Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) is an international organization working for women's rights. WIDF was founded in Paris in 1945. Its first president was Eugenie Cotton, and its founding members included Tsola Dragoycheva and Ana Pauker. Later leaders included the Australian Freda Brown. The WIDF was one of the largest and "probably most influential international women's organizations of the post-1945 era." At various points in its history, the WIDF enjoyed consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations. It was at the initiation of representatives of the WIDF in the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the United Nations that the UN declared the International Women's Year in 1975.
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The main areas of concern initially identified by WIDF were anti-fascism, world peace, child welfare and improving the status of women. During the Cold War years, it was described as Communist-leaning and pro-Soviet. International Day for Protection of Children, observed in many countries as Children's Day on June 1 since 1950, is said to have been established by the Federation on its November 1949 congress in Moscow. The WIDF published a monthly magazine, Women of the Whole World, in English, French, Spanish, German, and Russian, with occasional issues in Arabic.
The secretariat of the current WIDF is based in São Paulo, Brazil. Philippine Congresswoman, Liza Maza, is the regional coordinator of WIDF in Asia.
Cold War
During the Cold War, the Congress of American Women was the affiliate organization of the WIDF in the United States. In 1949, members of the Congress of American Women were targeted by the Committee on Un-American Activities of the House of Representatives (HUAC). In HUAC's report, the WIDF was named as a "communist front" organization, less interested in advanced women's rights than supporting Soviet foreign policy. The anti-communist smear campaign against the WIDF forced the organization to relocate from Paris to East Berlin and briefly cost the organization their consultative status with the United Nations.
Scholars have subsequently argued that the WIDF was an active feminist organization advocating for women's rights, and that "Cold War" stereotypes continue to impact the legacy of this organization, effectively erasing it from the history of international women's movements. Despite the Cold War context, the WIDF played an important role in supporting women's anti-colonial struggles in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.