International Women's Year Conference Collection

Background on the International Women's Year Conference

The year 1975 was named International Women’s Year by the United Nations with the intent of recognizing the contributions of women in society and making progress towards equality of the sexes around the world. In response, President Ford issued Executive Order No. 11832, calling for the creation of the National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year, and Congress passed Public Law 94-167, commissioning and funding a National Women’s Conference. The bill allocated five million dollars of federal funding to organize the NWC, as well as smaller state and regional meetings.

Throughout 1977, the state meetings were held in preparation for the NWC. These state meetings shared objectives in accordance with Public Law 94-167: celebrating women's contributions; bringing women together, especially a group representative of the state’s diversity, to discuss issues affecting women; voting on actions and resolutions, particularly those proposed by the National Commission; and electing delegates to represent the state at the NWC in November 1977. Each meeting and its resolutions were summarized in a final report submitted to the National Commission on the Observance of International Women’s Year.

Results of the meetings differed widely from state to state, as did their receptions. Some meetings were met with a positive and hopeful attitude from their constituents, while others were fraught with anger and controversy. The first of their kind, these events were well attended by women ready to fight for their interests and opinions. Despite initial hopes that these women’s conferences would become annual events, without funding such meetings have not been held on this nationwide scale since 1977.