TheInternational Council of Women (ICW) is a women's organization working across national boundaries for the common cause of advocatinghuman rights for women. In March and April 1888, women leaders came together inWashington D.C., with 80 speakers and 49 delegates representing 53 women's organizations from 9 countries:Canada, theUnited States,Ireland,India,United Kingdom,Finland,Denmark,France andNorway. Women from professional organizations, trade unions, arts groups and benevolent societies participate. National councils are affiliated to the ICW and thus make themselves heard at the international level. The ICW enjoys consultative status with theUnited Nations and itsPermanent Representatives toECOSOC,ILO,FAO, WHO,UNDP,UNEP,UNESCO,UNICEF, UNCTAD, andUNIDO.
During a visit to Europe in 1882, American suffragistsElizabeth Cady Stanton andSusan B. Anthony discussed the idea of an international women's organization with reformers in several countries. A committee of correspondence was formed to develop the idea further at a reception in their honor just before they returned home. TheNational Woman Suffrage Association, led by Anthony and Stanton, organized the founding meeting of the ICW, which convened in Washington, DC, on March 25, 1888. Representing Louisiana at the Woman's International Council wasCaroline Elizabeth Merrick. The meeting was part of a celebration of the fortieth anniversary of theSeneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights convention.[1]
Rachel Foster Avery managed much of the details of the planning of the first meeting of the ICW, andSusan B. Anthony presided over eight of the sixteen sessions.[2] The ICW drafted a constitution and established national meetings every three years and international meetings every five years.
Millicent Garrett Fawcett of England was elected as the first president, but she declined to serve. Other British activists such asMargaret Tanner,Helen Priestman Bright Clark,Emily Sturge,Mary Estlin andMaria Colby signed a supportive letter sent to the first meeting, until the title "In the Fellowship of Womanhood."[3]
In 1894, the ICW met inBerlin, whereAlix von Cotta said that many senior teachers stayed away.[4] The British activist,Margery Corbett Ashby was in attendance, and recalls the event and the relationship of the ICW with theIWSA in an interview with the historian,Brian Harrison, as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titledOral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews.[5] In 1899, they met in London.[6]
In the early years, the United States supported many of the expenses of the organization, and dues from U.S. members made up a significant part of the budget. Most meetings were held in Europe or North America, and they adopted the use of three official languages – English, French and German – which discouraged participation by women of non-European origin. The ICW did not actively promote women'ssuffrage, as to not upset the more conservative members.
In 1899, the Council began to take on more substantive issues, forming an International Standing Committee on Peace and International Arbitration. Other standing committees were soon established, and through them, the ICW became involved in issues from suffrage to health.[7]
In 1904, at the Berlin congress of the ICW, a separate organization formed to accommodate the strong feminist identity of the national suffrage associations: theInternational Woman Suffrage Alliance.[8] The 1909 congress was held inToronto, Canada[9] and the 1914 conference took place in Rome.[10] The 6th Congress was held in 1920 inKristiania, Norway;[11] followed in 1925 by the Washington, D. C. Congress;[12] and then in 1930, the conference was held inVienna.[13] The next conference was a jointly-held congress of the ICW and theNational Council of Women in India, hosted inCalcutta in 1936.[14] DuringWorld War II congresses were suspended.[7]
In 1925, the ICW convened their first coalition, the Joint Standing Committee of the Women's International Organisations, to lobby for the appointment of women to the League of Nations. By 1931 the League of Nations called together a Women's Consultative Committee on Nationality to address the issue of a woman's rights (and nationality) when married to a man from another country.[15] Two additional coalitions were formed in 1931: the Liaison Committee and the Peace and Disarmament Committee. The ICW constitution was revised in 1936.[16] The ICW worked with theLeague of Nations during the 1920s and theUnited Nations post-World War II.
By 1938 the number of councils affiliated with the ICW, which had developed into one of the best known and most consulted of women's international organizations, had risen to thirty-six.[7]
World War II caused great disorganization in the Council's work. Some national councils discontinued their work altogether; in others the leadership and organization were disrupted. In 1946, the ICW met in Philadelphia to re-focus its efforts and recover its former unity. The Conference issued a statement condemning war and all crimes against humanity, as well as demanding a more active role for women in the national and international arena.[7]
Since 1947, ICW hasConsultative Status to theUnited Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) the highest accreditation an NGO can achieve at theUnited Nations. Currently, the ICW is composed of 70 countries and has a headquarters inParis.[17] International meetings are held every three years.
| President | Duration | Nationality |
|---|---|---|
| none | 1888–1893 | - |
| Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon | 1893–1899 | Scotland |
| May Wright Sewall | 1899–1904 | United States |
| Ishbel Maria Hamilton-Gordon | 1904–1920 | Scotland |
| Pauline Chaponnière-Chaix | 1920–1922 | Switzerland |
| Ishbel Maria Hamilton-Gordon | 1922–1936 | Scotland |
| Marthe Boël | 1936–1947 | Belgium |
| Renée Girod | (interim) 1940–1945 | Switzerland |
| Jeanne Eder-Schwyzer | 1947–1957 | Switzerland |
| Marie-Hélène Lefaucheux | 1957–1963 | France |
| Mary McGeachy | 1963–1973 | Canada |
| Mehrangiz Dowlatshahi | 1973–1976 | Iran |
| Ngarmchit Purachatra | 1976–1979 | Thailand |
| Miriam Dell | 1979–1986 | New Zealand |
| Hong Sook-ja | 1986–1988 | South Korea |
| Lily Boeykens | 1988–1994 | Belgium |
| Kuraisin Sumhadi | 1994–1997 | Indonesia |
| Pnina Herzog | 1997–2003 | Israel |
| Anamah Tan | 2003–2009 | Singapore |
| Cosima Schenk | 2009–2015 | Switzerland |
| Kim Jungsook | 2015–2022 | South Korea |
| Martine Marandel | 2022– | France |
1888:Washington, D.C. (First Meeting)
1894:Berlin
1899:London
1904:Berlin
1909:Toronto
1914:Rome
1920:Kristiania
1925:Washington, D.C.
1930:Vienna
1933:Chicago
1936:Kolkata, organized jointly by the CIT and theNational Council of Women in India
1946:Philadelphie
2006:Kyiv
2009:Johannesburg
2015:Seoul
2015:Izmir
2018:Yogyakarta
2022:Avignon
Papers of the International Council of Women are held atThe Women's Library.[18] Other papers are held at the United Nations Library in Geneva, the Library of Congress in Washington, the UNESCO archives in Paris, the International Information Centre and Archives for the Women's Movement in Amsterdam, the Archive Center for Women's History (CARHIF) in Brussels, the Sophia Smith Library at Smith College, Massachusetts, the Margaret Cousins Memorial library in New Delhi, and the Lady Aberdeen Collection in the University of Waterloo (Ontario) Library Special Collections.
National Council of Women of the United States was founded in 1888 at the first ICW gathering. TheNational Council of Women of Canada was founded in 1893. TheNational Council of French Women was created in 1901, theNational Council of Italian Women in 1903,[19] and theNational Council of Belgian Women in 1905.[20] The firstNational Council of Women of Australia was established in 1931 to coordinate the state bodies existing prior to Australia'sFederation.
This article incorporates text available under theCC BY 3.0 license.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) – via ASP: Women and Social Movements(subscription required)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
