Decade for Women Information Resources #5: Images of Nairobi, Reflections and Follow-Up, International Women’s Tribune Center

After originally declaring 1975 “International Women’s Year,” concerns over the strategic global challenges facing women led the United Nations to expand the period, creating the “United Nations Decade for Women” from 1975 to 1985. Throughout this time, sundry organizations, communities, and nations joined forces with the UN to organize, direct energy and resources toward women’s struggles, and unite in global conferences in Mexico City and Copenhagen (United Nations 1985, 3). From the beginning, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were instrumental in this work and after the first International Conference of Women in 1975, global NGOs sought to stay connected in their individual efforts (Walker 2004, 91–92). Thus, a group of women founded the International Women’s Tribune Center (IWTC) to provide resources, toolkits, and methods of connecting networks of global activists (Walker 2004, 91–92). By 1985, the IWTC partnered with the UN to provide resources for the third and culminating International Women’s Conference and NGO Forum, which took place in Nairobi, Kenya (Walker 2004, 93).

The Conference and Forum of July 1985 brought women from around the world to discuss, theorize, present, and reimagine solutions to women’s issues. Though the original plan was to reflect upon the actions taken toward the goals set for the previous decade, the conference and forum brought up many new ideas and methods for reaching solutions, notably new uses of technology and media (Okello-Orlale 2006, 49–50). The various discussions led the participants to create a concrete list of further actions to enact in their communities called the “Forward Looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women Towards the Year 2000” (Walker 2004, 95–96). Furthermore, the conference brought issues that had previously been underrepresented or ignored in the women’s movement to the forefront; for the first time in a UN meeting, the concerns of lesbian women were discussed.

Another underrepresented issue addressed in the conference were challenges specific to African women. The location of the conference in 1985 not only allowed African women to play a key role in organizing the conference, forum, and activities surrounding it, but the accessibility of the location enabled women from many African nations to attend the conference and lead activities and workshops (NGO Committee 1985, 2). Through this, African feminists were able to express their concerns to the wider community and connect with both national and international activists and groups. These connections led to organization-building after the conference and challenged other attendees’ often stereotypical, colonial, and/or racist conceptions of African women and their experiences.

The following excerpts come from a document created by the IWTC a year after the 1985 Conference and Forum. They present the main ideas and discussions of the Nairobi conference to the global network fighting for women’s rights. The IWTC deliberately used images and drawings for accessibility, promoting the main takeaways of the conference to a wider audience (Walker 2004, 93). Beyond illustrating the core ideas, the pamphlet also provides a view of contemporaneous reactions to the meeting. Together, these excerpts of the document allow us to ponder the effects of the conference on both African and global feminisms. They also challenge individuals to consider the gains achieved and struggles remaining since the meeting in 1985. All images are from the Decade for Women Information Resources #5: Images of Nairobi, July 1986, International Women’s Tribune Centre. From the International Women’s Tribune Centre Records, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College (Northampton, Massachusetts).