Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1947-01-10
Women Work for Peace
Play Important Roles in U. n. Setup
BY HELEN BECKWITH
(Cuesf columnist for Kathleen Norrfs.)
Bell Syndicate Taaturea

NoACSs SOtAHHISSb yOT hutHbeeH INOFTS-
Bell syndicate.-wNU Features.
Additional evidence of the progress
being made by women In world at
fairs Is offered in the role being
played by women In the United Ma
tons setup.
Main achievement, insofar n
women are concerned, was the es-
Establishment Of the commission on
the status Of women. The group
was created as a result Of the de-
mand by prominent feminists that
the new International agency should
give recognition to women's inter-
ests.
The United States representative
on the commission Is Miss Dorothy
Kenyon, New York attorney and for
mer municipal court Judge. Long ac-
tive in women's organizations, Miss
Kenyon served as a member of
the League Of Nations committee on
the legal status of women voters.
The movement for U.N. recogni-
ton Of women was launched at the
San Francisco conference, when
they succeeded in getting the princi-
pie Of equal rights incorporated in
the U.N. charter.
They also got the proposal for a
commission for women put on the
agenda for the London meeting in
the winter of 1915. At this meeting
the economic and social council set
up sub-commission on the status
OF women in the commission on hui
man rights, Of which Mrs. Eleanor
Roosevelt Is the chairman.
The commission outlined a pro-
gram calling for civil, political, edu-
cational and social equality for wom-
en-. They asked that an executive Of
fee on women's affairs should be set
up as part of the United Nations
secretariat. They recommended ex-
pansion into a larger independent
commission. The economic and So
cial council approved the sugges-
ton and authorized establishment of
a separate commission. At their
meeting in New York in October,
1915, the council designated the
countries to be represented on the
new commission.
Work in Secretariat.
Although they seldom appear be-
fore the public eye, another group of
women is playing an important role
in telling the United Nations story
to the world. This group is COM
prised of members of the U.N. Sec
retariat, who accomplish a major
mission even if their work is prin-
cipally behind the scenes.
Among members of the secretari-
at are many Of the new twentieth
century women who have risen from
the ashes of war. At first glance
these girls look like smart young
women you could see almost any,
where-pretty North Americans in
flower-toned sweaters and blouses,
slender Chinese in short skirted YER
sions of Oriental dress, olive-skinned
South Americans with liquid Latin
eyes. Lipstick, smart hats and all
that.
But watch them awhile and you
will find they are different. There
is less party talk and drinking, more
hard work for a purpose. Not that
they are any less interested in men
than women always we're; they SIM
ply seem to think and talk about
them less. These women hold what
is probably the worlds largest fem
mine collection of university de-
grees.
Many speak from two to five Ian
guages and can translate or take
shorthand in several. Others are
wizards with paintbrushes. Yet
many are working for far less money
than they have made before on a
heavy schedule that sometimes ex-
tends to 10 or IL hours a day, six or
seven days week, with three hour
daily Communication added to that.
During the general assembly they
were soaked in a bath Of work"
that left virtually no time for shop
ping, hairdresser, friends or play.
Why do they do it?
Let Marion Dix tell you. Miss
Dix, former scenario writer,
turned down 1000 week in Holly
wood to work for 500 week in the
United Nations as chief of the film
and television section, which is pro-
ducing film on the functions, pur-
poses and goal of the United Ma
tons.
Miss Dix says succinctly:
IF the United Nations fails, there
will be no world. 1t must succeed.
A job to help it succeed is the best
job you can have right now-and no
work seems too hard"
Constance Rhodes adds a few
words to that. Miss Rhodes is an
English girl who studied at the Paris
Sorbonne, worked for the ITO in
Geneva and now is secretary to An
drew Cordier, right hand man to
Trygvie Lie. Says Miss Rhodes:
Satisfaction in Effort.
'This kind of work gets in your
blood, once you've done it. It's fas-
cinating meeting people of all ma
tionalities. 1t would bore me now