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American propagandists and policy-makers throughout the Cold War era embraced the discourse of domesticity and the need to protect women as key markers of difference between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, with the establishment of the United Nations institutions, legislation and discourse on women's equality emerged, which prioritized equality over the protection of difference. This article will explore how the United States sought to negotiate between these two competing strands in women's status. It will focus on the relationship between the US government, particularly the State Department, and Dorothy Kenyon, the first US delegate to the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations. It will demonstrate that, whilst Kenyon became increasingly convinced of the need for the USA to embrace a more proactive position on international women's rights, the US government's position remained dismissive and superficial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the activities by the late Edith Sampson in the struggle for Afro-American identity during the Cold War. Positions held by Sampson in international organizations; Importance of setting the development of African American thought must be set in an international context; Sampson's vision of Americanism; Description of the international missions by Sampson.