[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 52 (Friday, March 19, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E285]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HONORING DR. MARGARET C. ``PEG'' SNYDER

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BARBARA LEE

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 19, 2021

  Ms. LEE of California. Madam Speaker, I rise to acknowledge and 
memorialize the legacy of Dr. Margaret C. Snyder, referred to as the 
``United Nations' First Feminist'', who died on January 26, 2021 at the 
age of 91. I share my sincere condolences and prayers with her family, 
including her brother, Thomas Snyder.
  Dr. Snyder, who went by ``Peg'', was a trailblazer whose passion and 
determination to empower women transformed the U.N.'s mechanisms of 
global development aid to include millions of women in Africa, Asia, 
and Latin America. Dr. Snyder also worked to support women at the UN to 
move beyond being restricted to secretarial roles to rise to join the 
professional ranks within the organization.
  Dr. Margaret Cecilia Snyder was born the youngest of three children 
on January 30, 1929, in East Syracuse, New York. Her father, Matthias, 
was a doctor, and her mother, Cecilia (Gorman) Snyder, taught Latin and 
German in a local high school. Peg graduated from the College of New 
Rochelle in Westchester County, New York in 1950. Two years later she 
received a master's degree in sociology from the Catholic University of 
America in Washington, D.C.
  While working as the Dean of Women at Le Moyne College, in Syracuse, 
she followed John F. Kennedy's call for young Americans to volunteer 
overseas by taking a one year sabbatical to work with volunteer 
organizations in Tanganyika (which merged with Zanzibar to become 
Tanzania in 1964) and Uganda. Among other tasks, she arranged for 
African students to attend college in the United States--part of an 
effort known as ``Kennedy airlifts.''
  When her year ended, she quit her job at Le Moyne and stayed in 
Africa, but she moved home in 1965 to help run the East African Studies 
program at Syracuse University. She advised students from the region on 
their graduate work, many of whom went on to hold leadership positions 
in their countries--the first threads of her continentwide network of 
partners. In 1970, she returned to Tanzania to complete her Ph.D. in 
sociology at the University of Dar es Salaam, having started pursuing 
her degree in 1964.
  Upon graduation in 1971, Peg joined the United Nations Economic 
Commission for Africa (UNECA) as a co-founder of what became the 
African Training and Research Center for Women--the UN's first major 
program directed specifically at improving economic opportunities for 
women.
  In 1978, she moved to New York City, where she was put in charge of a 
development fund focused on women, funded by voluntary contributions 
from member states. She built the organization (renamed the U.N. 
Development Fund for Women or UNIFEM) from operating on a shoestring 
budget to a global powerhouse that served women not just in Africa but 
across the developing world. By the end of the 1980s, it had supported 
the creation of women's development commissions in 30 countries, 
through which the U.N. channeled millions of dollars to grassroots 
women's projects. It is now known as U.N. Women.
  One of her first grants went to Kenya's Green Belt Movement, an anti-
deforestation initiative led by the late 2004 Nobel Laureate for Peace 
and eventual close friend Wangari Maathai.
  After retiring from the United Nations in 1989, Dr. Snyder was a 
Fulbright Scholar in Uganda and a Visiting Fellow at the School of 
Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. She also 
wrote or co-wrote three books on women's economic development in 
Africa.
  Peg continued to serve as an informal adviser to the U.N. and 
advocate for a long list of women activists and organizations, many of 
whom she hosted at her apartment in New York City. It was there, in 
2006, that she helped organize the Sirleaf Market Women's Fund, a 
program to rebuild markets across post-civil war Liberia, named for 
Liberia and Africa's first female President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
  Dr. Peg Snyder's legacy continues to bear fruit. In 2021, women make 
up a significant portion of the U.N. professional staff, and women's 
issues, including development, remain one of the organization's focal 
points. In her tribute to Dr. Snyder, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the 
Executive Director of UN Women, assured the continuation of Peg 
Snyder's legacy for generations to come: ``Her passing comes at a point 
where the importance of bringing women's voices and skills to the 
forefront has never been more important for the world's ability to move 
ahead resiliently and creatively. We thank her, honour her countless 
contributions to women across the world, and take forward her legacy.''
  We in the United States Congress commemorate Dr. Snyder's work and 
legacy, and stand ready to help carry on her work to help women 
everywhere claim their rights and lift up themselves, their communities 
and nations.

                          ____________________