Wearing Platform Shoes: How the Platform for Action Changed our Lives, and how Women's Lives have Changed since the Platform for Action

In this article the author reflects on her personal experience from being at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, and the study and work she has done since this time on the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action through the United Nations, NGOs and her active role in the global women's movement. She looks at strategic ways the document could have been used in a policy context to lead global and national dialogue and draws from her PhD thesis titled ‘Beijing – Transformation and Feminist Politics: From the Personal to the International’. She links the process of the Beijing conference and Platform for Action back to the accountability within the UN itself, identifying opportunities lost through lack of clear commitment, planning and resourcing. She concludes by highlighting the importance of this event and document on the lives of women who were a part of the process and the value of a future NGO Forum for women for the global women's movement.