1975 - 'Not a year, but a lifetime for women' How Dutch engagement with 'women and development' questions took off

The article looks at the significance of the International Women’s Year (IWY) 1975 for the development of Dutch policy on development-related gender equality issues. It analyses how the route to the IWY World Conference and Women’s Tribune in Mexico City was marked by power struggles in and around the United Nations (UN), amongst member states, and between national governments and women’s organisations, in a geopolitical context of the Cold War and Global North–South divisions. The article discusses how, despite little initial enthusiasm for the IWY amongst the Dutch government and feminist groups, engagement with IWY generated a new momentum for national and international policy advocacy that was to come to fruition after 1975.