Over 50 Years of
Advancing Women’s Leadership
In 1974, our visionary founder, Elinor Guggenheimer, set out to create a “new women’s network” for women across sectors, committed to supporting each other as they advance in their careers and lives.
Today, IWF is a global community of more than 8,000 accomplished women across 77 Forums in 35 countries. Our members, always trailblazers, continue to lead at the cutting-edge of change in professions around the world. Their successes prove that equality at every level of leadership makes for better business, stronger societies, and a better world.
Photo Caption: IWF’s first National Conference in 1985
A Global Community
Of trailblazers, thought leaders, and pioneers
IWF 50th Anniversary
IWF Through the Years
1970 Women’s Forum of New York
1986 Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and IWF Hall of Fame honoree
1988 Adrianne Hall, founder and CEO of the first national advertising agency headed by a woman, IWF Southern California; and Audrey Hepburn, Humanitarian, Children’s Rights Advocate and international film star, IWF Hall of Fame honoree
1993 IWF founders Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and Elinor Guggenheimer, American civic leader, author, and philanthropist
1994 First IWF Leadership Fellows class
1998 (left to right) Cicely Tyson, award-winning actress; Ruby Dee, actress and poet; IWF Hall of Fame honoree Rosa Parks, civil rights movement activist; and Dorothy Height, civil rights and women’s rights activist.
1999 Ophelia Cheung, Chairman & Managing Director, Cheung-Macpherson & Co. Ltd., IWF Hong Kong; Fran Streets, Director, New Resource Bank and Past IWF President; Ellen Li, first woman in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong
2005 IWF World Leadership Conference, Washington, DC
2007 IWF past Presidents Fran Streets, Rosemary Weiss, Ambassador Barbara Barrett, Gay Cook, Susan Davis, and Esther Silver-Parker
2009 Madam Chen Zhili, former President of the All-China Women’s Federation and Vice Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, IWF Hall of Fame honoree; and Esther Silver-Parker, IWF past President
2017 IWF Intensive, with Brigadier General Dana Born, Faculty Chair, Senior Executive Fellows Program & Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
2023 IWF World Leadership Conference in Detroit
