaving her neighbour to do the same for himself we shall not then hear so much of this boasted greatness. How often now we see young men carelessly throwing away the intellectual food their sisters crave. A little music that she may while an hour away pleasantly, a little French, a smattering of the sciences and in rare instances some slight classical knowledge and a woman is considered highly educated. She leaves her books and studies just at the time a young man is entering thoroughly into his-then comes the cares and perplexities of married life. Her sphere being confined to her house and children, the burden generally being very unequally divided, she knows nothing beside and whatever yearning her spirit may have felt for a higher existence, whatever may have been the capacity she well knew she possessed for more elevated enjoyments-enjoyments which would not conflict with these but add new lustre to them-it is all buried beneath the weight that presses upon her. Men bless their innocence are fond of representing themselves as beings of reason-of intellect-while women are mere creatures of the affections- There is a self conceit that makes the possesser infinitely happy and one would dislike to dispel the illusion, if it were possible to endure it. But so far as we can observe it is pretty much now-a-days as it was with Adam of old. No doubt you all recollect the account we have given us. A man and a woman were placed in a beautiful garden. Every thing was about them that could contribute to their enjoyment. Trees and shrubs, fruits and flowers, and gently murmuring streams made glad their hearts. Zephyrs freighted with delicious odours fanned their brows and the serene stars looked down upon them with eyes of love.

[9] The Evil One saw their happiness and it troubled him. He set his wits to work to know how he should destroy it. He thought that man could be easily conquered through his affection for the woman. But the woman would require more management. She could be reached only through her intellectual nature. So he promised her the knowledge of good and evil. He told her the sphere of her reason should be enlarged, he promised to gratify the desire she felt for intellectual improvement, so he prevailed and she did eat. Did the Evil One judge rightly in regard to man? Eve took an apple went to Adam and said “Dear Adam taste this apple if you love me eat.” Adam stopped not so much as to ask if the apple was sweet or sour. He knew he was doing wrong, but his love for Eve prevailed and he did eat. Which I ask you was the “creature of the affections”?

[10] 2nd Let us consider man’s claims to superiority as a moral being. Look now at our theological seminaries, our divinity students-the long line of descendents from our apostolic Fathers and what do we find here? Perfect moral rectitude in every relation of life, a devoted spirit of self sacrifice, a perfect union in thought opinion and feeling among those who profess to worship the one God and whose laws they feel themselves called upon to declare to a fallen race? Far from it. These persons all so thoroughly acquainted with the character of God and of his designs made manifest by his words and works are greatly divided among themselves-every sect has its God, every sect has its own Bible, and there is as much bitterness, envy, hatred and malice between these contending sects yea even more than in our political parties during periods of the greatest excitement. Now the leaders of these sects are the priesthood who are supposed to have passed their lives almost in the study of the Bible, in various languages and with various commentaries, in the contemplation of the infinite, the eternal and the glorious future open to the redeemed of earth. Are they distinguished among men for their holy aspirations-their virtue, purity, and chastity? Do they keep themselves unspotted from the world? Is the moral and religious life of this class what we might expect from minds (said to be) continually fixed on such mighty themes? By no means, not a year passes but we hear of some sad soul sickening deed perpetrated by some of this class. If such be the state of the most holy we need not pause now to consider those classes who claim of us less reverence and respect. The lamentable want of principle among our lawyers generally is too well known to need comment-the everlasting bickering and backbiting of our physicians is proverbial- The disgraceful riots at our polls where man in performing so important a duty of a citizen ought surely to be sober minded. The perfect rowdyism that now characterizes the debates in our national congress-all these are great facts which rise up against man’s claim to moral superiority.

[11] In my opinion he is infinitely woman’s inferior in every moral virtue, not by nature, but made so by a false education. In carrying out his own selfishness, man has greatly improved woman’s moral nature, but by an almost total shipwreck of his own. Woman has now the noble virtues of the martyr, she is early schooled to self denial and suffering. But man is not so wholly buried in selfishness that he does not sometimes get a glimpse of the narrowness of his soul, as compared with women. Then he says by way of an excuse for his degradation, God made woman more self denying than us, it is her nature, it does not cost her as much to give up her wishes, her will, her life even as it does us. We are naturally selfish, God made us so. No! think not that he who made the heavens and the earth, the whole planetary world ever moving on in such harmony and order, that he who has so bountifully scattered, through all nature so many objects that delight, enchant and fill us with admiration and wonder, that he who has made the mighty ocean mountain and cataract, the bright and joyous birds, the tender lovely flowers, that he who made man in his own image, perfect, noble and pure, loving justice, mercy, and truth, think not that He has had any part in the production of that creeping, cringing, crawling, debased selfish monster now extant, claiming for himself the name of man. No God’s commands rest upon man as well as woman, and it is as much his duty to be kind, gentle, self denying and full of good works as it is hers, as much his duty to absent himself from scenes of violence as it is hers. A place or a position that would require the sacrifice of delicacy and refinement of woman’s nature is unfit for man, for these virtues should be as carefully guarded in him as in her.

[12] The false ideas that prevail with regard to the purity necessary to constitute the perfect character in woman and that requisite for man have done an infinite deal of mischief in the world. We would not have woman less pure, but we would have man more so. We would have the same code of morals for both. Moral delinquencies which exclude women from the society of the true and the good should assign to man the same place. Our partiality towards man has been the fruitful source of dissipation and riot, drunkenness and debauchery and immorality of all kinds. It has not only affected woman injuriously by narrowing her sphere of action, but man himself has suffered from it. It has destroyed the nobleness, the gentleness that should belong to his character, the beauty and transparency of soul the dislike of every thing bordering on coarseness and vulgarity, all those finer qualities of our nature which raise us above the earth and give us a foretaste of the beauty and bliss, the refined enjoyments of the world to come.

[13] 3rd Let us now consider man’s claims to physical superiority. Methinks I hear some say, surely you will not contend for equality here. Yes, we must not give an inch lest you claim an ell, we cannot accord to man even this much and he has no right to claim it until the fact be fully demonstrated, until the physical education of the boy and the girl shall have been the same for many years. If you claim the advantage of size merely, why it may be that under any course of training in ever so perfect a developement of the physique in woman, man might still be the larger of the two, tho’ we do not grant even this. But the perfection of the physique is great power combined with endurance. Now your strongest men are not always the tallest men, nor the broadest, nor the most corpulent, but very often the small man who is well built, tightly put together and possessed of an indomitable will. Bodily strength depends something on the power of will. The sight of a small boy thoroughly thrashing a big one is not rare. Now would you say the big fat boy whipped was superior to the small active boy who conquered him? You do not say the horse is physically superior to the man-for although he has more muscular power, yet the power of mind in man renders him his superior and he guides him wherever he will.

[14] The power of mind seems to be in no way connected with the size and strength of body. Many men of Herculean powers of mind have been small and weak in body. The late distinguished Dr Channing of Boston was very small and feeble in appearance and voice, yet he has moved the world by the eloquence of his pen. John Quincy Adams was a small man of but little muscular power, yet we know he had more courage than all the northern dough faces of six feet high and well proportioned that ever represented us at our Capitol. We know that mental power depends much more on the temperament than the size of the head or the size of the body. I have never heard that Daniel Lambert was distinguished for any great mental endowments. We cannot say what the woman might be physically, if the girl were allowed all the freedom of the boy in romping, climbing, swimming, playing hoop and ball. Among some of the Tarter tribes of the present day the women manage a horse, hurl a javelin, hunt wild animals, and fight an enemy as well as the men. The Indian women endure fatigue and carry burthens that some of our fair faced, soft handed, mustachoed, young gentlemen would consider it quite impossible for them to sustain. The Croatian, and Wallachian women perform all the agricultural operations, (and we know what physical strength such labours require) in addition to their own domestic concerns; and it is no uncommon sight in our cities to see the German immigrant with his hands in his pockets, walking complacently by the side of his wife, whilst she is bending beneath the weight of some huge package or piece of furniture,-physically as well as intellectually it is use that produces growth and developement. But there is a class of objectors who say they do not claim superiority, they merely assert a difference, but you will find by following them up closely that they make this difference to be vastly in favour of man. The Phrenologist says that woman’s head has just as many organs as man’s and that they are similarly situated. He says too that the organs that are the most exercised are the most prominent. They do not divide heads according to sex but they call all the fine heads masculine and all the ill shaped feminine, for when a woman presents a remarkably large well developed intellectual region, they say she has a masculine head, as if there could be nothing remarkable of the feminine gender and when a man has a small head very little reasoning power and the affections inordinately developed they say he has a woman’s head thus giving all glory to masculinity.

Some say our heads are less. Some men’s are small, not they the least of men; For often fineness compensates for size; Beside the brain is like the hand and grows, With using–

[15] We, the women of this state have met in convention within the last few months both in Rochester and Seneca Falls to discuss our rights and wrongs. We did not as some have supposed assemble to go into the detail of social life alone, we did not propose to petition the legislature to make our Husbands just, generous and courteous, to seat every man at the head of a cradle and to clothe every woman in male attire, no none of these points however important they may be considered by humble minds, were touched upon in the convention. As to their costume the gentlemen need feel no fear of our imitating that for we think it in violation of every principle of beauty taste and dignity and notwithstanding all the contempt and abuse cast upon our loose flowing garments we still admire their easy graceful folds, and consider our costume as an object of taste much more beautiful than theirs. Many of the nobler sex seem to agree with us in this opinion for all the Bishops, Priests, Judges, Barristers, and Lord Mayors of the first nation on the globe and the Pope of Rome too, when officiating in their highest offices, they all wear the loose flowing robes, thus tacitly acknowledging that the ordinary male attire is neither dignified nor imposing. No! we shall not molest you in your philosophical experiments with stocks, pants, high heeled boots and Russian belt. Yours be the glory to discover by personal experience how long the knee pan can resist the terrible strapping down which you impose-in how short time the well developed muscles of the throat can be reduced to mere threads by the constant pressure of the stock, how high the heel of the boot must be to make a short man tall and how tight the Russian belt may be drawn and yet have wind enough to sustain life. Our ambition leads us neither to discovery or martyrdom of this sort.

[16] But we did assemble to protest against a form of government existing without the consent of the governed, to declare our right to be free as man is free-to be represented in the government which we are taxed to support-to have such disgraceful laws as give to man the right to chastise and imprison his wife-to take the wages which she earns,-the property which she inherits and in case of separation the children of her love-laws which make her the mere dependent on his bounty-it was to protest against such unjust laws as these and to have them if possible forever erased from our statute books, deeming them a standing shame and disgrace to a professedly republican, christian people in the nineteenth century. We met

To uplift woman’s fallen divinity Upon an even pedestal with man

[17] And strange as it may seem to many we then and there declared our right to vote according to the Declaration of the government under which we live. This right no one pretends to deny. We need not prove ourselves equal to Daniel Webster to enjoy this privilege for the most ignorant Irishman in the ditch has all the civil rights he has, we need not prove our muscular power equal to this same Irishman to enjoy this privilege for the most tiny, weak, ill shaped, imbecile stripling of 21 has all the civil rights of the Irishman. We have no objection to discuss the question of equality, for we feel that the weight of argument lies wholly with us, but we wish the question of equality kept distinct from the question of rights, for the proof of the one does not determine the truth of the other. All men in this country have the same rights however they may differ in mind, body, or estate. The right is ours. The question now is, how shall we get possession of what rightfully belongs to us. We should not feel so sorely grieved if no man who had not attained the full stature of a Webster, Van Buren, Clay or Gerrit Smith could claim the right of the elective franchise, but to have the rights of drunkards, idiots, horse-racing, rum selling rowdies, ignorant foreigners, and silly boys fully recognised, whilst we ourselves are thrust out from all the rights that belong to citizens-it is too grossly insulting to the dignity of woman to be longer quietly submitted to. The right is ours, have it we must-use it we will. The pens, the tongues, the fortunes, the indomitable wills of many women are already pledged to secure this right. The great truth that no just government can be formed without the consent of the governed, we shall echo and re-echo in the ears of the unjust judge until by continual coming we shall weary him.

[18] But say some would you have woman vote? What refined delicate woman at the polls, mingling in such scenes of violence and vulgarity-most certainly-where there is so much to be feared for the pure, the innocent, the noble, the mother surely should be there to watch and guard her sons, who must encounter such stormy dangerous scenes at the tender age of 21. Much is said of woman’s influence, might not her presence do much towards softening down this violence-refining this vulgarity? Depend upon it that places that by their impure atmosphere are rendered unfit for woman cannot but be dangerous to her sires and sons. But if woman claims all the rights of a citizen will she buckle on her armour and fight in defence of her country? Has not woman already often shown herself as courageous in the field as wise and patriotic in counsel as man? But for myself-I think all war sinful. I believe in Christ-I believe that command Resist not evil to be divine. Vengeance is mine and I will repay saith the Lord- Let frail man, who cannot foresee the consequences of an action walk humbly with his God-loving his enemies, blessing those who curse him and always returning good for evil. This is the highest kind of courage that mortal man can attain to and this moral warfare with ones own bad passions requires no physical power to achieve. I would not have man go to war. I can see no glory in fighting with such weapons as guns and swords whilst man has in his possession the infinitely superior and more effective ones of righteousness and truth.

[19] But what would you gain by voting. Man must know the advantages of voting for they all seem very tenacious about the right. Think you if woman had a voice in this government, that all those laws affecting her interests would so entirely violate every principle of right and justice? Had we a vote to give might not the office holders and seekers propose some change in woman’s condition? Might not “woman’s rights” come to be as great a question as “free soil”? But are you not already sufficiently represented by your Fathers, Husbands, Brothers and Sons. Let your statute books answer the question. We have had enough of such representation. In nothing is woman’s true happiness consulted, men like to call her an angel-to feed her with what they think sweet food nourishing her vanity, to induce her to believe her organization is so much finer more delicate than theirs, that she is not fitted to struggle with the tempests of public life but needs their care and protection. Care and protection? such as the wolf gives the lamb-such as the eagle the hare he carries to his eyrie. Most cunningly he entraps her and then takes from her all those rights which are dearer to him than life itself, rights which have been baptized in blood and the maintenance of which is even now rocking to their foundations the kingdoms of the old world. The most discouraging, the most lamentable aspect our cause wears is the indifference indeed the contempt with which women themselves regard our movement. When the subject is introduced among our young ladies among those even who claim to be intelligent and educated it is met by the scornful curl of the lip and by expressions of disgust and ridicule. But we shall hope better things of them when they are enlighted in regard to their present position, to the laws under which they live-they will not then publish their degradation by declaring themselves satisfied nor their ignorance by declaring they have all the rights they want.

[20] They are not the only class of beings who glory in their bondage. In the Turkish Harem where woman is little above the brute of the field, where immortal mind is crushed and the soul itself is as it were blotted out, where beings God has endowed with a spirit capable of enjoying the beauties which he has scattered over the broad earth-a spirit whose cultivation would fit them for a never ending existence, in those Seraglios where intellect and soul are buried beneath the sensualism and brutality which are the inevitable result of the belief in woman’s inferiority, even here she is not only satisfied with her position but glories in it. Miss Martineau in her travels in the East recently published says referring to the inmates of the Harems: Every where they pitied us European women heartily, that we had to go about travelling and appearing in the streets without being properly taken care of, that is watched. They think us strangely neglected in being left so free and boast of their spy system and imprisonment as tokens of the value in which they are held. Can women here, although her spiritual and intellectual nature is recognized to a somewhat greater degree than among the Turks, and she is allowed the privilege of being in her nursery and kitchen, and although the Christian promises her the ascendancy in Heaven as man has it here, while the Mahomedan closes the golden gates of the Celestial city tight against her-can she be content notwithstanding these good things to remain debarred from an equal share with man in the pure enjoyments arising from the full cultivation of her mind and her admission into the rights and privileges which are hers. She must and will ere long, when her spirit awakens and she learns to care less for the

Barren verbiage current among men Light coin the tinsel clink of compliment

She must and will demand

Every where

Two heads in counsel, two beside the hearth Two in the tangled business of the world Two in the liberal offices of life Two plummets dropped to sound the abyss Of science and the secrets of the mind.

[21] Let woman live as she should, let her feel her accountability to her Maker- Let her know that her spirit is fitted for as high a sphere as man’s and that her soul requires food as pure as refreshing as his-let her live first for God and she will not make imperfect man an object of reverence and idolatry- Teach her her responsibility as a being of conscience and of reason-that she will find any earthly support unstable and weak, that her only safe dependence is on the arm of omnipotence. Teach her there is no sex in mind, that true happiness springs from duty accomplished and she will feel the desire to bathe her brow heated from the struggles of an earthly existence in the cool stream that flows fresh and sparkling from the Divine fountain. She will become conscious that each human being is morally accountable for himself that no one can throw upon another his burden of responsibility, that neither Father, Husband, Brother nor son, however willing they may be, can relieve woman from this weight, can stand in her stead when called into the presence of the searcher of spirits.

[22] Methinks I hear some woman say, We must obey our Husbands!! Who says so. Why the Bible. No you have not rightly read your Bible. In the opening of the Bible at the creation of our first parents, God called their name Adam and gave them dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air and the beast of the field, but he says nothing to them about obedience to each other. After the fall after Noah came out of the ark he addresses them in like manner. The chief support that man finds in the Bible for this authority over woman he gets from the injunctions of Paul. It needs but little attention to see how exceedingly limited that command of St Paul must be even if you give it all the weight which is usually claimed for it. Wives obey your Husbands in the Lord. Now as the command is given to me, I am of course to be the judge of what is in the Lord and this opens a wide field of escape from any troublesome commands. There can be no subordination where the one to whom the command is given is allowed to sit in judgement on the character of the command. The Bible argument on this subject would afford of itself sufficient material for an entire lecture. I shall not therefore attempt to go into it at this time, enough now to say that that best of Books is ever on the side of freedom and we shrink not from pleading our cause on its principles of universal justice and love.

[23] Let me here notice one of the greatest humbugs of the day, which has long found for itself a most valuable tool in woman. The education society. The idea to me is monstrous and absurd of woman in her present condition of degradation and ignorance, forming a society for the education of young men-an order of beings above themselves-claiming to be gifted with superior powers of mind and body-having all the avenues to learning, wealth, and distinction thrown freely open to them and if they have but the energy to avail themselves of all these advantages-they can easily secure an education. Whilst woman poor and friendless robbed of all her rights, oppressed on all sides, civilly, religiously, and socially, must needs go ignorant herself-the idea of such a being working day and night with her needle stitch, stitch, stitch, (for the poor widow always throws in her mite for she is taught to believe that all she gives for the decoration of churches and their black coated gentry is unto the Lord) to educate a great strong lug of man.

[24] I think a man who under the present state of things has the moral hardihood to take an education at the hands of woman and at such an expense to her, ought as soon as he graduates with all his honours thick upon him take the first ship for Turkey and there pass his days in earnest efforts to rouse the inmates of the Harems to a true sense of their present debasement and not as is his custom immediately enter our pulpits to tell us of his superiority to us “weaker vessels” his prerogative to command, ours to obey-his duty to preach, ours to keep silence. Oh! for the generous promptings of the days of chivalry-oh! for the poetry of romantic gallantry,-may they shine on us once more-then may we hope that these pious young men who profess to believe in the golden rule, will clothe and educate themselves and encourage poor weak woman to do the same for herself-or perchance they might conceive the happy thought of reciprocating the benefits so long enjoyed by them and form societies for the education of young women of genius whose talents ought to be rescued from the oblivion of ignorance. There is something painfully affecting in the self sacrifice and generosity of women who can neither read or write their own language with correctness going about begging money for the education of men. The last time an appeal of this kind was made to me I told the young lady I would send her to school a year if she would go, but I would never again give one red cent to the education society, and I do hope every christian woman who has the least regard for her sex will make the same resolve. We have worked long enough for man and at a most unjust, unwarrantable sacrifice of self, yet he gives no evidence of gratitude but has thus far treated his benefactors with settled scorn ridicule and contempt. But say they you do not need an education as we do. We expect to shine in the great world, our education is our living. What let me ask is the real object of all education? Just in proportion as the faculties which God has given us are harmoniously developed, do we attain our highest happiness and has not woman an equal right with man to happiness here as well as hereafter and ought she not to have equal facilities with him for making an honest living whilst on this footstool?

[25] One common objection to this movement is that if the principles of freedom and equality which we advocate were put to practise, it would destroy all harmony in the domestic circle. Here let me ask how many truly harmonious households have we now? Take any village circle you know of and on the one hand you will find the meek, sad looking, thoroughly subdued wife who knows no freedom of thought or action-who passes her days in the dull routine of household cares and her nights half perchance in making the tattered garments whole and the other half in slumbers oft disturbed by sick and restless children- She knows nothing of the great world without she has no time for reading and her Husband finds more pleasure in discussing politics with men in groceries, taverns or Depots than he could in reading or telling his wife the news whilst she sits mending his stockings and shirts through many a lonely evening, nor thinks he selfish being that he owes any duty to that perishing soul, beyond providing a house to cover her head, food to sustain life and raiment to put on and plenty of wood to [burn?].

[26] As to her little world within she finds not much comfort there. Her wishes should she have any must be in subjection to those of her tyrant-her will must be in perfect subordination, the comfort of the wife, children, servants one and all must be given up wholly disregarded until the great head of the house be first attended to. No matter what the case may be he must have his hot dinner. If wife or children are sick-they must look elsewhere for care, he cannot be disturbed at night, it does not agree with him to have his slumbers broken it gives him the headache-renders him unfit for business and worse than all her very soul is tortured every day and hour by his harsh and cruel treatment of her children. What mother cannot bear me witness to anguish of this sort? Oh! women how sadly you have learned your duty to your children, to your own heart, to the God that gave you that holy love for them when you stand silent witnesses to the cruel infliction of blows and strips from angry Fathers on the trembling forms of helpless infancy- It is a mothers sacred duty to shield her children from violence from whatever source it may come, it is her duty to resist oppression wherever she may find it at home or abroad, by every moral power within her reach. Many men who are well known for their philanthropy, who hate oppression on a southern plantation, can play the tyrant right well at home. It is a much easier matter to denounce all the crying sins of the day most eloquently too, than to endure for one hour the peevish moanings of a sick child. To know whether a man is truly great and good, you must not judge by his appearance in the great world, but follow him to his home-where all restraints are laid aside-there we see the true man his virtues and his vices too.

[27] On the other hand we find the so called Hen-pecked Husband, oftimes a kind generous noble minded man who hates contention and is willing to do anything for peace. He having unwarily caught a Tarter tries to make the best of her. He can think his own thoughts and tell them too when he feels quite sure that she is not at hand, he can absent himself from home as much as possible, but he does not feel like a free man. The detail of his sufferings I can neither describe nor imagine never having been the confident of one of these unfortunate beings. Now in such households as these there may be no open ruptures-they may seemingly glide on without a ripple upon the surface-the aggrieved may have patiently resigned themselves to suffer all things with christian fortitude-with stern philosophy-but can there be harmony or happiness there? oh! no far from it. The only happy households we now see are those in which Husband and wife share equally in counsel and government. There can be no true dignity or independence where there is subordination, no happiness without freedom.

[28] Is it not strange that man is so slow to admit the intellectual power the moral heroism of woman. How can he with the page of history spread out before him doubt her identity with himself. That there have been comparatively a greater proportion of good queens than of good kings is a fact stated by several historians. “Zenobia the celebrated queen of the East, is not exceeded by any king on record, for talent, courage, and daring ambition. The Emperor Aurelian while besieging her beautiful city of Palms, writes thus: The Roman people speak with contempt of the war I am waging with a woman. They are ignorant both of the character and the power of Zenobia.” She was possessed of intellectual attainments very unusual in that age and was a liberal patron of literature and science. No contemporary sovereign is represented as capable of such high pursuits.

[29] Margaret Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, justly called the Semiramis of the north, by her talent energy, firmness and foresight raised herself to a degree of power and grandeur then unequalled in Europe. No monarch has ever rivalled Isabella of Spain in bravery sagacity political wisdom and a proud sense of honour. Yet these characteristics were united with the purest modesty and the warmest feminine affections. Ferdinand, her husband, was her inferior in mind, heart and nobility of character; but as a wife and a mother she seems to have been a more perfect model than of a queen. Her treaty with the queen of Portugal when they met on the frontiers of the two kingdoms is probably the only one of which it could be truly said: “The fair negotiators experienced none of the embarrassments usually incident to such deliberations, growing out of jealousy, distrust and a mutual desire to over reach. They were conducted in perfect good faith and a sincere desire on both sides to establish a cordial reconciliation.” Austria has produced no wiser or better sovereign than Maria Theresa to whose strength of character her nobles paid involuntary homage when they unanimously exclaimed “We will die for our King Maria Theresa.” She too was the most affectionate of wives and most devoted of mothers. “In England it was common to hear the people talk of King Elizabeth and Queen James. Catharine of Russia bears honourable comparison with Peter the Great. The annals of Africa furnish no example of a monarch equal to the brave intelligent and proud hearted Zinga, the negro Queen of Angola. Blanche of Castile evinced great ability in administering the government of France, during the minority of her son, and similar praise is due to Caroline of England, during the absence of her Husband.” What did woman not do what did she not suffer in our revolutionary struggle. In all great national difficulties her heart has always been found to beat in the right place. She has ever been loyal to her country and her tyrants. He has said it and it must be right was the remark of Josephine in her happy days, when her own judgement suggested a change of course from the one marked out to her by Napoleon, but she lived long enough to learn that her tyrant might both do and say much that was not right.

[30] It has happened more than once that in a great crisis of national affairs, woman has been appealed to for her aid. Hannah More one of the great minds of her day, at a time when French revolutionary and atheistical opinions were spreading-was earnestly besought by many eminent men to write something to counteract these destructive influences. Her style was so popular and she had shown so intimate a knowledge of human nature that they hoped much from her influence. Her village politics by Will Chip, written in a few hours showed that she merited the opinion entertained of her power upon all classes of mind. It had as was expected great effect. The tact and intelligence of this woman completely turned the tide of opinion and many say prevented a revolution, whether she did old Englands poor any essential service by thus warding off what must surely come is a question-however she did it and the wise ones of her day gloried in her success. Strange that surrounded by such a galaxy of great minds, that so great a work should have been given with one accord to a woman to do.

[31] Where was the spirit found to sustain that mighty discoverer Christopher Columbus in his dark hours of despair? Isabella of Arragon may be truly said to be the mother of this western world. It was she who continued the constant friend and protector of Columbus during her life, although assailed on all sides yet she steadily and firmly rejected the advice of narrow-minded, timid counsellors and generously bestowed her patronage upon that heroic adventurer. In all those things in which the priests had no interest and consequently did not influence her mind, she was ever the noble woman loving justice-the christian loving mercy. The persecution of the Jews and the establishment of the Inquisition cannot be said to have been countenanced by her, they were the result of priestly impudence. Torquemada the confessor of the Queen did not more fatally mislead her than do the priests of our day mislead us, the cry of heretic was not more potent in her day than that of Infidel in ours. They burned the bodies of all those who differed from them we consign their souls to Hell fire.

[32] The feeling we so often hear expressed of dislike to seeing woman in places of publicity and trust is merely the effect of custom very like that prejudice against colour that has been proved to be so truly American. What man or woman of you has a feeling of disapproval or disgust in reading the history of Joan of Arc. The sympathies of every heart are at once enlisted in the success of that extraordinary girl. Her historian tells us that when all human power seemed unavailing, the French no longer despised the supernatural aid of the damsel of Dom Remy. The last stronghold of the Dauphin Charles was besieged, the discouraged French were about to abandon it when the coming of this simple girl paralyzed the English and inspired the followers of Charles with the utmost courage. Her success was philosophical in accordance with the laws of mind. She had full faith in herself and inspired all those who saw her with the same. Let us cultivate like faith, like enthusiasm and we too shall impress all who see and hear us with the same confidence which we ourselves feel in our final success.

[33] There seems now to be a kind of moral stagnation in our midst. (Philanthropists have pulled every string. War, slavery, drunkeness, licentiousness and gluttony have been dragged naked before the people and all their abominations fully brought to light. Yet with idiotic laugh we hug these monsters to our arms and rush on. Our churches are multiplying on all sides, our Sunday schools and prayer meetings are still kept up, our missionary and tract societies have long laboured and now the labourers begin to faint-they feel they cannot resist this rushing tide of vice, they feel that the battlements of righteousness are weak against the mighty wicked, most are ready to raise the siege. And how shall we account for this state of things? Depend upon it the degradation of woman is the secret of all this woe,-the inactivity of her head and heart. The voice of woman has been silenced, but man cannot fulfill his destiny alone-he cannot redeem his race unaided, there are deep and tender chords of sympathy and love in the breasts of the down fallen the crushed that woman can touch more skillfully than man. The earth has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation, for woman has never yet stood the equal with man. (As with nations so with families. It is the wise mother who has the wise son, and it requires but little thought to decide that as long as the women of this nation remain but half developed in mind and body, so long shall we have a succession of men decrepit in body and soul, so long as your women are mere slaves, you may throw your colleges to the wind, there is no material to work upon, it is in vain to look for silver and gold from mines of copper and brass. How seldom now is the Fathers pride gratified, his fond hopes realized in the budding genius of the son-the wife is degraded-made the mere creature of his caprice and now the foolish son is heaviness to his heart. Truly are the sins of the Fathers visited upon the children. God in his wisdom has so linked together the whole human family that any violence done at one end of the chain is felt throughout its length.)

[34] Now is the time, now emphatically, for the women of this country to buckle on the armour that can best resist the weapons of the enemy, ridicule and holy horror. “Voices” were the visitors and advisers of Joan of Arc, “voices” have come to us, oftimes from the depths of sorrow degradation and despair,-they have been too long unheeded. The same religious enthusiasm that nerved her to what she deemed her work now nerves us to ours, her work was prophesied of, ours too is the fulfilling of what has long since been foretold. In the better days your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Her struggle and triumph were alike short, our struggle shall be hard and long but our triumph shall be complete and forever. We do not expect that our path will be strewn with the flowers of popular favour-that our banner which we have flung to the wind will be fanned by the breath of popular applause, no we know that over the nettles of prejudice and bigotry will be our way, that upon our banner will beat the dark stormcloud of opposition from those who have entrenched themselves behind the strong bulwark of might, of force and who have fortified their position by every means holy and unholy, but we steadfastly abide the result. Unmoved we will bear it aloft-undaunted we will unfurl it to the gale,-we know the storm cannot rend from it a shred, that the electric flash will but more clearly show to us the glorious words inscribed upon it, “Equality of rights” and the rolling thunder will be sweet music in our ears, telling us of the light [rest of line torn away] of the purer clearer atmosphere [rest of line torn away]

[35] A new era is dawn[ing upon the world,] when old might to right [must yield the battle blade] to clerkly pen, when the m[illions] now under the iron heel of [the tyrant will assert] their manhood, when woman [yielding to the] voice of the spirit within her will [demand the] recognition of her humanity, when [her soul, grown] too large for her chains, will burst th[e bands] around her set and stand redeemed regenerated and disenthralled.

The slumber is broken and the sleeper has risen The day of the Goth and the Vandal is o’er And old earth feels the tread of freedom once more

While the globe resounds with the tramping of legions who roused from their lethargy are resolved to be free or perish-while old earth reels under the crashing [of] thrones and the destruction of despotisms, hoary with age, while the flashing sunlight that breaks over us [makes] dark so much that men have before revered [and] shows that to be good that had scarcely been dreamed of-while mind is investigating anxiously so much in politics, in science, in morals, while even the Indian rejoices in the bright light and throws from him his chieftainship shall we the women of this age be content to remain inactive and to move in but a narrow and circumscribed sphere, [a] sphere which man shall assign us? Shall we forget that God has given [us the same powers and faculties] that he has conferred [on him-the same desires,] the same hopes-the same trust in immortality-that the same voice called us into being, that the same spark which kindled us into life is from the Divine and ever burning Fire-that we are responsible to Him alone for the right cultivation and employment of our minds and hearts and that it is not for man to say “Thus far shalt thou go and no far[ther].” Poor fallible man [rest of line torn away] up to him a [rest of line torn away] before him-as [word torn away]juror? while the spirit within constantly whispers, Fools! will ye look to that that cannot satisfy you. Will you waste your time and strength on lowering buckets into empty wells. Will you reverence that, that is of like nature with yourselves?

Then fear not thou to wind thy horn, Though elf and gnome thy courage scorn.

Ask for the castles King and Queen, Though rabble rout may rush between, Beat thee senseless to the ground, In the dark beset thee round, Persist to ask and it will come, Seek not for rest in humbler home So shalt thou see what few have seen The palace home of King and Queen.

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Women's Suffrage — Women Rights in the Speech by Susan B. Anthony, “On Women’s Right to Vote”

Women Rights in The Speech by Susan B. Anthony, "On Women's Right to Vote"

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Speech: UN Women: enabling, influencing, supporting and empowering

Opening statement of un women executive director sima bahous to the annual session of the executive board, june 18, 2024.

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Welcome to our Annual Session where together we consider our achievements, address pressing challenges, and ensure our best efforts toward peace, prosperity and progress for all women and girls.

I thank Executive Board President, H.E. Markova Concepción Jaramillo, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Panama to the United Nations, for her leadership as President of the Executive Board of UN Women during the first half of this year and also today.

As Her Excellency transitions to new endeavours, we recognize her invaluable contribution and unwavering commitment to our shared mission. Excellency, we look forward to working with your successor for the remainder of 2024; and wish you the best going forward.

I also thank the Vice-Presidents of the Bureau, His Excellency Mr. Jonibek Ismoil Hikmat, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Tajikistan; Her Excellency Ms. Halley Christine Yapi Bah, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Côte d’Ivoire; His Excellency Mr. Andreas Von Uexküll, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Sweden; and Her Excellency Ms. Joanna Sylwia Skoczek, Deputy Permanent Representative of Poland. I thank you all for your steadfast support.

I congratulate the President, Vice-Presidents and distinguished delegates of the Executive Board for their successful field visit to Moldova, Ukraine, and Poland. They witnessed firsthand UN Women’s work and impact in Moldova and in Ukraine.

I attended last week the Urgent Humanitarian Response Conference for Gaza – A Call for Action where UN Women brought a gender perspective to the response to a most dire situation. I welcome the recent Security Council Resolution 2735 and I hope that it will be fully implemented. The need for a permanent ceasefire, the release of all hostages, unhindered, immediate and gender-responsive humanitarian access, and an unwavering commitment to a two-state solution have never been more urgent.

The gender lens that UN Women brings to crises response is no less imperative in Ukraine, where fighting is still ongoing. Last week, at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin, we launched the Alliance for Gender-Responsive and Inclusive Recovery , working to ensure women´s voices are leading in early recovery efforts. We thank Germany and all our partners for joining the Alliance.

UN Women is proud to stay and deliver across crises contexts, even in the most dire of circumstances.

In Afghanistan, where 1000 days have passed since girls could access secondary education. 

In Sudan, where the window to act for peace narrows with each passing day.

In Haiti, Myanmar, the Sahel and Yemen and elsewhere, we continue to work towards peace in all these contexts, and more.

Where there is crisis, women step up. 

Women’s rights organizations working in the most difficult circumstances are raising their voices, drawing the world’s attention to gender-based violence and the collapse of essential services.

Crisis is never gender-neutral. But as the demands of crisis outpace our resources to respond, we must alongside recognition of vulnerability, also realize that there is no better crisis-response investment than in women´s agency, voices and leadership.

The 12 to 18 months before us may be a genuine inflection point. 

We will see the Summit of the Future, Beijing+30 and CSW69, and the 25 th anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325.

It is, I am sure, our shared ambition that Beijing+30 be a true milestone in the journey to equality. We are determined as UN Women to play our part.

We know that we cannot and will not meet that ambition with rhetoric. Let us instead be judged by results. 

We will seek to bring the spirit of the Beijing Conference to our commemorations, and to make it real and relevant to young people in particular. 

We will push for greater investment in women’s rights organizations, especially those working with the most marginalized. 

But most of all, we will hold ourselves, collectively, accountable for real change in the lives of women and girls as the only real way to commemorate 30 years of the Beijing Platform for Action. That is my challenge to you as Member States, and my challenge to us all. 

We face this challenge at a time not only of crisis but also of change.

In this year of elections, we already see new governments and political configurations taking shape. 

Citizens, and in particular women and girls, will watch in the hope that the cause of gender equality will be at the heart of these new political projects; that promises made become promises kept; that fears of pushback become realities of pushing forward; and that real progress is made.

We should feel the weight and pressure of these hopes and be ever more determined to live up to them . And we should be honest that at present we are not.

Barely half of the world’s women participate in the global workforce, compared with nearly three out of every four men.

When they do work, women earn an average 20 per cent less than men.

1 in 10 women live in extreme poverty.

614 million women and girls live in conflict-affected areas and are nearly 8 times more likely to live in poverty than men. 

In every region of the world, women and girls are more food insecure. Climate change will leave 236 million more women and girls hungry by 2030, twice as many as men.

And on average, over five women or girls are killed every hour worldwide by someone in their own family.

It really does not need to be like this. Through our shared efforts change is happening and happening now.

Earlier this year, in Chile, I met young women who, through UN Women´s partnership with the European Southern Observatory, are becoming space engineers, a field still 90 per cent male.

In Türkiye last month I saw how UN Women´s partnership with Government, civil society and the private sector in Kahramanmaras has created safe spaces for women, a community structure, community leadership opportunities, and income generation.

It is my privilege as the UN Women Executive Director to have witnessed these examples and much more. 

It is also my privilege to share my Annual Report. It provides powerful examples of the ways in which we have enabled, influenced, supported and empowered.

It describes how we carried out our coordination role in the UN system. 

From our position in the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) we ensured that some 80 per cent of humanitarian response plans included gender equality priorities.

With UN Women’s support, 80 per cent of United Nations Country Teams that developed Cooperation Frameworks in 2023 prioritized gender equality.

The Secretary-General’s Gender Equality Acceleration Plan places gender equality and women’s rights at the centre of the United Nations’ agenda and work across human rights, development, peace and security. The Plan’s success will depend on partnership and collaboration with and across the Executive Boards and more widely with Member States, civil society and other stakeholders. We look forward to working with all of you to make it a reality.

In our normative role, as a result of UN Women’s advocacy, the Security Council integrated language on women, peace, and security into 55 per cent of its resolutions in 2023.

We worked extensively with our partners to advance legal rights for women and girls. As a result, in 78 countries, 2.8 billion women and girls now have a more supportive legislative and policy environment. This included supporting the adoption, revision or repeal of 248 laws across 39 countries, home to 1.4 billion women and girls; and in 15 countries supporting the adoption of comprehensive, coordinated strategies for preventing violence against women.

UN Women helped strengthen statistical systems in 58 countries, to ensure statistical systems include the priorities of women and girls. Policies in 32 countries are now based on gender data and statistics, because of UN Women’s support. 

And over nine and a half million women, across 79 countries, including many survivors of violence and internally displaced women and refugees, accessed information, goods, resources and/or services through our programmes of cooperation.

UN Women’s Strategic Plan emphasizes the importance of the women’s movement and grassroots organizations. 

That is why, in 57 countries, UN Women directly disbursed some $110 million for their crucial work, often in the most difficult of circumstances of conflict and crises.

Generation Equality continues to drive commitments, resources, and accountability and has spurred $47 billion of investment to date.

We implemented a record of $1.09 billion over the first two years of our Strategic Plan, a testament to the confidence of our funding partners and the programme partners with whom we deliver.

85 per cent of Strategic Plan development results indicators and 78 per cent of organizational efficiency and effectiveness indicators for which we had data showed good performance in 2023.

UN Women also received a twelfth unqualified audit opinion from the United Nations Board of Auditors and met both 2022 and 2023 milestones for the implementation of internal and external audit recommendations.

Our funding partners expressed their growing trust in us with increases in both regular and other resources. 

Importantly, for only the third time since our establishment, our regular resources grew faster than other resources. 

I am grateful for this clear expression of trust and commitment to the Funding Compact and the decisions made under the Structured Dialogue in this esteemed Executive Board. 

This year, as four years ago, my Annual Report is presented alongside the headline results of our Mid-Term Review (the MTR). 

The MTR highlighted the impact of our work on leaving no one behind, social norms change, climate change, private sector engagement and technology and innovation. 

It acknowledged our achievements in coordination within the UN family but also pushed us to find even stronger incentives for joint work.

The MTR also highlighted advances in organizational efficiency and effectiveness including strengthened internal governance and risk management and control processes. At the same time, it identified the need to better deliver, measure and communicate country and global level results. 

The MTR informs our thinking as we begin the preparation of our next Strategic Plan, where we will seek, again, a major evolution in the way we implement our mandate. We look forward to working with you on this.

Since I took office nearly three years ago, you had my promise that I would ensure transparency and trust; that UN Women 2.0 would be stronger, better integrated, more efficient and effective. A part of this journey is pivoting our focus to countries and regions, including moving our personnel closer to those we serve.

We have already delegated more authority to the regional level and increased resources to our regional and country offices, and a commitment to remain compliant with our core formula.

I am pleased now to share with you the updated timeline of this process and its next steps.

Over the past several months, we have been undertaking an extensive analysis of global functions that can be potentially relocated from New York to other duty stations - that will generate efficiencies as well as greater effectiveness, being closer to our partners and in time zones covering most of our offices. 

We are also consulting with our sister agencies who have conducted similar processes and will continue to use their lessons learned in our decisions and their implementation. We intend to make significant progress in terms of decisions on relocating global functions during the course of this year, with the actual relocation expected to be completed by the end of 2025.

Communication, both with our personnel and Staff Council representatives, as well as with the Executive Board will remain an important element of this process of pivoting our focus to countries and regions. This dialogue will be intensified over the coming months as we consider how we can most effectively support results for women and girls at the country level. 

We have a busy session ahead of us with an unprecedented seven decisions to agree, covering my annual report on the strategic plan, evaluation, the ethics function, United Nations Development System reforms, preventing sexual abuse and sexual harassment, and the joint report of the JIU on governance of the Executive Boards.

I look forward to all these discussions and to arriving at productive decisions that will strengthen us in the crucial months ahead.

Our Board is our closest partner and our most honest friend. I thank you all for your partnership and for your collaboration.

It is our job, together, to conduct the business of our agenda, but also to continue to pursue the mandate we collectively hold so dear. 

We will do so into the Summit of the Future, into Beijing+30, CSW69, the 25 th anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325 next year, and the crucial acceleration of efforts to meet the 2030 Agenda and in particular SDG5. We will do so to preserve the credibility of the promises we make, and to deliver for women and girls. 

It is our job, together, to recruit voices alongside ours, so that the movement of equality grows and becomes ever more unstoppable.

And it is our job, together, to make this moment of inflection one we will collectively look back on with pride. We can, we must, and we will.

I thank you.

• Executive Board
• UN Women administration

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Breaking news, justin timberlake had ‘bloodshot, glassy’ eyes, claims to have had just ‘one martini’ before dwi bust: complaint.

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Justin Timberlake claimed to have had just “one martini’’ before being stopped by cops for alleged drunken driving in the Hamptons early Tuesday — and refused to take a Breathalyzer three times, the criminal complaint shows.

“His eyes were bloodshot and glassy, a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage was emanating from his breath, he was unable to divide attention, he had slowed speech, he was unsteady afoot, and he performed poorly on all standardized field sobriety tests,’’ the report said.

The officer added in handwritten notes in the document that the star was “very unbalanced’’ when performing required roadside tests in sneakers, such as putting his feet heel to toe and walking a straight line.

Timberlake was  “unable to follow instructions correctly,’’ too, the papers say. The cop checked boxes on the roadside sobriety-test forms to indicate Timberlake “sways while balancing,’’ “uses arms to balance’’ and “puts foot down’’ when attempting to properly complete the tasks.

“Unable to focus on speaking while looking for vehicle registration,’’ the cop added. He described Timberlake as “calm’’ through the ordeal.

Timberlake — who has admitted to grappling with “excessive drinking’’ issues in the past — had just come from the posh American Hotel on Main Street in Sag Harbor, cops said.

An officer on routine patrol outside the staid elegant landmark spotted his sleek 2025 gray BMW with Florida plates blow a stop sign and veer out of his lane around 12:17 a.m., court papers said.

The cop stopped the former boy-band star and smelled the booze on his breath along with his glassy red eyes and unsteady gait, according to the documents.

The officer “was so young that he didn’t even know” who the superstar was, a source told Page Six. “He didn’t recognize him or his name,” the source said — who was described by the cop in his report as of “small build’’ at 170 pounds and 6’1”.

The 10-time Grammy winner — who is in the middle of a world tour, including with dates in Manhattan next week — told the cop under his breath, “This is going to ruin the tour,’’ a source told The Post.

Stay updated with the latest on Justin Timberlake’s DWI bust

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• Justin Timberlake busted for DWI, other traffic violations in Sag Harbor

The cop responded, What tour?”

The singer replied, “The World Tour,” the source said — adding that Timberlake “was a gentleman.

He didn’t show any entitlement at all. He did refuse the tests, but that is his right,” the source said.

Timberlake was handcuffed and hauled off to police headquarters right around the corner, where cops tried to administer a blood-alcohol-content test about a half-hour after the 12:17 a.m. stop.

“No, I’m not doing a chemical test,’’ the star said.

About 15 minutes later, he was asked a second time to take a Breathalyzer and balked again, saying, “I refuse.’’

Cops gave it a third try a little more than 10 minutes after that, but Timberlake only repeated, “I refuse.’’ The singer, who listed his address in Franklin, Tenn., and was read his Miranda Rights at one point, was eventually transferred to the East Hampton Town Police Headquarters before being hauled to court and arraigned and released.

Timberlake was charged with driving while intoxicated and cited for allegedly running the stop sign and weaving in the car.

He has hired hot-shot lawyer Eddie Burke Jr., who happens to have an office across the street from the hotel.

Burke did not immediately return Post requests for comment.

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