Jessie Street’s Anti-Colonial Activism

Recent scholarship on women’s rights and the United Nations has demonstrated the significance of Latin American feminists’ regional collaboration from the 1920s and through the 1940s, as well as the prominent role of several Indian feminists. But we know less of Australia’s involvement within the alliance of ‘global south’ anti-colonial feminists that would prove so effective. Jessie Street, Vice-Chair of the Commission on the Status of Women, was integral to this cohort of determined feminists who fought for inclusive language in the key UN documents, especially to have the word ‘sex’ included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This article shows how they overcame the opposition of Eleanor Roosevelt, Chair of the Commission on Human Rights, and assesses what was at stake. Street’s collaboration with Indian and Latin American feminists influenced the anti-colonial activism that would grow to be an important dimension of her career both internationally and within Australia.