Hansa Mehta and the Women Who Shaped the Text

Women delegates made the Universal Declaration more inclusive. An early draft of Article 1 said 'All men are born free and equal'. Hansa Mehta of India, a reformer and educator, argued that 'men' could be read to exclude women, and the final text reads 'All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights'. Minerva Bernardino of the Dominican Republic pressed to include the equality of men and women in the preamble, building on the UN Charter's similar language.

Bodil Begtrup of Denmark, chair of the Commission on the Status of Women, advocated phrasing such as 'everyone' rather than 'all men' throughout. Begum Shaista Ikramullah of Pakistan supported Article 16, which gives men and women equal rights in marriage and requires free consent of both spouses. Their work shows that wording matters: small choices of language determined whether half of humanity was clearly included.