 Original WIDF logo from its founding | |
| Abbreviation | WIDF |
|---|---|
| Formation | December 1945 |
| Type | NGO |
| Purpose | Association of World's Women Organizations |
| Headquarters | San Salvador, El Salvador |
| Location |
|
Region served | Worldwide |
Official language | English, French, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, German, Portuguese |
TheWomen's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) is an internationalwomen's rights organization. Established in 1945, it was most active during theCold War when, according to historianFrancisca de Haan, it was "the largest and probably most influential international women's organization of the post-1945 era".[1] Following thedissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, its headquarters were moved from Berlin to Paris. In 2002, with the election ofMárcia Campos as president, the office relocated toBrasília. Subsequently, in 2007 the WIDF secretariat was located inSão Paulo. Since 2016, the president has beenLorena Peña of El Salvador and the world headquarters has been located inSan Salvador. The WIDF's magazine,Women of the Whole World, was published in six languages: Arabic, English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish.
WIDF was founded in Paris in 1945 as ananti-fascist organization with the intent of engaging women in efforts to prevent war and to combat the racist and sexist ideology of fascist regimes. At its organizing conference,Eugénie Cotton was elected as president and the organization's goals were defined as promoting active participation in the fight againstfascism and in favor ofworld peace, in protecting public health with particular focus on child welfare, in improving the status of women's rights, and in buildinginternationalist friendships among women.
During the Cold War era, WIDF was described in recovered FBI files asCommunist-leaning and pro-Soviet. The international day for protection of children, observed since 1950 in many countries asChildren's Day on 1 June, was established on the initiative of a WIDF campaign held in 1949. In 1951, the organization was banned by French authorities and relocated toEast Berlin. Other international women's organizations became concerned that WIDF would use appeals to rally participation in women's rights and motherhood as propaganda to increase anti-American sentiment and promote communism. At various points in its history, the WIDF enjoyedconsultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations. It was as a result of proposals from WIDF representatives on theCommission on the Status of Women (CSW) that the United Nations declared 1975 asInternational Women's Year.
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From the beginnings ofWorld War II left-leaning women who werecommunist,liberal, orsocialist were active in the fight against fascism and the spread of the racist and sexist ideology ofNazism.[2] During the war, many of the activists, who were primarily aristocrats and intellectuals, took part inanti-fascist conferences throughout Europe, and began to develop a transnational framework for social and political policies that would prevent future conflicts.[3]Eugénie Cotton attended a meeting of theUnion des Femmes Françaises (Union of French Women) in 1944, which sparked the idea for forming the Women International Democratic Federation. Subsequently, she attended a celebration ofInternational Women's Day in London in 1945 where she met with a group of women from Belgium, China, France, Italy, theSoviet Union, Spain, the United Kingdom, andYugoslavia. Although the war had ended only six months earlier in Europe and was still continuing in Asia, consensus was reached to form an International Initiative Committee and host an international congress to bring left-leaning women together.[4] Sponsors of the event were theUnion des Femmes Françaises and theSoviet Women's Anti-Fascist Committee. WIDF's internal sources about its origin are vague in regard to the political affiliations of the founders, focusing instead on their involvement inresistance and anti-fascist movements during and immediately following the war, and their intent to establish an organization which was open to allprogressive women.[5]
The congress was held between 26 and 30 November 1945 at thePalais de la Mutualité in Paris.[6] As a result, 850 delegates from 40 countries, representing 181 women's organizations, attended the founding meeting of the Women's International Democratic Federation.[4] Cotton was elected president of WIDF and served in that capacity until her death in 1967.[7] The organizational goals were defined as promoting active participation in the fight againstfascism and in favor ofworld peace, in protecting public health with particular focus on child welfare, in improving the status of women's rights, and in buildinginternationalist friendships among women.[8] The delegates adopted an International Charter of Women, which aimed at creating global standards protecting women's rights and opportunities as citizens, mothers, and workers.[9] They also had numerous debates about the voting system to be used; the naming of the organization, replacing the original wording using "anti-fascist" with "democratic"; and whether WIDF would have any authority to control member organizations.[10]
The delegates ultimately decided to host triennial congresses with votes on issues based on the size of the population that each national delegation represented. The executive council, made up of a delegate from each member country, was to meet every year. The secretariat was composed of a secretary general and four staff members, who would carry out the management of the federation's business, with the exception of bookkeeping, which was assigned to a three-member commission.[11] Among the founding members wereElizabeth Acland Allen (UK),Cécile Brunschvicg (France),Tsola Dragoycheva (Bulgaria),Dolores Ibárruri (Spain),Ana Pauker (Romania),Kata Pejnović (Yugoslavia),Nina Popova (Russia),Rada Todorova (Bulgaria);Jessie Street (Australia), andMarie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier (France),[12][13][14][a] Among the women sending congratulations and support for the founding of WDIF wereClementine Churchill, wife of the British Prime Minister;Eleanor Roosevelt,First Lady of the United States, andIsie Smuts, wife of the Prime Minister of theUnion of South Africa.[13]Gabrielle Duchêne, a vice president of theWomen's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF),[15] andMargery Corbett Ashby, president of theInternational Alliance of Women, attended the congress.[16] Ashby later wrote to her husband that failure to organize women in theNear East would result in the communist women's dominance there.[17]
After the founding of the WIDF, an intense rivalry developed between the three major international women's groups – the International Alliance of Women, theInternational Council of Women, and the WIDF.[7] Both the International Alliance of Women and the International Council of Women claimed to be apolitical,[18] but according to historianFrancisca de Haan, the leading scholar on the WIDF,[19] they "used imperialist notions of western superiority to support their claims for women's rights".[18] Both organizations condoned colonial and imperial systems and stressed the importance of democracy in achieving fundamental human rights such as freedom ofconscience, press, and speech.[18][20] Their members were typically conservative, upper-class,Christian women from Europe, or places such as Australia, Canada, and the United States, where large numbers of Europeans had settled.[21][22][23] After World War I, the International Council of Women and International Alliance of Women actively recruited affiliates in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, but the leadership tended to be from Europe and the United States, the congresses were held primarily in Europe, and the official languages of the groups were English, French, and German.[24]
To resolve women's issues, the International Alliance of Women and the International Council of Women fostered interaction with ruling elites.[23] For example, the International Council of Women and the WILPF,[25] created in 1915 by members of the International Alliance of Women and other elite women's groups,[26][27] approached peace activism by urging heads of nations towards pacifism and avoidance of war through diplomatic channels and improved understanding of cultural differences.[25][28] Fears ofred-baiting prevented Western organizations like the WILPF from criticizing colonial systems and exploitation until the 1960s.[27] Publications such as International Alliance of Women memberAdele Schreiber-Krieger'sJourney towards Freedom (1955) emphasized the role of western women in assisting women from the "third world" in eliminating prevalent customs likechild marriage,foot binding,seclusion,veiling, andwidow sacrifice, without evaluating how western systems impacted colonized women or crediting women of theGlobal South or theEastern world for their own efforts in asserting theiragency.[17]
WIDF regarded peace as a prerequisite for fighting against fascism and obtaining rights for women and children.[29] Unlike the pacifist western feminist groups, WIDF members did not see peace as the avoidance or absence of war; rather, they viewed it as the achievement of social justice and the cessation of oppression and exploitation.[28][30] The organization strongly supported decolonization and national independence movements, and was active in theanti-war movement pushing for peace in Africa and Asia.[29] WIDF organized its activities directly with its women members, bypassing government officials. It was typical for the organization to send letters to members urging action and protest over government policies.[31] For example, the organization rallied Frenchwomen to have their sons refuse to participate in colonial wars,[32] and urged American women to protest the use ofgerm warfare in Korea.[31] Between its congresses, WIDF also organized large conferences to address peace, motherhood, and women's issues.[31][33]
WIDF's membership and leadership included women from throughout the world.[29] Although primarily held in Europe, its conferences were also held in Asia, and Latin America.[34] It was an explicitly anti-racist organization, whose members were working-class.[29] For example, at its founding, the WIDF board established a vice presidency post for a Chinese delegate, which was filled byCai Chang[b] in 1948.[29] The executive council that year consisted of members from Algeria, Argentina, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, China, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, USSR, and Yugoslavia.[35][c] Egyptian feministSaiza Nabarawi, who was a vice president of the International Alliance of Women, attended WIDF's 1952 Vienna Congress and was asked by the board of the IAW to choose which organization she preferred. She resigned from the International Alliance of Women's board and became a vice president of WIDF in 1953.[36] WIDF's monthly magazine, which became a quarterly publication in 1966,[37]Women of the Whole World, was produced in six languages – Arabic, English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish from 1946 to 1990.[38][39][40]
The US affiliate of the WIDF, theCongress of American Women formed in 1946, along the lines of thepopular front.[41] Although the Congress of American Women declared itself to be independent of political alliance, theCommunist Party publicly endorsed the organization upon its founding.[42] That same year, theKongres Wanita Indonesia (Indonesian Women's Congress, Kowani) formed and joined the WIDF because of its support for decolonization.[43] WIDF members participated in a fact-finding mission in 1946 throughLatin America, visiting Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay,[44] to build networks and learn about the issues women faced there.[32][45] They collected reports from women in India and Algeria to evaluate how the lack of development programs led to poverty and how economic policies and customs systemically exploited agricultural workers.[45] In 1947, WIDF was granted consultative status category B for theUnited Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and itsCommission on the Status of Women (CSW).[37][46] To assess the conditions of women living under British colonial rule in Asia in 1948 another WIDF delegation touredBritish Burma,British Malaya, and theDominion of India.[44][47] A similar trip, which was scheduled to evaluate theDutch East Indies andFrench Indochina, had to be canceled because Dutch and French authorities refused to grant visas to the WIDF members.[44]
The observers compiled their reportThe Women of Asia and Africa,[48] in preparation for a conference planned for 1948 to be held inCalcutta (now Kolkata), in honor ofIndia's independence from the United Kingdom.[49] The report detailed the need to reach out to rural women, whether they were peasants, owned land, or were refugees; and to confront gendered policies that created inadequate health care, food, and wages for women or subjected them to trafficking and cultural practices that impeded their safety and security.[50] It also focused on informing activists in the West about the issues associated with imperialism, under-development and the violence colonial wars caused for other women.[51]
Immediately following India's independence, its Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru began implementing policies to silence dissent, imprisoning or driving activists and communists underground.[52] Neither land reforms to protect peasants and rural women nor changes to hiring and wage systems to produce job and income stability were implemented.[53] WIDF activists recognized that there was no difference between the struggle against colonial administrations or newly created governments, meaning that their demands for a realignment of power hierarchies to include working- and middle-class women would not be supported.[54] To that end, the conference was rescheduled to be held in 1949 inPeiking (now Beijing).[49] It was the first anti-imperialist and pan-Asian[d] women's conference bringing together women from Africa and Asia.[55] That year, WIDF also led a campaign to establishChildren's Day, an international day dedicated to protection of children, as an annual observance on 1 June.[56][e]
The United States had not endorsed a policy of containing communism until after the communists came to power in 1949 at the end of theChinese Civil War. US focus was on Europe,[57] and specifically the Soviet actions in Berlin. Thoughts by bothsuperpowers that China would become a Soviet ally caused the cold war to heat up.[58] The Congress of American Women was targeted by theCommittee on Un-American Activities of theUnited States House of Representatives (HUAC) in 1949 due to the support it had been given by the Communist Party.[59] The committee described WIDF as being acommunist front using feminism as a guise to lure women to join the organization[60] and concluded that the organization was a wing of Soviet propaganda mechanisms which used a peace campaign to promote disarmament and foster the communist take-over of democratic nations.[61] The Indonesian group Kowani withdrew from WIDF in 1949 because of objections by some of its affiliates to the organization's ties to socialism, but the following year, another Indonesian organization, Gerwis (later renamedGerwani), affiliated with WIDF.[62] The Congress of American Women disbanded in 1950 because of the negative reactions to the HUAC report.[27]
Twenty-one WIDF activists from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe spent twelve days evaluating the conditions on the Korean peninsula during thewar in May 1951,.[63] The investigation was focused onNorth Korea and attempted to objectively evaluate government claims ofcivilian casualties.[64] Among the delegates wereNora Rodd (chair, Canada),[65]Liu Qingyang [zh] (vice chair, China),[f]Ida Bachmann (vice chair, Denmark),[66]Trees Sunito Heyligers (secretary, Netherlands),Abassia Fodil (Algeria),[67]Monica Felton (Britain),Kate Fleron (Denmark),[68]Candelaria Rodríguez (Cuba),[69]Hilde Cahn (East Germany),Eva Priester (Austria), andLilly Wächter (West Germany), among others.[70][g] They wrote a report,We Accuse, which was translated into Chinese, Korean, English, German, and Spanish, and described thebombing raids carried out by theUnited States Air Force andwar crimes committed by theUnited Nations Forces.[71] WIDF's report caused apprehension on the part of the US government about public opinion of its Korean activities, and specific concern within theUnited States Department of State and theUnited States Women's Bureau about accusations of germ warfare, which were picked up and investigated by theInternational Association of Democratic Lawyers. The US government sought to red-bait the authors, and theCIA covertly funded theCommittee of Correspondence to work against WIDF.[72]
Women United for United Nations, a group of 30 women's organizations established in 1947 to disseminate information about the activities of the UN, prepared a critique of the WIDF report, which the Department of State widely disseminated throughRadio Free Asia andRadio Free Europe.[73] Women United also sent their report to women's organizations and major newspapers likeThe New York Times andThe Washington Post.[74] Delegation members thereafter faced arrest and interrogation for treason upon returning home.[73] Several of the WIDF delegates were terminated from their workplaces and imprisoned, but none waivered in their belief that the report was factual.[75] Rodríguez and another Cuban WIDF activist,Edith García Buchaca, led a campaign advocating prevention of Cuban troops from participating in the war[69] and were successful in changing public opinion, which had previously favored Cuban participation.[76] The United States, with support from Britain, led a successful crusade in 1954[77] to strip WIDF of its consultative status for the United Nations, largely because of its anti-colonial work and exposé on Korea.[78][79]
French authorities banned WIDF in 1951 after its activists launched a campaign against French aggression in Vietnam and urged French women to refuse to allow their sons to participate in the war.[32][78] The organization relocated toEast Berlin[80] where it began to strengthen its ties to the Soviet Union.[32] Held in 1953 in Copenhagen, the third congress attracted 613 delegates from 67 countries. Among the nearly 2,000 attendants were over 1,300 guests and observers.[33][h] The Indonesian delegation, led bySoerastri Karma Trimurti and a number of other members of Gerwani, included women from the Minahasa Women's Union,Wanita Democrat (Democratic Women) andWanita Rakyat (Women of the People) organizations.[81] The focus of the congress was fostering peace in light of on-going conflicts like the Korean War and thewar to end French rule in Vietnam.[82] Resolutions were adopted at the congress to support an immediate end to both wars and to publish a Declaration on the Rights of Women. The declaration included provisions for the right to work, maternity leave, and equal pay for women; creation of child care and kindergarten centers for working women; protection of the civil and educational rights of women and children; support forwomen's suffrage and the right to political representation; equal rights with men in owning property and protecting peasant women's land ownership; and the right for women to freely associate and participate in organizations.[83]
Throughout the following decades, WIDF continued to host world-wide conferences, including the 1952 Conference in Defense of Children held in Vienna, the 1955 World Congress of Mothers hosted inLausanne,[34] 1959 Women of Latin America Conference held inSantiago, Chile,[34][84] the 1960 Copenhagen celebration of WIDF's 50th anniversary, and the 1961 Afro-Asian Women's Conference of Cairo.[34][85] The organization published documents, such asPour la defense des droits de la personne humaine (For the Defense of Human Rights), to reiterate their position that human rights included women's rights.[86] The WIDF would not be readmitted as a consultant body to the United Nations until 1967,[79] when newly independent former colonies pressed for a restoration of its status.[77] In 1969,US-USSR relations entered a period ofdétente,[87][88] and that year, WIDF was elevated to Consultative Status A.[77] The improvement in relationships, between the United States, USSR, andresumption of US relations with China in 1972, allowed nations in the Global South, which had become the majority of members of the United Nations, to assert their power and oppose policies of the superpowers,[88] leading to a broader focus on women's issues by the organization.[89][90]
At the WIDF council meeting in East Berlin in 1971, preliminary discussions took place about hosting a year for women.[91] TheCommittee of the Bulgarian Women's Movement hosted the WIDF council meeting in Sofia in 1972 and first proposed the idea of a UN-sponsored international women's conference for 1975.[92] WIDF activistsShahnaz Alami [fa] (Iran) andHertta Kuusinen (Finland) promoted the idea within the Commission on the Status of Women.[93][94] WIDF members of theMagyar Nők Országos Tanácsa (National Council of Hungarian Women) andConsiliu Național al Femeilor Române (National Council of Romanian Women) promoted the idea inWomen of the Whole World.[94] When the WIDF raised the suggestion forInternational Women's Year to the Commission on the Status of Women, it did not gain traction because of WIDF's observer status. Undeterred, the WIDF drafted a proposal,[95] which was presented to the commission by Romanian official representativeFlorica Andrei,[96][97] a member of the National Council of Romanian Women, a WIDF affiliate.[98][99] After the proposal was seconded byHelvi Sipilä, the Finnish representative of the commission,[91] it was passed by the commission and presented to theUN General Assembly, which adopted a resolution in December 1972 to honor women with International Women's Year in 1975; however, it did not approve hosting a conference.[97][100]
WIDF activists made their own plans to host their organization's 30th anniversary congress in East Berlin in October 1975.[101]Patricia Hutar, a US representative to the Commission on the Status of Women, suggested that the commission revisit the idea of a conference in 1974 to avoid the appearance that only communist women were supporting the initiative.[102][103] The UN General Assembly approved hosting what would be theWorld Conference on Women of July 1975 inMexico City, but authorized no funds for the event.[102] Individuals and affiliated organizations of the WIDF participated in both the UN Conference and the WIDF Congress.[104][105] The Mexico City Conference spawned theUnited Nations Decade for Women, establishing calls to draft theConvention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and host follow-up World Conferences on Women in1980 and1985.[93] WIDF members were involved in both of the conferences and the proposal for CEDAW.[77] The WIDF Congress was attended by women from 43 African nations, 33 Asian countries, 29 European states; the remaining 33 countries were represented by delegates from the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand.[101]
In 1976, the WIDF sponsored an international conference in Sofia,Women in Agriculture, focused on educational training and developing cooperative farms in the Global South.[106] The organization co-initiated the drive forUNESCO to recognize 1979 as theInternational Year of the Child.[107] In 1980, the WIDF worked to establish a secondUnited Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) center in Sofia to focus on training women from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East[108] for leadership positions in the socio-political-economic fight for their rights.[109] The WIDF also established similar development courses for Latin American women which were hosted at a facility in Havana.[110] These courses continued through 1985, leading up to the UN's Third World Conference on the status of women, known as the Nairobi Conference.[111][i] WIDF activists also visited the war-tornPalestinian territories andWestern Sahara. According to Regina Marques, a member of the WIDF board of directors in 2021, the organization was honored as aUnited Nations Messenger of Peace in 1986 byJavier Pérez de Cuéllar,Secretary-General of the United Nations.[84]
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the WIDF headquarters moved from Berlin to Paris.[112][113] The federation was reorganized in 1994 under the leadership ofSylvie Jan.[114][115] At the1995 World Conference on Women, many WIDF activists from Eastern Europe explained that their organizations had been dissolved and their voices had been silenced.[116] In 2002, when Brazilian memberMárcia Campos was elected president, the office relocated toBrasília,[113][117] and in 2007 the WIDF's secretariat was located inSão Paulo.[118] Campos was succeeded by SalvadoranLorena Peña after her election at the 2016 WIDF Congress ofBogotá,[119] and the worldwide headquarters moved to the Palomo neighborhood ofSan Salvador at 23 Calle Poniente & Avenida Las Victorias #123.[120] Peña continued to lead the organization in 2023.[121]
The Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) has a number of non-English names, including:
According to de Haan, Cold War policies and investigations and repercussions from the investigations ofMcCarthyism had long-lasting effects on knowledge about the WIDF and international women's interactions after World War II.[123] Although it was inaugurated in Paris, the WIDF was described by 20th-century scholars as originating behind theIron Curtain.[124] Cold War stereotypes impacted the legacy of the organization, effectively erasing it from the history of international women's movements.[43][125] When the WIDF was described by scholars or activists, it was depicted as a pro-Soviet, communist front organization, which received both political and financial support from theUSSR.[126][127][128] Some of these accounts were based on recovered records of theFBI and the House Un-American Activities Committee.[129] Because the official stance of communism was to view feminism as a "bourgeois ideology promoted by upper-class women seeking to advance their own interests at the expense of class solidarity",[130] the perception of the WIDF was that it was not a women's rights organization but rather an organization designed to spread socialist ideology.[31] HistorianCelia Donert states that the activists of the WIDF were involved in developing transnational socialist networks and that the political context of party and state ideology impacted how they advocated for women's interests, but that they were focused on resolving women's issues.[131]
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Focus by scholars on the social and cultural history of the Cold War[18] and increased feminist scholarship on communist women's activism since thedissolution of the Soviet Union[123] have led to a clearer understanding that women's international relationships were more complex and diverse than previously acknowledged.[132] The full history of the WIDF is difficult to ascertain, as there are only partial organizational records from Berlin. Chinese records are not widely available to academics and many records appear to have been lost.[133] De Haan stated that records of the early organization in France remain in private hands; some materials were destroyed, and others moved multiple times.[134]
Scholars of the 21st century have subsequently described the WIDF as an active feminist organization advocating for women's rights,[19][135][136] and not merely a communist attempt to manipulate women.[137] The WIDF, according to academics like Elisabeth Armstrong and Suzy Kim, played an important role in supporting women's anti-colonial and anti-racist struggles in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.[27][138] In examining the WIDF's role in the peace movement, Suzy Kim refuted that feminism and pacifism declined during the 1950s, stating that WIDF activists launched their campaign for women's rights and global peace during the Cold War with their anti-war campaign against the conflict in Korea.[139] She also concluded that long beforesecond-wave feminists began promotingintersectional analysis, the WIDF incorporated the principles of evaluating overlapping factors such as class, gender, race, and religion to determine how inequalities were perpetuated globally.[140]
Scholar Taewoo Kim made a study of the Korean commission and its report, stating that declassification of military documents and research by South Korean academics, have confirmed that the conditions described by the WIDF commission were true.[141] Omissions in the WIDF report that some of the atrocities committed resulted from the activities of Korean right-wing youth groups[142] were possibly due, according to Kim, to reliance on North Korean interpreters and government manipulation of some of the witnesses.[143] Kim also found the WIDF report significant in that it reveals and documents sexual violence against women during the war.[144] De Haan called the WIDF "the largest and probably most influential international women's organization of the post-1945 era",[1] an assessment which was seconded by Taewoo Kim.[145]
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| Country | Name | Ref |
|---|---|---|
 Albania | Union of Albanian Women | [160] |
 Algeria | National Union of Algerian Women | [161][162] |
 Angola | Organization of Angolan Women | [161] |
 Argentina | Unión de Mujeres de la Argentina [es] (Women's Union of Argentina) | [160] |
 Australia | Union of Australian Women | [163] |
 Austria | Bund demokratischer Frauen Österreichs (Federation of Democratic Women of Austria) | [160] |
 Bangladesh | Bangladesh Mahila Parishad (Bangladesh Women's Congress) | [163] |
 Belgium | Rassemblement des femmes pour la paix et le bien-être Women's Assembly for Peace and Welfare | [160] |
 Benin | Democratic Women's Organization of Dahomey | [161] |
 Bolivia | Unión de Mujeres de Bolivia (Women's Union of Bolivia) | [160] |
 Brazil | Brazilian Women's Federation | [164] |
| Brazil | Seção Feminina do Partido Comunista Brasileiro (Women's Section of theBrazilian Communist Party) | [160] |
 Bulgaria | Committee of the Bulgarian Women's Movement | [165][166] |
 Burundi | Union of Burundian Women | [161] |
 Cambodia | Association of Democratic Khmer Women | [163] |
| Cambodia | Kampuchean Revolutionary Women's Association | [167] |
 Cameroon | Democratic Union of Cameroon Women | [161] |
 Canada | Congress of Canadian Women | [168] |
 Cape Verde | Organizaçao da Mulher de Cabo Verde (Organization of Women of Cape Verde) | [169] |
 Chile | Unión de Mujeres de Chile (Women's Union of Chile) | [160] |
 China | All-China Women's Federation | [170] |
| China | National Federation of Women of the People's Republic of China | [163] |
 Colombia | Unión de Mujeres Demócratas (Union of Democratic Women) | [160] |
 Costa Rica | Alianza de Mujeres Costarricenses (Costa Rican Women's Alliance) | [160] |
 Cuba | Federation of Cuban Women | [160][171] |
| Cuba | Federación Democrática de Mujeres Cubanas (Democratic Federation of Cuban Women) | [69] |
 Cyprus | Pan-Cyprian Federation of Women's Associations | [160] |
 Czechoslovakia | Czechoslovak Women's Union | [160][172] |
| Czechoslovakia | Národní frontě žen (National Women's Front) | [173] |
 Denmark | Danish Democratic Women's Society [da] | [19][174] |
 Dominican Republic | Grupo de mujeres de la República Dominicana (Women's Group of the Dominican Republic) | [160] |
 East Germany | Democratic Women's Federation of Germany | [160][175] |
 Ecuador | Frente Unido de Mujeres (United Front of Women) | [160] |
 El Salvador | Progressive Women's Association of El Salvador | [168] |
 Ethiopia | Revolutionary Ethiopia Women's Association | [176] |
 Finland | Suomen Naisten Demokraattinen Liitto [fi] (Democratic League of Finnish Women) | [160] |
 France | Union des Femmes Françaises (Union of French Women) | [160] |
 Gambia | Gambia Labour Union Women's Section | [161] |
 Greece | Panhellenic Democratic Union of Women | [177] |
| Guadeloupe | Union des Femmes Guadeloupéennes (Union of Guadeloupean Women) | [168] |
 Guyana | Women's Progressive Organization | [168] |
 Haiti | Union des Femmes Haitiennes (Haitian Women's Union) | [168] |
 Honduras | Honduras Women's Association | [168] |
 Hungary | National Council of Hungarian Women | [94] |
 Iceland | Icelandic Women's Union for Culture and Peace | [160] |
 India | National Federation of Indian Women | [163] |
 Indonesia | Gerwani (Indonesian Women's Movement) | [62] |
 Iran | Democratic Organization of Iranian Women | [163] |
 Iraq | General Federation of Iraqi Women | [178] |
| Iraq | Iraqi Women's League | [163] |
 Israel | Israeli Women's Federation ofMapam | [163] |
| Israel | Movement of Democratic Women of Israel | [163][179] |
 Italy | Unione donne in Italia [it] (Union of Italian Women) | [160][180] |
 Japan | Democratic Union of Korean Women in Japan | [163] |
| Japan | Federation of Japanese Women's Organizations | [163][181] |
 Jordan | Arab Women's League of Jordan | [163] |
| Jordan | Arab Women's Organization of Jordan | [163] |
 Kuwait | Women's Social and Cultural Association | [163] |
 Laos | Association of Patriotic Laotian Women | [163] |
| Laos | Lao Women's Union | [182] |
 Lebanon | Lebanese Women's Rights League | [163] |
 Lesotho | Basutoland Congress Party Women's League | [161] |
 Luxembourg | Union of Luxembourg Women | [160] |
 Madagascar | Permanent National Commission for Protection of the Rights of Women and Children of the Madagascar Solidarity Committee | [161] |
 Martinique | Union des Femmes de la Martinique (Women's Union of Martinique) | [168] |
 Mauritius | Mauritius Women's Committee | [161] |
 Mexico | Unión Nacional de Mujeres Mexicanas (National Union of Mexican Women) | [168] |
 Mongolia | Committee of Mongolian Women | [163][183] |
 Morocco | Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc (Democratic Association of Moroccan Women) | [184] |
| Morocco | Women's Section of theSocialist Union of Popular Forces | [161] |
 Mozambique | Organizaçio da mulher Moçambicana (Organization of Mozambican Women) | [161][185] |
 Namibia | Women's Section ofSWAPO | [161] |
 Nepal | Nepal Women's Organization | [163] |
 Netherlands | Nederlandse Vrouwenbeweging [nl] (Dutch Women's Movement) | [160] |
 New Zealand | Union of New Zealand Women | [163] |
 Nicaragua | Association of Nicaraguan Women Luisa Amanda Espinoza | [186] |
| Nicaragua | Democratic Women's Organization of Nicaragua | [168] |
| Nicaragua | Nicaraguan Women's Federation | [168] |
 Nigeria | Federation of Nigerian Women's Organizations | [161] |
 Northern Ireland | Northern Ireland Women's Rights Movement | [187] |
 North Korea | Korean Democratic Women's League | [163][188][145] |
 Norway | Norsk Kvinneforbund [no] (Norwegian Women's Association) | [160] |
 Oman | Organization of Omani Women | [163] |
 Pakistan | Democratic Women's Association | [163] |
 Palestine | General Union of Palestinian Women | [163][189] |
| Palestine | Palenstinian Union of Women Workers' Committees | [190] |
 Panama | Federación Nacional de Mujeres Democráticas (National Federation of Democratic Women) | [168] |
| Panama | Women's Commission for the Defense of the Rights of Women and Children | [168] |
 Paraguay | Women's Union of Paraguay | [168] |
 Peru | Popular Union of Peruvian Women | [168] |
 Philippines | Katipunan Ng Bagong Pilipina (Association of New Philippine Women) | [163][191] |
 Poland | League of Polish Women | [173][192] |
| Poland | National Council of Polish Women [pl] | [160] |
 Portugal | Conselho Nacional das Mulheres Portuguesas (National Council of Portuguese Women) | [193] |
| Portugal | Movimento Democrático de Mulheres (Democratic Women's Movement) | [160][194] |
 Puerto Rico | Federation of Puerto Rican Women | [168] |
 Republic of the Congo | Revolutionary Women's Union of Congo | [161] |
| Réunion | Women's Union of Réunion | [161] |
 Romania | National Council of Women | [94] |
 São Tomé and Príncipe | Women's Organization of São Tomé and Príncipe | [161] |
 Senegal | Democratic Union of the Women of Senegal | [195] |
 Seychelles | Women's League of theSeychelles People's United Party,a.k.a. Seychelles Women's Council | [161][196] |
 Sierra Leone | All People's Congress Women's Organization | [161] |
 Somalia | Organization of Somali Women | [161] |
 South Africa | African National Congress Women's League | [161] |
 South Vietnam | South Vietnam Women's Union for Liberation | [163] |
 South Yemen | General Union of Yemeni Women | [163] |
 Soviet Union | Antifascist Committee of Soviet Women | [160][197][198] |
 Spain | Movimiento Democrático de Mujeres (Democratic Women's Movement) | [160] |
 Sri Lanka | Lanka Kantha Peramuna (Women's Front of Sri Lanka) | [160] |
| Sri Lanka | Mathar Sangam (Women's Section of theDemocratic Workers Congress of Sri Lanka) | [163] |
 Sudan | Sudanese Women's Union | [161][199] |
 Suriname | Women's Section of the 25 February Movement | [200] |
 Sweden | Svenska Kvinnors Vänsterförbund [sv] (Swedish Women's Left Association) | [160][201] |
 Switzerland | Swiss Women's Federation for Peace and Progress (Fédération des femmes suisses pour la paix et le progrès/Schweizer Frauenvereinigung für Frieden und Fortschritt) | [160][202] |
 Tanzania | Umoja Ya Wanawake Tanzania (Union of Tanzanian Women) | [203] |
 Venezuela | Women's Section of the International Solidarity Committee | [168] |
 Vietnam | Vietnam Women's Union | [163] |
 West Germany | Democratic Women's League of Berlin (West Germany) | [160] |
 Western Sahara | National Union of Sahrawi Women | [204] |
 United Kingdom | National Assembly of Women | [160][205] |
 United States | Congress of American Women | [41] |
| United States | National Council of Negro Women | [206] |
| United States | Women for Racial and Economic Equality | [168] |
 Uruguay | Coordinating Commission of Uruguayan Women | [168] |
 Yugoslavia | Conference for Social Activities of Yugoslav Women | [160] |
| Yugoslavia | Women's Antifascist Front | [207] |
 Zimbabwe | African National Council of Zimbabwe | [163] |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
