The Inter-American Commission of Women (Spanish: Comisión Interamericana de Mujeres, Portuguese: Comissão Interamericana de Mulheres, French: Commission interaméricaine des femmes), abbreviated CIM,[note 1] is an organization that falls within the Organization of American States.
Stevens worked with Alice Paul of the National Woman's Party of the United States to review and prepare a report evaluating how women were effected by various laws.
She met with Dr. Luisa Baralt of Havana, Dr. Ellen Gleditsch of Oslo, Chrystal Macmillan and Sybil Thomas, Viscountess Rhondda of the UK, the Marquesa del Ter of Spain, Maria Vérone of France and Hélène Vacaresco of Romania, as well as various officers of the International Federation of University Women and others.
[9] As a result, the governing body of the Pan American Union created the Inter-American Commission of Women at their meeting in Havana on 4 April 1928.
[10] The headquarters of the CIM were to be located in Washington DC in the offices of the Pan-American Union, but there was no organized staff and only some of the women had the backing of their governments.
The conference considered and rejected the proposed Treaty on the Equality of Rights for Women, though it was signed by Cuba, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Uruguay.
The first, which was actually aimed at wresting control of CIM from Doris Stevens, proposed reorganizing the Inter-American Commission of Women, making it permanent and giving each government the means to appoint their own "official" representative.
The Peruvian women, couched their plea for suffrage in terms of protection of traditional values of the church, the family, charity and honor.
[25] In November 1939, the CIM headquarters were moved to Buenos Aires and the chairmanship of the organization passed from Winslow[26] to Ana Rosa de Martínez Guerrero of Argentina.
[21] During the 1940s United States' backing of women's political rights supported the emancipation goals of the CIM, which increasingly called for its delegates to adopt proactive roles for suffrage.
The 1944 assembly included women delegates from 19 of the 21 member countries of the Pan-American Union and 1945 saw Guatemala and Panama granting enfranchisement, followed by Argentina and Venezuela in 1947.
[27] In October 1945, the CIM delegation successfully moved that the phrase "the equal rights of men and women" be inserted into the United Nations Charter, citing the precedent of the 1938 Lima Declaration.
[29] With the Conference approval for the creation of the Organization of American States, the CIM was brought under its umbrella and became an international forum for bringing women's issues into public discourse.
[30] The decades from the 1960s to the 1990s also saw the additions of the Nations of the Caribbean gaining their independence, joining the OAS and sending women delegates to the CIM.
[32] Canada joined as an observer member in 1972, and the focused changed from voting rights to protections against violence, and for health and employment programs.
[31] By the 1970s gender perspectives had emerged with a recognition of gender-bias in terms of cultural, social and historical construction based on the biological basis of sex.
There was recognition that biological sex itself does not create disparity, but rather the perceived differences of gender roles as defined by cultures and social tradition.
Thirty-three of the member states sent delegates and in addition, the meeting was attended by Madeleine Albright US Secretary of State; Gladys Caballero de Arévalo, Vice President of Honduras; María Eugenia Brizuela de Ávila, Foreign Minister of El Salvador; Indranie Chandarpal, Guyana's Minister of Human Services and Social Security and CIM Vice president; Graciela Fernández Meijide, Argentinian Minister of Social Development and the Environment; and Marisabel Rodríguez de Chávez, First Lady of Venezuela.
[37] The current organizational structure calls for the Assembly of Delegates to meet every two years to examine hemispheric issues and evaluate reports of progress or concern.