Barrington woman is a delegate at annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women

Barrington resident Ellen Birkett Lindeen says she plans to promote women's education opportunities when she arrives in New York this week as a delegate at the 64th annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

"I'm thrilled that (I'm representing) not only the province, not only the diocese of Chicago, but I'm bringing Barrington to the U.N.," said Lindeen, 65, a longtime member at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in the village.

Lindeen will be part of an international contingent for the U.N.'s Commission on the Status of Women running from March 9 to 20. The commission is the main global intergovernmental body dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.

This year's session at U.N. headquarters in New York has added significance with the silver anniversary recognition of the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women and the adoption of the Beijing declaration where Hillary Clinton famously said: "Human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights."

Lindeen and the other delegates will review the Beijing declaration at this year's U.N. meeting.

She is an emeritus professor of English at Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove, where she also taught peace studies, human rights, social justice and conflict resolution. She's been involved in similar volunteer work at St. Michael's. She's lived in Barrington since moving from Schaumburg 26 years ago.

As a member of the Episcopal Church delegation that'll be among nongovernmental entities at this year's session, Lindeen will represent 14 dioceses in a province covering Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Missouri.

"She started the peace and justice team here, helped settle a refugee family," said the Rev. Jesse Perkins, rector at St. Michael's. "We had some classes last fall on social change and how to make a positive impact on the world from a Christian perspective."

Last year, scores of delegates at the Commission on the Status of Women agreed that U.N. member states should make a commitment to improve women's and girls' access to social protection systems, public services and sustainable infrastructure.

Lindeen, whose career as an educator included stints at Harper College in Palatine and Hoffman Estates High School, said she hopes to hold a program open to the entire community at St. Michael's based on her U.N. experience.

"I feel like my biggest advocacy is a push for education, equal education," she said, "because with better education for women and girls, they can achieve things like having their own voice and (deciding) who to marry, owning property, having the right to vote, being able to start a microbusiness - all the things that so many women in so many countries don't have."