International Alliance of Women

The decision to establish the International Alliance of Women was taken in Washington in 1902 as part of an annual convention of the National American Women Suffrage Association, although it took some nine months to come to fruition. It was originally named the International Woman Suffrage Committee, with Susan B Anthony as president, Vida Goldstein of Australia as secretary and with a committee of five members. This committee consisted of the secretary, Britain's representative Florence Fenwick Miller, Rachel Avery of the USA, Mrs Antoine Stolle of Germany and Mrs Gundrun Drewson of Norway. At this date, it was envisaged as a central bureau to collect, exchange and disseminate information on suffrage work internationally. Its objects were: (1) To secure enfranchisement for the women of all nations, by the promotion of woman suffrage and all such other reforms as are necessary to establish a real equality of liberties, status and opportunities between men and women, and (2) to urge women to use their rights and influence in public life to ensure that the status of every individual, without distinction of sex, race or creed, shall be based on respect for human personality, the only guarantee for individual freedom. A second conference was held in Berlin in 1904 at which the organisation was formally constituted. A third took place in 1906, the same year that its periodical 'Jus Suffragii' was created. Work progressed despite some dissension produced by conflicts at national level. One such incident occurred that same year when Millicent Fawcett challenged the Women's Social and Political Union's representative Dora Montefiore. However, by June 1911, 24 associations were affiliated. The group continued throughout the First World War, although members' opinions were divided over the issue of pacifism, which led to the creation of another body, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1915. At the end of the conflict, representatives from its ranks attended the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 to work with some of the special commissions that touched on women's interests internationally. With the extension of the franchise to women in a number of countries after the Great War, there was some discussion of disbanding the organisation. However, it was decided that it should go on after a conference in Geneva in 1920, divided into franchised and non-franchised sections. The next conference three years later took place in Rome where the leadership passed from Carrie Chapman Catt to Margery Corbett Ashby. The organisation of the group was also changed, due to the increased sized of the group (38 affiliated members in 1923). From this point there was an increasing number of special committees on subject areas such as equal pay and the right to work, equal moral standards and the status of wives and mothers. The 1926 conference in Paris responded to this widening of their areas of interest by changing the name of the organisation to the International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship. By 1929 the organisation took as its five principles 1. equal suffrage 2. working for peace and human solidarity 3. equal access to education as a means of attaining equality of economic and working rights 4. equality of moral standards 5. equality of legal rights, especially for married women The principle of working for peace and disarmament was an area which would grow in importance throughout the late twenties and into the thirties as contact with the League of Nations grew through joint work on women's status. The outbreak of the Second World War saw the work falter, though not end, and in 1946 the body re-emerged as the International Alliance of Women: Equal Rights - Equal Responsibilities. Since then, it has worked closely with the United Nations. The organisation was among the first of the Non-Governmental Organisations to be accredited with Consultative Status by the Economic and Social Commission (ECOSOC) of the newly established United Nations in 1948 and contributed to work on the Declaration of Human Rights. It also increased its work with individual commissions attached to the larger international group, particularly those on social matters, the status of women, the International Labour Organisation and UNESCO. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, their involvement with organisations based in post-colonial countries increased and with it their focus on issues such as population and family planning. By 1989 the revised objectives were: (a) To secure all such reforms as are necessary to establish a real equality of liberties, status and opportunities between men and women and to work for equal partnership between men and women in all spheres of life (b) To urge women to accept their responsibilities and to use their rights and influence in public life to ensure that the status of every individual without distinction of sex, race or creed, shall be based on respect for the person, the only guarantee for individual freedom (c) To promote a better quality of life and good understanding among peoples Between triennial Congresses, a Board Meeting and an International Meeting are held, each accompanied by a seminar. The official organ of the IAW is the International Women's News Journal. This periodical was taken over for a short period by the Women's Publicity Planning Association between 1940 and 1945. Prior to that it was known as Jus Suffragii.

Founded as the International Woman Suffrage Alliance at a conference in Berlin, 1904. Woman suffrage was their primarily goal until 1913, when they began to address wider issues such as peace, equal pay, women's right to employment, the nationality of married women, prostitution, and slavery. By the 1920s, although it continued to press for woman suffrage in countries without it, the organization adopted peace and equality as its major goals. In the late 1920s the name was changed to the International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship, and Margery Corbett Ashby headed the organization which maintained its commitment to peace throughout the inter war period. Shortly after World War II, the group shortened its name to the International Alliance of Women and adopted a program of peace, democracy, women's rights, and support for the United Nations.

At a 1902 meeting in Washington, D.C., delegates from ten countries, believing that a new international organization devoted to women's suffrage was needed, planned to meet in Berlin to form a permanent organization. Delegates from eight nations founded the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA) in 1904 as an unconditionally pro-suffrage and explicitly feminist alternative to the International Council of Women, which had failed to take a clear pro-suffrage position. The Alliance established suffrage as its primary goal from the beginning and maintained votes for women as its sole concern until just before World War I. Beginning in 1913 the group began to address wider issues including prostitution, peace, equal pay, women's right to employment, the nationality of married women, and slavery. In 1915, individual members of IWSA from warring countries had met in the Hague and were instrumental in setting up what has become another highly regarded sister organization, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

By the 1920s the Alliance was divided into groups of enfranchised and disenfranchised women and, although it continued to press for woman suffrage in countries without it, the organization also adopted peace and equality as major goals. Changing its name to the International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship in the late 1920s, the group, headed by Margery Corbett Ashby, maintained its commitment to peace throughout the inter-war period. Although it became increasingly similar to the International Council of Women after the 1910s it stubbornly maintained its separate structure and identity. Emerging intact out of the chaos of World War II the organization adopted a program of peace, democracy, women's rights, and support for the United Nations. In 1946 the name International Alliance of Women was adopted with the sub-title Equal Rights - Equal Responsibilities.

In its present-day work the IAW "affirms that full and equal enjoyment of human rights is due to all women and girls. The IAW maintains that a prerequisite to securing these rights is the universal ratification and implementation without reservation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The importance and value of women's contributions as equal partners has been acknowledged in numerous United Nations World Conferences held during the past decades." [Source: IAW Web site http://www.womenalliance.org/history.html ]