ABSTRACT
At the San Francisco Conference, Gildersleeve came into conflict with the feminist agenda of the Latin American women delegates, headed by Minerva Bernardino of the Dominican Republic—a politician who at that time was President of the Inter-American Commission of Women—and Bertha Lutz from Brazil—who had started a women’s movement for political rights in Brazil. At the conference, the Latin American women delegates were supported by lobby organizations on women’s rights and by the socialist Australian delegate Jessie Street. On the agenda for Bernardino and Lutz were the equal rights of women to hold positions in the United Nations, inclusion of a mention of non-discrimination based on sex, and the establishment of a Commission on the Status of Women. Gildersleeve opposed all three suggestions, as she thought that the Charter should contain a proper language use with wordings such as ‘all men.’
