International women's year

That was the year that was

Nancy Allum

What did International Women's Year really amount to? There are those who pretend that nothing happened, that the whole thing was a non-event. Others who lead a less blinkered existence are aware that there was enormous activity in this country and in many other parts of the world.

The Women's National Commission lists more than 550 events which took place last year in the United Kingdom in celebration, and in support of the declared aims which were 'Equality, Development and Peace'. The message has finally penetrated, it seems, that votes have no sex and women, still comparative newcomers to political power, are at last worth wooing. The fact that the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, Ministers, Shadow Ministers, Lord Mayors, Mayors, Lord Provosts, Provosts, other dignitaries and everybody who is anybody attended these functions shows the extent to which this is true.

All the national political parties have shown their awareness. Let me pick out a few events from the ,list to illustrate this. The National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations held a conference on 'Women and Power' at which Mrs Thatcher spoke, and the Prime Minister gave an IWY reception. The Women's Liberal Federation of Cheltenham held a two-day International Council and the Communist Party held public discussions in various parts of the country.

And activity has been widespread as the following selection from the list shows. An exhibition of 'Women in Scotland' was held in Aberdeen, a seminar on the IWY theme was held in Belfast, and in Cardiff the Lord Mayor received a petition for equal rights for women. Manchester and Salford held an IWY exhibition and festive procession, Aylesbury held an International Fayre, Birmingham held an IWY forum, Portsmouth held an IWY festival of sport and Torbay held a garden party. Wandsworth gave IWY concerts by folk artistes and a Viennese Ladies Orchestra, and South Shields held an IWY pageant. Many towns held ecumenical services. The League of Jewish women held a three-day seminar, the Salvation Army held a rally, the Methodist Missionary Society held a pageant and the Federation of Women Zionists, too, celebrated with a rally.

Apart from the roles played by the political parties and the religious and professional groups, who have been the other main sources of power and funds behind these meetings? Contrary to what one might imagine from clamourings. and slogans from some of the noisier organisations, the long-term impetus has come from the austere, massive, industrious, organised, highly structured and longestablished women's organisations of this country such as the Women's Institutes (nearly: half a million members), the Townswomen's Guilds, the Mothers' Union (world membership of 330,000) and the Women's Royal Voluntary Service. These organisations, with others which bring the total up to 100, come under the umbrella of the National Council of Women of Great Britain. Other organisations through their experience and dedication have done much to help the cause, organisations such as the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs with 20,000 members, Soroptimists Internaional of Great Britain with 12,000 and the British Federation of University Women with 6,000 and the much revered Fawcett Society which derives from the London Society of Women's Suffrage of 1866.

But it has not been only hard work and plodding that have achieved the present climate. There have been, as we all know, flashier, bra-burning moments. The out-andout women's libbers, the self declared manhaters, the moderate women's libl ,rs who are all for women's rights but who z. 'soft' on babies and the family circle, tie utterly confused and the perpetually disgruntled have attracted virulent counter-attacks through some of their wilder blandishments. But on the whole the various streams of the movement do not interfere with each other and sometimes even unite. The Fawcett Society, for instance, although sticking strictly to its own path pays tribute to the Women's Lib movement in a recent declaration of its own aims stating that Women's Lib's "grass roots questioning of basic attitudes, the dynamism and its new perceptions have done a lot to prepare the ground" for the phase which the Society sees as following the equal pay and the sex discrimination legislation.

The result of all this is that there can hardly be a home in Britain where the Women's Lib movement has not been the subject of fierce argument. Many employers are uncomfortably. conscious that women are missing from their higher echelons and the brighter administrators of large organisations are gloomily aware that their future is full of problems of the most intractable kind. Adjustment between the

numbers of women and men in jobs will often. be necessary but all movements will be close/Y. watched by both sides who stand armed to the teeth and ready. for battle. There will be a

frantic search, in a not too flagrant manner, for instant super-women who can be snatched from the ranks, put among the leaders at the headquarters and be shown to be there. Overseas, the eye of the storm, as one might say, has been Mexico City, Mexico, where the World IWY Conference was held from June 19 to July 2. The United Kingdom sent a delegation of ten members led by Dr Shirley

Summerskill, Parliamentary Under-SecretarY

of State, Home Office, and Mrs Millie Miller, MP. The delegation went armed with an offer from the British Government to contribute

£200,000 a year for three years from JanuarY 1, 1976, for the purpose of providing additional

resources for women who live in rural areas in the poorest countries, an offer described as one of the most practical proposals made during the conference. One hundred and thirty-six nations were represented at government level, and eighty-two nations sent representatives from

non-government organisations. Ten thousand women from all over the world gathered together to discuss common concerns. The practical difficulties were many since there were, in fact, two conferences, the official ooe held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,

Tlatelolco, and the Tribune one (for leading women from all over the world) held in the Medical Centre, five miles away. The official conference adopted a World Plan of Action for the advancement of women;

a 'Declaration of Mexico' on the equality 01 women and thirty-four resolutions aimed at improving rights and opportunities for Women Accounts tell of herculean struggles to keel) at, bay the international political forces that ten' to flood in and submerge all international platforms of this kind, and of the more mundane problems created by lack of adequate translation facilities, poor seating :-..t:commoda tion, struggles to travel from one conference to the other and the almost impos.,ible task. of

locating anyone. Nonetheless those attending it, sturrn und drang notwithstanding, seem te have found that it was all worth while.

Millie Miller and Janet Cockcroft, a member of the UK delegation, reported as follows in the magazine Women Speaking: "This was an historic event. Never before had a world conference been called together to discuss the problems of women, and the conference opened

in scenes of considerable excitement under the glare of TV cameras and the scrutiny of an estimated 1,300 journalists, This atmosphere

carried through into the sessions of the conference boosted by the seemingly endless

messages from national lea iers, the ballyhoo of visits from 'celebrities', and then by lengthY statements of each state's policies on the advancement of women, which lasted almost throughout the Conference."

But that is by no means the end of it all. The Prime Minister's reception was given, it was stated, to mark the end of IWY. He may have

had, I thought, some pleasure at contemplating this prospect. But the World Plan of Action,

agreed at the Mexico Conference, calls for

national action over the ten-year period from 1975 to 1985 as part of a sustained, long-terrd

effort to achieve the objectives of IWY. Women and the sex-equality industry are here to staY No doubt the more perspicacious among our

readers have already spotted that this decad.e includes the ominous year of 1984. Be that as it may, January 1, 1976, starts the International Women's Decade!