The Worldwide Organization for Women's Studies (WOWS), is a federation of associations concerned with studies related to women and gender. It was established to promote and support feminist knowledge and critiques of knowledge while seeking to improve women's quality of life. This includes supporting group activities in order to establish, extend and defend teaching and research relating to women and gender studies.
Its aims are:
- To build solidarity amongst the practitioners of women's studies.
- To encourage international and transnational networking in women's studies.
- To promote women's studies teaching, research and publications.
- To encourage the development of women's studies associations or networks where they do not exist.
- To extend the organisation to include women's studies associations or networks wherever these exist.
- To facilitate translation and exchange of teaching and research materials.
- To encourage and facilitate collaboration and exchange among women's studies students, faculties and other practitioners.
- To defend the interests of women's studies.
The idea of a world-wide association of women's studies was first put forward by the NGO Forum of the United Nations Conference on Women, which took place in Kenya in 1985 as a way of maintaining contact between practitioners of women's studies throughout the world. In 1995, around 165 women from 43 countries attended the workshops of the NGO Forum held in China, where they met to support the creation of an international organisation of feminist and women's studies associations. The following year, 1996, WOWS officially came into being at the Sixth International Congress on Women (IlCW) in Adelaide. Subsequently, a working group consisting of nine volunteers representing different regions of the world worked together to prepare the first General Assembly of founder members, which took place at the Seventh International Congress on Women (IlCW) held in Tromsø, Norway, in 1999. At this meeting the Statutes were drawn up and passed by representatives of the thirteen member groups. Between 1999 and 2002 a Management Committee was formed to administer WOWS and prepare the next General Assembly. Finally, a subcommittee was formed to choose the venues of future International Interdisciplinary Congresses on Women.
Unlike other important international academic congresses, therefore, the International Interdisciplinary Congress on Women and Women's Worlds (IICW and WW) does not have a members' organization to maintain it financially, either fully or in part, and/or provide support for the organization of each congress event (beyond selection of the organizing body and venue and the small amount of publicity shown by some of the member associations on its website). In other words, each congress is organized from scratch each time; it moulds itself to the university, city and country in which it is being held as regards the choice of topics, databases, distribution of information, institutional and government involvement, logistics and additional languages to English. Each event is completely independent with respect to administration.
Previous Congresses have been held in:
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YEAR
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COUNTRY
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PLACE
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1st Congress 1981
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Haifa- Israel
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University of Haifa
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2nd Congress 1984
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Groningen- Netherlands
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University of Groningen
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3rd Congress 1987
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Dublin - Ireland
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Trinity College
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4th Congress 1990
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New York City -U.S.A.
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Hunter College
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5th Congress 1993
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San José - Costa Rica
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University of Costa Rica
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6th Congress 1996
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Adelaide -Australia
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University of Adelaide
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7th Congress 1999
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TromsØ -Norway
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University of TromsØ
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8th Congress 2002
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Kampala -Uganda
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University of Makerere
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9th Congress 2005
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Seoul –South of Korea
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Ewha Womans University
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