From the ashes of WWII, the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF) was formed. 850 delegates representing 40 countries convened in the founding WIDF congress in Paris in 1945.
It was the largest and probably most influential international women’s organization after 1945.
WIDF was founded in Paris in 1945 as an anti-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 against fascism and in favor of world peace, in protecting public health with particular focus on child welfare, in improving the status of women’s rights, and in building internationalist friendships among women.
The international day for protection of children, observed since 1950 in many countries as Children’s Day on 1 June, was established on the initiative of a WIDF campaign held in 1949.
At various points in its history, the WIDF enjoyed consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the United Nations.
It was as a result of proposals from WIDF representatives on the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) that the United Nations declared 1975 as International Women’s Year.
From the beginnings of World War II progressive women who were liberal, socialist, or communist, were active in the fight against fascism and the spread of the racist and sexist ideology of Nazism.
During the war, many of these women took part in anti-fascist conferences throughout Europe.
Eugénie Cotton attended a meeting of the Union des Femmes Françaises (Union of French Women) in 1944, which sparked the idea for forming the Women International Democratic Federation.
Among the founding members were Elizabeth 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), and Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier (France), Among the women sending congratulations and support for the founding of WDIF were Clementine Churchill, wife of the British Prime Minister; Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States, and Isie Smuts, wife of the Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa. Gabrielle Duchêne, a vice president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), and Margery Corbett Ashby, president of the International Alliance of Women, attended the congress.
In the United States, progressive women formed the Congress of American Women (CAW) as the US-affiliate to the WIDF. During the McCarthy Era, it was outlawed by the US government. The new affiliate of the WIDF was created in 1975, called the Women for Racial and Economic Equality (WREE).
Today, WREE continues to be active in the American women’s movement and is a catalyst to reactivate the Women’s International Democratic Federation.
