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Acknowledgments The historical journey this volume has taken us on has been a revelation to us. We have come full circle—from skepticism of, if not downright scoffing at, the UN to a true admiration of its value, and when we dedicate it to this hoary institution, it is now with the sincerity of knowledge. For giving us this learning, this enrichment, we thank the directors of the UNIHP project: Louis Emmerij, Richard Jolly, and Thomas G. Weiss, as well as Nancy Okada, the administrator, and Senior Researcher Tatiana Carayannis. I use the term “we” in this acknowledgment, as we were a team with Shubha Chacko, who was my research assistant for the first phase, and C. P. Sujaya, who came in as consultant periodically, both of whom made invaluable contributions to the volume, and M.V. Jagadeesh and Perce Bloomer, who provided sustained multiple supports throughout. Kate Babbitt, my scholar-historian-editor, introduced me to the extraordinary powers of editing—the book certainly went up the scale of quality with her touch. E. S. Reddy, former director of the United Nations Centre against Apartheid , initiated me into the values and hardships of archival research and provided me with the richest of material. To all these partners, who enabled the threads of this history to emerge as a woven fabric,wrapping sixty years of world history into a book, my first debt of gratitude. We could not have managed this book, known how to contain such a vast canvas within the bounds of one volume, without the lived experience of the feminist movement, local, national, and worldwide. This is what has charged our batteries and given us the knowledge base from which we grew to learn what we hope we have been able to share in this volume. A host of persons and agencies have provided the material and the advice for this book at different times and in a variety of ways. Some read the early texts, in parts or as a whole. Some gave short interviews which gave both historical glimpses and tips on where to find material. Some gave outlines for chapters on themes and others wrote short essays on a topic. Some of these friends are listed here. They include some who were asked by the project to read the penultimate xxi Acknowledgments xxii draft and others who read an even earlier draft as friends: Joan Anstee, Lourdes Arizpe, Rawwida Baksh-Sooden, Rasil Basu, Susan Beresford, Charlotte Bunch, Marty Chen, Gordon Conway, Radhika Coomaraswamy, Shanti Dairian, Viru Dayal,Sissel Ekaas,Diane Elson,Monica Fong,Ruchira Gupta,Caroline Hannan, Noeleen Heyzer, Hameeda Hossain, Kareen Jabre, Renana Jhabvala, Ammu Joseph ,Angela King,Sunanda and J.Krishnamurty,Annali Kristiansen,Shiv Kumar, Yianna Lambrou,Lin Lim,Amina Mama,John R.Mathiason,Claire Moses,Achan Mungleng, Madhubala Nath, Sakiko F. Parr, Meera Pillai, Elizabeth Prügl, Kala Ramesh, Shahra Razavi, Amy Richards, Nafis Sadik, Joanne Sandler, Hema Sarathy, Kalyani Menon Sen, Kamlesh Sharma, Andrea Menefee Singh, Claire Slatter, Margaret Snyder, Gloria Steinem, Ann Tickner, Kristen Timothy, Joanne Vanek, Sarita Vellani, Marcel Villarreal, Ann Walker, Jennifer Whittaker. A big thank-you to each of you. To someone who bore the brunt of this home-based work and played the multiple roles of researcher, reader, hand-holder, and cheerleader, my husband, Lakshmi Jain, my love. Devaki Jain Bangalore December 2004 ...

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