Exhibition

The United Nations designated 1975 as International Women’s Year and hosted the first Conference on Women in Mexico City centred around the themes of equality, peace and development. It was the beginning of the UN Decade for Women with subsequent conferences held in Copenhagen in 1980 and Nairobi in 1985 followed by a final gathering in Beijing in 1995 to see what had been achieved and what still needed to be done.

A poster promoting the UN Decade for Women. It includes colourful shapes and a white dove featuring the female symbol.

The UN Decade for Women marked a seminal moment in the broader history of the global women’s movement where new ideas about women’s civil and political rights, development, solidarity, sisterhood, colonialism, decolonisation, racism, neo-colonialism, neoliberalism, and the global economy emerged.

This exhibition draws on the collections of The Women’s Library at LSE to highlight the promises, challenges, and critiques of the UN Decade for Women and the wider histories and legacies of transnational feminisms that grew from 1975 and still exist today. A wide variety of materials are displayed from posters, photographs, books and badges to show the complexity of transnational feminisms and the diverse array of individuals and organisations that were, and remain, part of this on-going global movement.

A poster with a red fist and the female symbol merged together.

Curated by Dr Imaobong Umoren (LSE Department of International History) and Dr Gillian Murphy (LSE Library).

Podcast and blogs

Listen to Dr Imaobong Umoren talk about the networking organisation DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era) which was founded because of the UN Decade for Women 1975-1985.
Explore some of the diverse voices and groups that attended the UN World Conferences on Women from 1975 to 1985. Read Women of the World Unite - 50 Years of UN Women.
Explore what some lesbians did at the Beijing World Conference on Women in 1995. Read Lesbians take on the United Nations.