United Nations Establishes Commission on the Status of Women
On this day, the UN established a Commission on the Status of Women.
The first U.S. representative to the Commission was Dorothy Kenyon, a longtime feminist and civil libertarian. Kenyon holds the distinction of having been the first person “named” by Senator Joe McCarthy as a Communist sympathizer in the U.S. government, which he did on March 8, 1950. The charge, like most of McCarthy’s allegations, was without foundation.
On December 18, 1979, the UN adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The U.S., however, has never ratified the Convention because of conservative opposition in the Senate.
President John F. Kennedy created the President’s Commission on the Status of Women on December 14, 1961, the first such presidential commission. The Commission delivered its report on October 11, 1963.
Learn about the history of the Commission: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/CSW60YRS/CSWbriefhistory.pdf
Read the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/
See the many Human Rights Watch reports on women’s rights: http://www.hrw.org/publications/reports?topic=681®ion=All