The women’s rights era: 50 years of gender equality advocacy and reform across the globe

Professor Jennifer Piscopo
Department of Politics and International Relations

The year 2025 marks the 50-year anniversary of the First World Conference on Women in Mexico City. The conference energized a global women’s rights movement, which spent the ensuing decades fighting for gender equality. They won significant victories. Yet the women’s rights community is today less ebullient. Not all reforms materially improved women’s lives. And contemporary democratic backsliding imperils all gains, as autocrats worldwide cast women from power and unravel gender equality.

This lecture assesses 50 years of gender equality advocacy and reform, arguing for hope against despair. Women and their men allies changed policy and practice: they wrote laws and filed legal briefs; they marched and demonstrated; and they entered politics and government in record numbers. They understood their efforts as necessary but insufficient steps towards building more gender-equal polities. Advocacy and reform remain tools of transformation and resistance. The women’s rights era demonstrates what has been accomplished—and what remains to be done.

Inaugural Lecture

Admission is free but booking is essential.