[3] From its founding until the present the organization's structure, internal debates, and activity have been influenced by critical events in the national liberation struggle and by the ultimate authority of the ANC.

[4] The Bantu Women's League (BWL) was founded in 1913 by Dr. Charlotte Manye Maxeke as a part of the ANC but without full membership rights.

[7] A central issue that led to its formation were the attempts by the Orange Free State province to require Black women to carry passes.

[8] Passes were documents that were used as a means by which local state authorities and white capitalists could regulate the movement of Black South Africans, most of whom were migrant workers.

In response and led by Maxeke, the members burned their passes in front of municipal offices while chanting, protest and even fighting with police.

[3] The women made up a powerful political constituency, and the ANC was building a mass base to achieve its goal of national liberation.

The increase in secondary industry and the reduction of the reserve economy prompted the mass urbanization of women into townships, creating the conditions for a massive wave of resistance in the 1940s and 1950s.

"[15] This remark was made coming off of the heels of the ANCWL's large involvement in the Defiance Campaign, which saw women members taking important roles and leading massive actions.

On August 9, 1956, league members representing the Federation of South African Women, confronted Prime Minister J. G. Strydom with a petition against pass laws.

The National Party government declared a state of emergency and moved to ban the ANC and the Pan African Congress, among others.

[3] Several months after the ANC was unbanned by the apartheid government, the ANCWL was relaunched in Durban on 9 August 1990, the anniversary of the famous 1956 Women's March.

[25] On 11 February 1995, eleven members of the ANCWL national executive resigned from their positions in protest of Madikizela-Mandela's leadership, vaguely citing undemocratic practices and a lack of accountability.

[35][36][37][38] Although Madikizela-Mandela was elected to a second term as ANCWL president at the league's 1997 conference,[19][39] she was convicted of fraud and theft in April 2003 and resigned from the office.

[46] The Mail & Guardian reported that Mbeki had secured the league's support by selecting Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma (a provincial leader of the ANCWL in KwaZulu-Natal at that time)[35] as his running mate.

[48] When the next conference was held in Pretoria in August 2015, it hosted a repeat of the 2008 leadership battle;[49] on this occasion, Dlamini won, earning 1,537 votes to Motshekga's 1,081.

[55] Since the ANCWL was relaunched in 1990, its presidents have been: In 1956, Lilian Ngoyi became the first elected female member of the ANC National Executive Committee.

[3] Among the activists and politicians who were allied with the ANC during the apartheid decades are: Many of these women were members of the ANCWL or worked with them in organizations like FEDSAW to advance the national liberation struggle.