3.1. Mexico 1975

Although the UN's work, as evidenced throughout this chapter, has been commendable and entailed an incessant fight for equality between women and men, it is also true that, as we have just seen, this international organisation, in its origins, did not feature an attempt to change the image of women in the media or to launch marketing campaigns to mobilise public opinion in order to promote this equality. The United Nations has undeniably bolstered these campaigns, which have increased over the course of the years and left their mark on society, but just as the fight for the establishment of legal and institutional measures has been part of this organisation's work, the "sales campaign" for them has not been as productive as might have been expected; women were still forced into the background, and their image in the world remained

Ever since it was created in 1945, the objective of the United Nations has been to guarantee equality amongst all human beings and, more specifically, between men and women. Thus, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the organisation reiterated its commitment to promoting equality amongst people without distinction of their gender. These proclama-

The Commission on the Status of Women created in 1946 was the first body in the United Nations system devoted to defending the status of women. The purpose of this Commission is to draw up recommendations and reports aimed at guaranteeing the rights of women under

However, even before the creation of the UN, at the founding summit of the League of Nations (1919), women met at what could be called the "first parallel forum of NGOs". Over the next two decades, contacts between international non-governmental organisations for women and the League of Nations increased, placing pressure on the government delegations present at several summits on essential issues for women such as health, education, peace-keeping and

It can be asserted that the earliest participation by women in the non-governmental sphere in drawing up international resolutions, conventions and declarations was in the area of labour rights, through the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The two objectives pursued by the ILO since its creation, in relation to female workers, were to protect their role as mothers and to promote equality between men and women in terms of employment. Both the contents of the conventions and the resolutions issued by the ILO have evolved from mere protection from a health and reproduction perspective, progressing towards the adoption of measures

The following conventions were issued during the years spanning from 1919 to 1970: Maternity Protection Convention (1919), Night Work (Women) Convention (1919), Underground Work (Women) Convention (1935), Equal Remuneration Convention (1951), Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention (1958), Vocational Training Convention (1962), Employment

Policy Convention (1964) and Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention (1965).

equal conditions with men in the political, economic, social, and educational spheres.

disarmament, although an adequate legal and institutional framework was lacking [7].

that of the weaker sex that needed protection and care.

82 Marketing

2. The legal defence of women's rights (1945–1970)

tions sparked intergovernmental actions taken in defence of women.

focusing on equal conditions and opportunities in employment [8].

1975 marked a turning point in the promotion of equality between men and women as the year chosen by the United Nations to be International Women's Year and, at the same time, the first World Conference on Women took place in Mexico, which assessed and reflected on the activity that the UN had carried out up to that time in terms of the promotion of women, the results of which were not very satisfactory. The organisation itself was forced to acknowledge that its mainly legal activity had not achieved much in terms of improving women's status in the world.

At this conference, a dialogue about equality between men and women was held on a global scale for the first time. Never before had the member states of the UN met to discuss agreed goals regarding gender equality, identifying obstacles and designing specific strategies to achieve such goals.

3.2. Copenhagen 1980

opportunities and adequate healthcare.

tising and the communication media.

3.3. Nairobi 1985

threats to peace.

without reaching a consensus by all the participating states.

for the future and measures to be applied at the national level.

Five years later, the states met in Copenhagen to assess the degree of achievement of the World Plan of Action of the Mexico Conference, concluding that, while progress had been made in some of the goals, legal equality between men and women had not been implemented as expected due to obstacles such as insufficient political will, lack of acknowledgement of the value of women's contribution to society, a shortage of women in decisionmaking positions, insufficient services to enable women to perform their duties in national life, few credit facilities, a shortage of financial resources in general, limited participation by men in improving the role of women in society and a lack of awareness amongst women themselves as to the available opportunities, to name a few. With the aim of assisting women in exercising the rights entitled to them by law, governments were advised to attempt to eliminate these obstacles. Three areas were established, on which the signatory states and the UN agencies were to focus their efforts for achieving the goals of the World Plan of Action over the following 5 years. These were equitable access to education, equal employment

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In the Copenhagen Programme of Action, the signatory states agreed to increase the number of national measures to guarantee women's right to own property and control assets in general, to inherit, of custody of children and to nationality. In turn, the stereotypical images held of women were to be broken down by governments through campaigns aimed at adver-

The resistance that certain official delegations displayed towards the contents of the recommendations, which were incompatible with national legislation in numerous cases and with certain cultural principles that were deeply rooted in their societies, hindered consensus. The political tensions that had already begun to surface at the Mexico Conference grew stronger. Such is the case that the discussion came to a standstill and the final document was approved

After the Conference in Copenhagen, the third United Nations World Conference was held in Nairobi (Kenya) in 1985. The strategies set in Nairobi revolve around the three cornerstones: equality, development and peace. This document identifies the obstacles found to hinder the achievement of the goals defined in the principles for the decade and draws up basic strategies

Within the subject of development, the subthemes of nutrition, water and agriculture, industry, trade and sales services, science and technology, communications, housing, settlements, development and transportation, energy, environment and social services were added to the subthemes of employment, health and education defined in Mexico. Special attention was given within the field of health to women and children under apartheid, Palestinian women and children and women in areas under the influence of armed conflicts, foreign intervention and

While, on a domestic scale, initiatives had been taken for the advancement of women, raising their participation in all spheres, the Mexico Conference gave these isolated steps forward a platform for institutional support and for implementation on a worldwide scale. The urgent need to improve women's status and the need to educate and train them to give them access to the same opportunities as men were seen at this conference.

In addition to equality, the Plan of Action of Mexico also set the goal of fully integrating women into the entire effort towards development. One of the objectives to be achieved was to increase the contribution of women to securing world peace. It was at this time that women began to be seen not just as passive victims of underdevelopment and conflicts but rather as active agents in the development and peace processes. The goals of equality, development and peace became the motto of the United Nations Decade for Women, declared by the UN at the urging of the conference for the period spanning from 1976 to 1985. The World Plan of Action outlined the fundamental goals of equality, development and peace and urged the governments of the signatory states to implement the necessary measures at national, regional and international levels to reach these goals by the end of the Decade for Women. In an effort to ensure their success, 14 minimum targets were set for the first half of the period. These included participations by women in the debates and in establishing guidelines, promotion of equal education and access thereto at all levels, highlighting the compulsory nature of primary education, reducing female unemployment rates, health, parity in exercising civil rights and the presence of women in decisionmaking bodies at local, national and international levels. The UN member states were to meet in Copenhagen in 1980 to assess the degree of achievement of these intermediate goals.

As a result of the Mexico Conference, the UN created two new bodies: the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), the purpose of which was to stimulate the advancement of women and their contribution to development through research, training and the spread of information [11], and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), which would provide financial support and technical assistance to programmes promoting human rights for women and gender equality [12]. The work done by these agencies has been extremely important in improving the status of women around the world.

The UN General Assembly approved the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979). In its 30 articles, this document outlines the measures to be implemented in order to progressively eradicate all forms of discrimination against women in political and public life, in teaching, employment, health, marriage and the family and based on nationality. It represents a compilation of all the efforts made by the United Nations to incorporate the principle of gender equality into domestic laws.
