Continuing Cold War Paradigms in Western Historiography of Transnational Women’s Organisations: the case of the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF)

This article explores Cold War assumptions that have shaped the western historiography of inter/transnational women’s organisations, in particular the International Council of Women (ICW), the International Alliance of Women (IAW), and the Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF). A number of assumptions are discussed—that the western organisations were ‘politically neutral’, with their feminist identity or agenda taken for granted; secondly, that the ICW and IAW were located ‘in the West’ and the WIDF ‘behind the Iron Curtain’, without any interaction between them; and thirdly, that the Congress of American Women (CAW) and its international umbrella organisation, the Women’s International Democratic Federation, were deeply politicised, i.e. ‘Communist’ but not ‘feminist’. It is argued that these assumptions have contributed to a one‐sided emphasis on western international women’s organisations and to a state of ‘not knowing’ about the WIDF. In the second part of the article, the WIDF is briefly discussed, with a focus on its early life in war‐ravaged Europe.