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, England, 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 international level. The ICW enjoys consultative status with the UN and its Permanent Representatives to: ECOSOC, ILO, FAO, WHO, UNDP, UNEP, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNCTAD, UNIDO, etc.
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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. The meeting was part of a celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights convention.
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. 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 president but she refused to serve. Other early ICW presidents were:
In 1894 the ICW met in Berlin where Alix von Cotta said that many senior teachers stayed away. In 1899, they met in London, UK, and again in 1904 in Berlin.
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 from women of non-European origin. The ICW did not actively promote women's suffrage as to not upset the more conservative members. 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.
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 woman's rights (and their nationality) when married to a man from another country. Two additional coalitions were formed in 1931: the Liaison Committee and the Peace and Disarmament Committee. The ICW constitution was revised in 1936.
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 first National Council of Women of Australia was established in 1931 to coordinate the state bodies existing prior to Australia's Federation.
The ICW Today
The ICW worked with the League of Nations during the 1920s and the United Nations post-World War II. Today the ICW holds Consultative Status with the UNESCO, the highest accreditation an NGO can achieve at the United Nations. Currently, it is composed of 70 countries and has a headquarters in Paris. International meetings are held every three years.
Archives
Papers of the International Council of Women are held at The Women's Library at the Library of the London School of Economics, ref 5ICW
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 in 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.