The International Council of Women (ICW) is a women's organization working across national boundaries for the common cause of advocating human rights for women. In March and April 1888, women leaders came together in Washington D.C., with 80 speakers and 49 delegates representing 53 women's organizations from 9 countries: Canada, the United States, Ireland, India, United Kingdom, Finland, Denmark, France and Norway. 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 the United Nations and its Permanent Representatives to ECOSOC, ILO, FAO, WHO, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNCTAD, and UNIDO.

Beginnings During a visit to Europe in 1882, American suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan 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. The National 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 was Caroline Elizabeth Merrick. The meeting was part of a celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights convention.National Woman Suffrage Association (1888). Report of the International Council of Women: Assembled by the National Woman Suffrage Association, Washington, D. C., U. S. of America, March 25 to April 1, 1888 pp.9–11.

Rachel Foster Avery managed much of the details of the planning of the first meeting of the ICW, and Susan B. Anthony presided over eight of the sixteen sessions.See the University of Rochester Libraries' Online Exhibit of Susan B. Anthony: Celebrating "An Heroic Life" for images of the Report and Proceedings of the first ICW as well as letters from Susan B. Anthony about the planning process. 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 as Margaret Tanner, Helen Priestman Bright Clark, Emily Sturge, Mary Estlin and Maria Colby signed a supportive letter sent to the first meeting, until the title "In the Fellowship of Womanhood."

In 1894, the ICW met in Berlin, where Alix von Cotta said that many senior teachers stayed away.Letter from Alix von Cotta, National Archives, Retrieved 29 December 2016 The British activist, Margery Corbett Ashby was in attendance, and recalls the event and the relationship of the ICW with the IWSA in an interview with the historian, Brian Harrison, as part of the Suffrage Interviews project, titled Oral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews. In 1899, they met in London.Helene Stöcker, Lebenserinnerungen ed. Reinhold Lütgeeier-Davin, Kerstin Wolff. Cologne: Böhlau, 2003, p. 93; Helene Lange, Gertrud Bäumer, Handbuch der Fr auenbewegung (Berlin: Moeser, 1901, p. 151

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's suffrage, 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.

Twentieth century In 1904, at the Berlin congress of the ICW, a separate organization formed to accommodate the strong feminist identity of the national suffrage associations: the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. The 1909 congress was held in Toronto, Canada and the 1914 conference took place in Rome. The 6th Congress was held in 1920 in Kristiania, Norway; followed in 1925 by the Washington, D. C. Congress; and then in 1930, the conference was held in Vienna. The next conference was a jointly-held congress of the ICW and the National Council of Women in India, hosted in Calcutta in 1936. During World War II congresses were suspended.

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.See Dorothy P. Page, "'A Married Woman, or a Minor, Lunatic or Idiot': The Struggle of British Women against Disability in Nationality, 1914–1933," doctoral dissertation, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, 1984. Two additional coalitions were formed in 1931: the Liaison Committee and the Peace and Disarmament Committee. The ICW constitution was revised in 1936.The ICW Papers are housed at Smith College in the Sophia Smith Collection. The ICW worked with the League of Nations during the 1920s and the United 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.

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.

Present day Since 1947, ICW has Consultative Status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) the highest accreditation an NGO can achieve at the United Nations. Currently, the ICW is composed of 70 countries and has a headquarters in Paris. International meetings are held every three years.

+ List of presidents of ICW President Duration Nationalitynone1888–1893 -Ishbel Hamilton-Gordon1893–1899ScotlandMay Wright Sewall1899–1904United StatesIshbel Maria Hamilton-Gordon1904–1920ScotlandPauline Chaponnière-Chaix1920–1922SwitzerlandIshbel Maria Hamilton-Gordon1922–1936ScotlandMarthe Boël1936–1947BelgiumRenée Girod(interim) 1940–1945 SwitzerlandJeanne Eder-Schwyzer1947–1957SwitzerlandMarie-Hélène Lefaucheux1957–1963FranceMary McGeachy1963–1973CanadaMehrangiz Dowlatshahi1973–1976IranNgarmchit Purachatra1976–1979ThailandMiriam Dell1979–1986New ZealandHong Sook-ja1986–1988South KoreaLily Boeykens1988–1994BelgiumKuraisin Sumhadi1994–1997IndonesiaPnina Herzog1997–2003IsraelAnamah Tan2003–2009SingaporeCosima Schenk2009–2015SwitzerlandKim Jungsook2015–2022South KoreaMartine Marandel2022–France

International meetings

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 the National Council of Women in India

1946: Philadelphie

2006: Kyiv

2009: Johannesburg

2015: Seoul

2015: Izmir

2018: Yogyakarta

2022: Avignon

Archives Papers of the International Council of Women are held at The Women's Library.Library of the London School of Economics, ref 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.

Affiliates National Council of Women of the United States was founded in 1888 at the first ICW gathering. The National Council of Women of Canada was founded in 1893. The National Council of French Women was created in 1901, the National Council of Italian Women in 1903, and the National Council of Belgian Women in 1905. The first National Council of Women of Australia was established in 1931 to coordinate the state bodies existing prior to Australia's Federation.

See also List of women's organizations Mapping the World of Women's Information Services

References

Bibliography

External links International Council of Women website Records of the International Council of Women at the Women's Library, London School of Economics International Council of Women records at the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Special Collections