{"id":26378,"date":"2023-03-16T11:00:18","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T15:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=26378"},"modified":"2024-04-03T15:40:43","modified_gmt":"2024-04-03T19:40:43","slug":"equality-in-law-and-in-fact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2023\/03\/16\/equality-in-law-and-in-fact\/","title":{"rendered":"Equality, in Law and in Fact"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Danielle Calle and Sarah Eilers ~<\/em><\/p>\n

The film A Question of Justice<\/em><\/a> documents in powerful images and words the work of female attorneys and activists from 38 nations who, in 1975, attended the First Inter-Hemispheric Conference on Law, Population, and the Status of Women. The goals of the conference were ambitious\u2014healthy debate and a meeting of minds on principles deserving of endorsement worldwide to deliver to women the rights and choices \u201cwhich men of all nations take for granted.\u201d As Aziza Hussein<\/a> of Egypt, a social welfare and family planning advocate, phrased it:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order that a woman be a person able to contribute to, and to benefit from, social progress and development, she must enjoy equality with men in law and in fact, in all fields.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The conference was held at the Airlie Foundation in Airlie, Virginia, outside Washington DC. A Question\u2026<\/em> is one of hundreds of titles made by the \u00a0film production arm of the foundation. In collaboration with the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Inter-American Dialogue Center, and other organizations, Airlie Productions created titles focusing on global health, family planning, and the environment, many set in Latin America and narrated and written by screenwriter-director Miriam Bucher. Dr. Murdock Head<\/a> (1924\u20131994), seen in the last few minutes of the film, led the Airlie Foundation for 30 years.<\/p>\n

The National Library of Medicine holds scores of Airlie titles. During the past 18 months, staff of the Library have digitized nearly the entire collection, and will be making the films available in NLM Digital Collections<\/a> once they are transcribed and captioned.<\/p>\n

Half of Humankind<\/h3>\n

Harriet Pilpel<\/a> (1911\u20131991), a U.S. lawyer specializing in First Amendment and reproductive rights issues who participated in 27 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court between 1937 and 1991, sets a determined tone early on, telling the attendees, \u201cI hope that the dominant mood will be one of daring and courage.\u201d Attendee Keys Macmanus establishes a framework for progress by noting that \u201claw is the history of the mixing of codes.\u201d The conference is structured around this precept, focusing on five dominant legal systems: United States, Continental, Commonwealth, Islamic, and Latin American law. This throughline is key to understanding the meeting\u2019s overarching themes and outcomes, and the three languages used to conduct the proceedings: English, French, and Spanish.<\/p>\n

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A Question of Justice, 1974 National Library of Medicine #101774474 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
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A Question of Justice, 1974 National Library of Medicine #101774474 <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The documentary opens with a survey of laws\u2014both sacred and profane\u2014that have dominated modern societal principles, providing historical context for the countries and systems represented at the conference. It begins with biblical figures Moses and Abraham, prophets of moral codes, and swiftly moves to the schism between law and divinity. The Magna Carta, which elevated man-made laws over the assumed divine rights of the noble class, paved the way for the historical development of democracy, and eventually the U.S. Constitution. We the People<\/em> suggests the possibility of inclusion. Says our narrator, \u201cHalf of humankind is after all, woman.\u201d The film\u2019s opening montage illustrates another underlying tension: how to arrive at consensus when the weight of history and religion set the delegates so far apart? As the introductory sequence closes, the title of the film is displayed and the camera lingers on an image of the scales of justice, imbalanced.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

No Absolutes<\/h3>\n

The film makes clear that problems and solutions specific to one country cannot apply to all. With regard to family planning and support, for example, there are progressive Sweden, more-conservative Iran, and lying somewhere in between, Latin America, a region that has \u201ccompressed centuries of progress into two decades.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s narrator concedes, \u201cIn this struggle, there are no absolutes save the condition that laws change as times change.\u201d Stephanie Daly of Trinidad and Tobago provides a sobering perspective, one that reminds the viewer that most conference attendees represent the elite in their countries. \u201cThe articulate women\u2026tend to preserve the status that they have achieved. It\u2019s no use to a woman with no money to be told she has the right to vote if she is not in a position to be concerned with that.\u201d<\/p>\n