WOMEN, GENDER, AND HUMAN RIGHTS: A Global Perspective

The 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights expresses the credo that all human beings are created free and equal. But not until 1995 did the United Nations declare women’s rights to be human rights and bring gender issues into the global arena for the first time. “Women, Gender, and Human Rights” is the first collection of essays encompassing a wide range of women’s issues, including political and domestic violence, education, literacy, and reproductive rights. Most of the essays were written expressly for this volume by internationally known experts in the fields of government, bioethics, medicine, public affairs, literature, history, anthropology, law, and psychology.

Marjorie Agosín is an award-winning poet and recipient of the United Nations Leadership Award for Human Rights (1999) and the Gabriella Mistral Medal of Honor (2000). She is Professor of Spanish at Wellesley College. Among her most recent books are “A Map of Hope: Women’s Writing on Human Rights” and The “Alphabet in My Hands, ” both published by Rutgers University Press.