DRAFTING a constitution isn’t something one does every day. It took Washington, Franklin and Co several months to achieve, that steamy summer in Philadelphia in 1787. When Beate Sirota was roped in to do it, in chilly, ruined Tokyo in the spring of 1946, she was amazed. She was no lawyer. She was 22, and only just an American citizen. Her idea of fun was going out every night. She had tagged on to General MacArthur’s occupation army mostly to find her parents, whom she had left in Japan before the war. Her job, which she did very well, was to translate Japanese. But suddenly there she was, called in with two dozen men, to write—in deepest secrecy—the basic law for post-war Japan. In a week. “Beate, you’re a woman,” said her colleagues. “Why don’t you do the bit about women’s rights?” “Wonderful, I’d love to!” she cried—and then realised she had no idea how.

She saw all too clearly, though, how women were treated in Japan. From the age of five to 15 she had lived there while her father Leo Sirota, a concert pianist from Ukraine, taught at the Imperial Academy. The land seemed enchanted to her, all exquisite gardens and cherry blossom and black-eyed, straight-haired children with whom, unusually for a Westerner, she was allowed to play. Over puppet shows and shuttlecock games she picked up the language, she claimed, in just three-and-a-half months. And she learned other things. Japanese women, for example, never came to her mother’s parties. Only the men came. Japanese women would serve their husband’s friends dinner, then eat alone in the kitchen. In the street they always walked three or four paces behind the men. They were usually married to men they did not know, could inherit nothing, and could even be bought and sold, like chattels.

Fired with her task, she raced in a requisitioned Jeep round Tokyo, borrowing other countries’ constitutions from war-battered libraries. Rattling through them, she produced what became Article 24:

Marriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes and it shall be maintained through mutual co-operation with the equal rights of husband and wife as a basis. With regard to choice of spouse, property rights, inheritance, choice of domicile, divorce and other matters pertaining to marriage and the family, laws shall be enacted from the standpoint of individual dignity and the essential equality of the sexes.(Economist)

翻译：

起草宪法并不是一个人每天都要做的事。在1787年那个潮湿的夏日里，身处美国费城的华盛顿、富兰克林和其他一些人耗费了数个月才完成了美国宪法的起草工作。1946年春的东京，满目疮痍，春寒料峭，当得知被安排加入到战后日本国宪法的起草工作时，贝雅特感到十分吃惊。因为当时贝雅特只有22岁，也不是一名律师，仅仅是一个普通的美国公民而已。她脑海中有关乐趣的唯一概念就是每天晚上出门逛街。在日本，她一直与麦克阿瑟将军率领的驻日占领军生活，绝大部分时间是用在寻找二战发生前就已经与之失散的双亲。贝雅特最擅长的工作就是将日语翻译成英语。突然有一天，她和其他24个人被秘密地集中到一个地方，起草战后日本国宪法。时间是一周。与她一起起草宪法的一名同事对她说:“贝雅特，作为一个女人，你为什么不去为争取妇女的权益做点贡献呢?”贝雅特大声回答到，“太好了，我非常愿意去做”。可之后贝雅特才意识到她根本不知道从何做起。

贝雅特是十分清楚在日本国内妇女是如何被对待的。从五岁算起，贝雅特一共在日本生活了十年。他的父亲，利奥·希洛塔，是一位来自乌克兰的音乐会钢琴演奏家，在日本帝国学院任教。贝雅特被这片土地深深地吸引，对于她这样一位来自西方世界的人而言，精致的花园，美丽的樱花，能够与之一起玩耍的黑眼睛，直发的孩童，这里的一切都是不同寻常的。贝雅特声称，通过木偶戏和踢毽子，自己在三个半月的时间里就完全掌握了日语。除此之外，贝雅特也了解到了其他事情。比如，日本妇女从不参加自己母亲的聚会。母亲的聚会只有男人参加。日本的妇女在帮助自己丈夫和丈夫的朋友们享用完晚餐之后，才能一个人在厨房独自用餐。在街上，日本妇女通常只能跟在丈夫后面三步或四步远的地方。结婚之前，日本妇女根本不知道自己的丈夫是谁，父母死后也继承不到任何东西，她们甚至还会像牛羊一样被买卖。

被接受的任务所激励，贝雅特开着申请到的吉普车穿梭于东京各个饱受战争损害的图书馆，借阅其中其他国家的宪法。正是由于贝雅特辛勤忙碌的工作，才有了后来日本国宪法的第二十四条：

婚姻仅以两性的自愿结合为基础而成立，以夫妇平等权力为根本，必须在相互协力之下予以维持。 关于选择配偶、财产权、继承、选择居所、离婚以及婚姻和家庭等其他有关事项的法律，必须以个人尊严与两性平等为基础制订之。