ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the groundbreaking work of political women who have chosen international and transnational terrains as their sites for activism, advocacy, and governance. It begins with an international focus, examining how women diplomats worked within the United Nations to secure international agreements to recognize and promote women's rights. The chapter examines the complex international politics that structured the Cold War era and the challenges they posed to efforts to promote women's rights. It traces how transnational women activists challenged male-dominant governments' claims to represent women or women's interests at the UN World Conferences on Women and in the process created new political spaces for women—vibrant global nongovernmental forums. Moving from insider tactics to outsider tactics, the chapter concludes with a discussion of transnational women activists' efforts to address some of the world's most intractable issues—poverty, dispossession, and war—by reconceptualizing peace and security.
