The advantages to IICW would be in exploiting WOWS' global communications network for selecting conference sites and dissemination about upcoming congresses. The link to WOWS could also assure that the IICW would not become inbred, known only to those who attended the prior conference.

For WOWS, the advantages are similarly positive. WOWS aspires to bring national groups together and thus create international linkages. It intends to create a network through which information can be exchanged, to have a presence at international meetings (like United Nations conferences), and to influence policy and resolutions on women at the international level or at the level of the United Nations. What would be better than to have an international conference bringing together scholars from all over the world? And since WOWS will need to hold meetings at regular intervals, a link to the IICW would provide a venue without duplicating that conference.

At this point the advantages of linking WOWS and IICW become clear:

• WOWS will tie its General Assembly meetings to the IICW meeting
• A representative of both the next and the prior Congress will always have a place on the Steering Committee
• A WOWS subcommittee, which will include the organizer of the most recent IICW and possibly prior congresses, will select the next site for the IICW
• WOWS will take an active and responsible role in publicizing the conference and recruiting proposals to host the next conference

WOWS will not, however, run the conference. Since WOWS operates as a communications network rather than an organization capable of undertaking major projects, the organization of the conference will remain, as it has traditionally been, the responsibility of the host group.

- “How it all began: the Founding of Women’s Worlds Congress and International Network” (Marilyn P. Safir)

Worldwide Organization of Women's Studies