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In one corner of the grassy Great Court, which served as a gathering place for the lunchtime throngs, Saudi Arabian women lectured on a feminist interpretation of the Koran. In another, a black American conga drummer from Harlem spontaneously threw up her arms and shouted to the assembly, "You have changed my life!" In yet another, a raven-haired Bolivian in a felt bowler talked excitedly to a veiled woman from the Western Sahara. Each day at noon, Betty Friedan conducted an informal seminar in the cool shade of a fig tree. And nearby, a dozen black-robed Iranian women assembled on the green to argue the merits of Islamic fundamentalism. Gesturing toward a group of bare-faced Westerners, the Iranians' male guardian commented, "They think these women are bodies without souls."
Underlying the celebratory tone was the fact that women's gains over the Decade, while uneven, have been encouraging. Women's literacy, life expectancy and level of schooling are up worldwide. In Africa, which has the globe's highest illiteracy rate, the percentage of women who can read and write grew from 18% to 27% between 1970 and 1980, and is expected to jump to 40% by 1990. "Education was only a word 15 or 20 years ago," said Barbadian Dame Nita Barrow, who organized the NGO forum. "Now you see women holding positions in banking, in their communities, women in authority in their villages." Aiding this shift in some small measure are two programs set up at the start of the Decade: the U.N. Development Fund for Women, which funnels $3.5 million annually into self-help projects for Third World women, and the Women's World Banking, a $4 million fund providing financial education and loan guarantees for female entrepreneurs.
Women have also made strides in the legal arena. Since 1980, 80 nations have ratified the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, a legally binding document that commits countries to achieve equal political, social and economic rights for women. With some notable exceptions, such as the U.S. and most Muslim nations, a majority of countries have established constitutional and legal equality between women and men. The number of countries with equal-pay laws has zoomed from 28 to 90 since 1978.
One by-product of the Decade has been an explosion in research on women. The numbers and graphs not only visibly describe change, but also have helped transform attitudes. "There were such appalling and unexpected facts," said Vina Mazumdar, director of the Center for Women's Development Studies in New Delhi. "The picture was so against the professed attitude of our political system."