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Witness History: The American who put women's rights in the Japanese constitution

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The American who put women's rights in the Japanese constitution

07/08/2020 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, The American who put women's rights in the Japanese constitution

How Beate Sirota Gordon got wording on gender equality into Japan's post-war constitution

How 22-year-old Beate Sirota Gordon got wording on women's equality into Japan's post-war constitution.

In November 1946, Emperor Hirohito proclaimed a new post-war constitution for Japan which contained clauses establishing women's rights for the first time. They were the brainchild of Beate Sirota Gordon, a young American woman working for the Allied occupying forces. Simon Watts tells her story using interviews from the BBC archives.

PHOTO: Beate Sirota Gordon in Japan in 1946 (Family Collection)

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