Women's Rights Are Human Rights

Speech

By: Hilary Rodham Clinton

Date: September 5, 1995

Source: Clinton, Hilary Rodham. "Women's Rights Are Human Rights." Remarks to the United Nation's Fourth World Conference on Women. September 5, 1995.

About the Author: Hilary Rodham Clinton was the fortysecond First Lady of the United States. She has been married to former President Bill Clinton since 1975. Clinton earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Wellesley College and a law degree from Yale University. Before becoming First Lady, she was a prominent lawyer in Arkansas, and she was the First Lady there when her husband was Governor. In 2000, Clinton won the New York Senate race, and she continues to serve in the U.S. Senate.

INTRODUCTION

In 1995, Hilary Rodham Clinton spoke before the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. Her speech "Women's Rights Are Human Rights" addressed issues that have concerned women for centuries. In the tradition of second and third-wave feminism, Clinton did not place blame for the weak placement of women in politics and business. Instead, she called for collective actions by world governments.

Her speech, which called for women "to come together" the way they do "every day in every country," reflected the politics of the 1990s. The decade began with Sadam Husein's invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent deployment of United States troops to the region. In 1993, U.S. troops were sent to Somalia to overthrow the warlord General Adid, in 1994, Haiti saw itself overrun by a military dictatorship, in 1996, a NATO peace keeping force sent troops to Bosnia, and in 1999, NATO sent air strikes on Yugoslavia to prevent genocide in Kosovo. These international acts of force and cohesion with the sending of joint world troops, represented a world community demanding the equal and fair treatment of individuals. Media coverage from Somalia, the Middle East, and Kosovo showed women in subjugation. In some instances, they were required to cover their entire bodies with fabric, were flogged and stoned in public, and raped and brutalized.

In conjunction with international politics, before and after Clinton's speech, other areas of political debate give poignancy and pertinence to her words. The 1995 Glass Ceiling Commission reported, in November, that women still held fewer positions of power in the U.S. and world markets, and in 1991, Anita Hill testified before the U.S. Senate about acts of sexual harassment. Also, in 1991, the U.S. Navy endured the Tailhook scandal, in which several female Naval officers made public claims of sexual misconduct by fellow male Navy officers. In addition to these events, Clinton's husband came under fire for alleged acts of sexual misconduct. Initially, he was deemed not guilty of these actions, but in 1998, an impeachment trial occurred against the President. Here, a former White House intern acknowledged having sexual relations with the President. The impeachment trial did not remove Clinton from office, and the Clinton's kept their marriage intact, but the issues of women and their relation to men in power dominated media attention throughout the decade.

These continual actions concerning male and female behavior perplexed much of the American public, and the international community. In Hilary Clinton's United Nation's address she indirectly and directly addressed these concerns by asking men and women to come together for the benefit of the larger community—issues of family, education, health care, employment, and basic rights and enjoyments of life.

PRIMARY SOURCE

I would like to thank the Secretary General of the United Nations for inviting me to be a part of the United Nations Fourth World Conference of Women. This is truly a celebration—a celebration of the contributions women make in every aspect of life: in the home, on the job, in their communities, as mothers, wives, sisters, daughters, learners, workers, citizens and leaders.

It is also a coming together, much of the way women come together every day in every country.

We come together in fields and in factories. We come together in village markets and supermarkets. We come together in living rooms and board rooms.

Whether it is while playing with our children in the park, or washing clothes in a river, or taking a break at the office water cooler, we come together and talk about our aspirations and concern. And time and again, our talk turns to our children and our families. However different we may be, there is far more that unites us than divides us. We share a common future, and are here to find common ground so that we may help bring new dignity and respect to women and girls all over the world. By doing this, we bring new strength and stability to families as well.

By gathering in Beijing, we are focusing world attention on issues that matter most in the lives of women and their families: access to education, health care, jobs and credit, the chance to enjoy basic legal and human rights and participate fully in the political life of their countries.

There are some who question the reason for this conference.

Let them listen to the voices of women in their homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces.

There are some who wonder whether the lives of women and girls matter to economic and political progress around the globe.

Let them look at the women gathered here and at Huairou—the homemakers, nurses, teachers, lawyers, policymakers, and women who run their own businesses.

It is conferences like this that compel governments and people everywhere to listen, look, and face the world's most pressing problems.

Wasn't it after the women's conference in Nairobi ten years ago that the world focused for the first time on the crisis of domestic violence?

Earlier today, I participated in a World Health Organization forum, where government officials, NGOs, and individual citizens are working on ways to address the health problems of women and girls.

Tomorrow, I will attend a gathering of the United Nations Development Fund for Women. There, the discussion will focus on local—and highly successful—programs that give hard-working women access to credit so they can improve their own lives and the lives of their families.

What we are learning around the world is that if women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. If women are free from violence, their families will flourish. If women have a chance to work and earn as full and equal partners in society, their families will flourish.

And when families flourish, communities and nations will flourish.

That is why every woman, every man, every child, every family, and every nation on our planet has a stake in the discussion that takes place here.

SIGNIFICANCE

Hilary Clinton's speech before the United Nation's shows the continual struggle of women in the world community. Even though most developed nation's have granted women the right to vote, obtain higher education, and complete and hold the same jobs as men, women in many developing nations have not achieved equality. For example, over half of all women in the Arab world are unable to read, are unable to vote or own property, and face severe restrictions in dress and movement. In parts of Asia and Africa, a growing number of young women (and female children) are kidnapped, taken far from their homes, and forced into marriage or to work in sweatshop factories, as prostitutes, or domestic servants. Organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch work to document and expose such practices and to publicize the need for laws and cultural change to prevent them.

The World Health Organization also estimates that over 500,000 women still die in childbirth every year due to lack of access to adequate medical facilities and maintains that every pregnant woman has the right to basic education about childbirth, a clean environment to deliver her child, and skilled care during pregnancy and birth. Among it's Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations lists maternal health and women's human rights as two of the world's eight most important targets for significant improvement by the year 2015.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Clinton, Hilary Rodham. Living History. New York: Scribner, 2004, reprint.

Cook, Rebecca J. Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives. Philidelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994.

Peters, Julie Stone and Andrea Wolper, eds. Women's Rights, Human Rights; International Feminist Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 1994.

Web sites

Amnesty International USA. "Women's Human Rights." 〈http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/index.do〉 (accessed April 13, 2006).

Human Rights Watch. "Women's Rights." 〈http://www.hrw.org/women/〉 (accessed April 13, 2006).