Medical Women's International Association records

The Medical Women's International Association (MWIA) is the oldest international medical association in the world. It was founded in October 1919 by a group of medical women recognizing the importance of cooperative efforts on matters of national and international health.

This idea grew from a dinner held in New York City on October 21, 1919 in honor of women physicians and surgeons returning from serving at the American Women's Hospital #1 in France, where they had worked under the direction of the Reconstruction Committee of the Medical Women's National Association. The dinner was an opportunity for the doctors to meet with other women physicians who were in New York attending the International Conference of Women Physicians sponsored by The Young Women's Christian Association.

The delegates from the International Conference of Women Physicians were impressed by the achievements of the American women. It was immediately suggested that an International Organization be formed to facilitate an international exchange of ideas and unite their efforts in work for the benefit of mankind.

Following the dinner, a committee of twelve was elected and a provisional constitution was adopted. The aims of the Association were to create a link between international medical women, afford them means of communication with each other and offer opportunities to meet regularly to discuss questions relating to general health and well being. Dr. Esther P. Lovejoy, U.S.A. was elected as the first MWIA President. Three Vice-Presidents, a treasurer, a recording secretary, and a corresponding secretary were also elected. Woman doctors from 16 nations became the first members of MWIA.

While it was intended that MWIA be a federation of associations, in 1919 there existed only two national associations of medical women, the Medical Women's Federation in Great Britain and the Medical Women's National Association (later to become the American Women's Medical Association) in the United States. Hence the MWIA was organized initially as a society of individuals with membership open to any woman qualified to practice in the place she lived and irrespective of race, religion or political opinion.

Eventually, MWIA membership required membership in a member's national associations if one existed; individual membership was permitted only when a national association did not exist and MWIA encouraged individuals in those countries to organize and form an association.

In 1922 a Constitutive Assembly of the International Association met in Geneva. The Constitution and Regulations were discussed and adopted and a number of papers were presented. Over 80 medical women from 14 countries attended. It was the first of the meetings to then be offered every two to three years and to eventually be called "Congresses".

The International Congresses were and continue to be a focal point of MWIA activities. The location of the scientific meeting rotates, giving attendees the opportunity to observe circumstances and conditions around the world. Ideas are exchanged through the presentation of papers and visits to local health care facilities. The General Assemblies decide upon administrative policy. Resolutions expressing the concerns of the members are submitted to the General Assembly for approval. Publications summarizing the meetings were first titled the Medical Women's International Journal and later became Congress Reports.

By 1937 MWIA had 3,936 members representing national associations in 25 countries and numerous individual members. The 1937 meeting in Edinburgh was the last before WWII. During and after the war the American Women's Hospital Branch of the American Women's Medical Association supported emergency medical work during and after the war through the British Medical Women's Federation, the French Medical Women's Association and several other national associations affiliated with MWIA.

Post-war meetings showed the effect of the war. Only eleven countries were represented in London in 1946. Several pre-war officers had died and members in some countries had lost their lives because of the war. Membership reflected a greater number of young women than before the war. At the first post-war Congress in 1947 in Amsterdam, the meetings and discussions focused on the effect of the war and the medical woman's role in the reconstruction of the world. Attendees confirmed that as women physicians they must be qualified in their profession but also participate effectively in activities intent on social and moral betterment of society.

Membership in MWIA grew steadily. From close to 8000 members in 1953 the organization expanded to 11,000 members in 37 countries in 1976. Today, MWIA is a parent organization, whose 20,000 members represent 70 countries in all five continents.

Organizational Structure

The legal Head Office of the Association is in Geneva, Switzerland and the Association is incorporated under Article 60 of the Swiss Civil Code. Membership dues, honorary service and membership donations support the activities of the Association. The Administrative Headquarters coordinates the activities of the Member National Associations and Individual Members. Initially, the headquarters moved to the location of each newly elected president. Eventually, permanent offices were established, first in Geneva, then Vienna and finally in Cologne.

Delegates of the membership elect an Executive Committee to facilitate the affairs of the Association between the meetings of the General Assembly. While the structure of the organization has fluctuated, the present Executive Committee positions are: President, Immediate Past President, President-elect, Treasurer, Secretary General and Vice Presidents (regional leaders). Executive Committee meetings are held annually, or as needed.

Standing and Ad Hoc Committees advise the Executive Committee on business, social and medical issues. They also provide ideas and stimulus for activities in the future, be it topics for discussion, future projects, or active participation with organizations sharing areas of common interest.

Since the early 1950s, MWIA has been involved with the United Nations as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). Today the Association maintains official working relations with the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), Category II Status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and is involved in the Immunization Programs of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). MWIA is represented in all three of the United Nation Centers, New York and Geneva by Permanent Representatives. As a founding member, the Association is actively involved with the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS).

Throughout its history, MWIA has offered various types of financial support to its members. Presently, the Association sponsors a Scholarship program for postgraduate education.

Mission

The aims and objectives of the Association were re-confirmed and newly stated in 1966 and remain the basis for the work of the Medical Women's International Association:

1. To stimulate, encourage and promote entry of women into the medical and allied sciences throughout the world; search for ways to solve problems of medical women with small children 2. Provide opportunities for medical women to meet and discuss problems of mutual interest, particularly where they, as women and physicians, can make a unique contribution to the community. 3. Foster friendship and understanding among medical women throughout the world without regard to race, religion, or political views; affiliation is open to all medical women licensed to practice in their country. 4. Overcome any remaining discrimination between men and women physicians concerning remuneration and pursuit of their careers.

A. Aid medical women, particularly in developing countries, to obtain fellowships or scholarships for study abroad, and grants for travel to attend scientific assemblies.

B. To provide hospitality to medical women visitors from other countries and to provide them with information and advice concerning current programs of medical institutions.

C. To afford medical women the opportunity to work on common problems together and gain the cooperation of medical women in matters of international health.

D. To encourage medical women to form National Associations where none exist, and where the numbers warrant this.

The consistent theme in the work of the MWIA has been the status of women and conditions for women and children throughout the world – physically, mentally, socially and emotionally – with the understanding that all topics addressed be of international relevance. Issues raised and pursued included the role business and professional women were playing in improvement of conditions for the housewife; anemia in women; pathology and hygiene of housework; parent education and the medical practitioner; maternal morbidity; the adolescent; the "old woman"; AIDS, trafficking of women and children; female genital mutilation; preventive aspects of chronic disease; violence against women; the incidence of cancer in women and women's health in a changing world.

From the 1990s and into the 2000s, MWIA worked as an advocate for women and children's health through representation at international meetings, by offering workshops at World Conferences, lobbying government officials and issuing written statements. Leadership saw these activities as evidence of MWIA's potential to impact women's perspectives at the policy level and expected the power of MWIA to be in collectively offering their expertise as physicians to those seeking it.

Historical material compiled from the Archives and Special Collections on Women in Medicine accessions #271, and #1997.X.8.

Regions (as of June 2000)

Northern Europe

Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom

Central Europe

Austria, Germaney, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Switzerland

Southern Europe

Belgium, France, Israel, Italy

North America

Canada, United States of America

Latin America

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru

Near East and Africa

Benin, Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia

Central Asia

India, Thailand

Western Pacific

Australia, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Philippines, Taiwan ROC

Individual members in: Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Bulgaria, Burundi, Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Estonia, Ethiopia, Guinea, Hungary, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mali, Morocco, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Tonga, Tunisia, Venezuela, Yugoslavia

The MWIA Secretariat is the Association Headquarters, the location from which the Secretary General and her administrative support coordinate and facilitate Association business. The records cover the period 1919 – 1996. The collection includes correspondence, meeting agendas and minutes, financial records, and audio recordings, all documenting the daily business and activities of MWIA and reflecting the Association leadership and membership.

As an international organization, much of the business between meetings is discussed via correspondence, by mail, fax and more recently, electronic mail. Thus, correspondence files exist within almost every series and are the heart of the collection. Along with the business conducted via correspondence, many opinions, views and comments on concerns of MWIA members are expressed and the evolution of the organization documented. Business and views of the MWIA leadership are documented in Series I, Executive Committee, broken into sub-series defined by officer positions. The focus and directions of the Association are detailed in Presidents' correspondence, with the agenda of the reigning President apparent. Executive Committee minutes included in this collection range from 1919 to 1995. This collection also contains audio tapes of Executive Meetings between the years 1978 and 1993. This series also includes documentation of the various international conferences to which an MWIA representative was deployed.

The activities of the organization are documented in Series IV, Committees and Activities and Series VI, International Congresses and Meetings. Perspectives on the issues of greatest concern are reflected in correspondence, issue papers, meeting agendas and meeting publications. These documents describe both international health issues and concerns of specific countries, providing a picture of the status of women and of women's health in many different locales. A more thorough representation of specific issues can be found in Series XI, Research and Issues.

Formal communication takes the form of Officer Letters, Circular Letters and the occasional Newsletter, all of which can be found in Series I, Subseries 6: Officer Letters. Officer letters are generated by the Secretariat and function as a conduit for information needed by all officers. Circular Letters were distributed to all members -- they are referred to in other letters but there are no files of them in the collection; either they are housed at the Secretariat and/or they were discontinued. Documentation of the Newsletter is confined to 1990 to 1992 and again, was either discontinued or is still in Cologne. There are versions of the Young Forum Newsletter in Series IV, Committees. In addition to these forms of communication, MWIA produced an annual journal as well. Series X of this collection contains copies of these journals between the years 1926 and 1974.

Congress documentation is intermittent; the Congress Brochures provide regional reports, summarize the Meetings and recapitulate the scientific papers. Each brochure lists the conference topic as well as general Association information. Resolution drafts and changes are made in the exchange of Officer Letters (Series I). Further files concerning Congress affairs, the choice of papers and speakers are presumably still at the MWIA Secretariat. Financial records can be found in Series III, Financial and in Series IV, Committee Records. Again, these records are sporadic. Budgets, some bank statements and some audits are included and there is ample documentation of the status of membership dues. Annual financial reports are included in the Executive Meeting minutes. Additional financial material covering this period is in Accession #271.

A sense of individual physicians in and from smaller, less developed countries is found in the sub-series individual member dues in Series V, Membership. Also in Series V, the involvement, activities, financial concerns and primary issues of National Organizations are detailed in the sub-series National Associations and National Association Dues. Series VIII documents MWIA's official interaction with various external international organizations.

Daily business is recorded in Series II, Tageskopien, or "Record of the Day" which contains copies of each day's correspondence. While some of the documents are unique much of this materials is also followed elsewhere.

Series VII, Audiotapes, contains audio recordings of Executive Meetings, General Assemblies and Congresses.

Major issues addressed by MWIA during this period are: maternal and child wealth; female genital mutilation (FGM); trafficking and prostitution of children; new genetics; family planning; human rights and equality of rights for women; the Beijing World Conference on Women.

The collection is arranged into 11 series:
1. Executive Committee
2. Secretariat
3. Financial
4. Committees and Activities
5. Membership
6. International COngresses and Meetings
7. Audio Tapes
8. External Organizations
9. Public Relations
10. Publications
11. Research and Issues

It should be noted that this is a records transfer, a portion of the MWIA records, and that this collection is deeply rooted in Accessions #271 and #1997.X.8, the MWIA records from 1919 - 1996. There are gaps within the period covered because of files that are still in use by the Secretariat. Because of the international nature, many records are decentralized and not present in this collection but remaining with the officers creating them; for example, many financial records are not represented because they are housed with the papers of Lila S. Kroser, MWIA Treasurer for eight years

Use

Consult archivist regarding copyright restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Medical Women's International Association records, Drexel University College of Medicine Archives.

Publisher

Drexel University: College of Medicine Legacy Center

Finding aids author

Finding aid prepared by Margaret Graham and Eric Rosenzweig

Date

2009

Language Note

The majority of the materials are in English, the official language of MWIA during this period. The occasional document in another language, most frequently German or French, is usually accompanied by a translation.