Original version

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

Witness History

Podcasts

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: History

History as told by the people who were there

History as told by the people who were there.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service East Asia

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

Documentaries

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)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Witness History

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

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

About BBC World Service