**Marketing and Society**

**Chapter 5**

Provisional chapter

**The Progress of the United Nations in Empowerment**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.76302

In this chapter, the authors examine the work done by the United Nations to improve the status of women from its origin until 1995, when the fourth and final United Nations World Conference on Women took place. The study shall be divided into three periods. The first spans the era of legal defence of women's rights. The second period begins with the turn of events spurred by the Programme of Concerted International Action for the Advancement of Women in 1970 and continues with the proclamation of the United Nations' International Women's Year in 1975 and the United Nations Decade for the Advancement of Women (1975–1985). Over this 10-year period, three conferences were held: the one that took place in Mexico (1975), the one in Copenhagen (1980) and finally the one in Nairobi (1985). The third period takes a look at the Beijing Conference (1995) and the unprecedented advances it brought about in terms of equality. While the work done by the United Nations was undeniably valuable, as shown in this study, its efforts were not accompanied by marketing work that would have enabled it to make a greater

The Progress of the United Nations in Empowerment

**and Equality for Women**

and Equality for Women

Carmen de la Calle Maldonado and

Carmen de la Calle Maldonado and

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76302

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

impact on the international public opinion.

Keywords: woman, United Nations, equality, empowerment, marketing

1. Introduction: the image of women and the fight for equality

After the end of World War II and the failure of the League of Nations, in 1945 the International Community gave its approval for the creation of the United Nations, an organisation established to ensure world peace and security. From the outset, this institution has insisted upon the importance of the communication media in development and cooperation between

> © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and eproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Pilar Gimenez Armentia,

Pilar Gimenez Armentia,

Sonia González Iglesias

Sonia González Iglesias

Abstract

#### **The Progress of the United Nations in Empowerment and Equality for Women** The Progress of the United Nations in Empowerment and Equality for Women

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.76302

Pilar Gimenez Armentia, Carmen de la Calle Maldonado and Sonia González Iglesias Pilar Gimenez Armentia, Carmen de la Calle Maldonado and Sonia González Iglesias

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76302

#### Abstract

In this chapter, the authors examine the work done by the United Nations to improve the status of women from its origin until 1995, when the fourth and final United Nations World Conference on Women took place. The study shall be divided into three periods. The first spans the era of legal defence of women's rights. The second period begins with the turn of events spurred by the Programme of Concerted International Action for the Advancement of Women in 1970 and continues with the proclamation of the United Nations' International Women's Year in 1975 and the United Nations Decade for the Advancement of Women (1975–1985). Over this 10-year period, three conferences were held: the one that took place in Mexico (1975), the one in Copenhagen (1980) and finally the one in Nairobi (1985). The third period takes a look at the Beijing Conference (1995) and the unprecedented advances it brought about in terms of equality. While the work done by the United Nations was undeniably valuable, as shown in this study, its efforts were not accompanied by marketing work that would have enabled it to make a greater impact on the international public opinion.

Keywords: woman, United Nations, equality, empowerment, marketing
