Fifty years ago, women from around the world gathered at the first UN World Conference on Women in Mexico City. The story of the historic conferences that followed—in Copenhagen, Nairobi and Beijing—is one of collaboration, resistance, strategy and joy. As one speaker put it: “We came here to answer the call of billions of women who have lived, and of billions of women who will live.”

The tensions and triumphs of those decades inspired what followed, and show us that transformative change is possible in the span of a generation. Consider them a road map—our own charge, and inspiration, to answer that call.