[2] Created on 11 November 1935, to coincide with the Armistice of World War I, on which day many of its founder members attended a memorial ceremony, and approved by the Civil Government of Lisbon on 8 February of the following year, the Associação Feminina Portuguesa para a Paz (AFPP) was initially established in Lisbon by a group of twenty female activists who stated their concern about "constant threats that hover over the world and startle the hearts of all women.

[2][4][5] Every year members of the AFPP would lay flowers at war memorials on 9 April, the anniversary of the Battle of La Lys, in which many Portuguese soldiers were killed.

[6] Coinciding with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and in the aftermath of constant political crises in Portugal that marked the end of the First Portuguese Republic and the rise of the Estado Novo, the association initially took as its main objective the search for solutions to spread ideas of peace and human solidarity, "diverting the spirit of youth from warlike concerns".

This led its members to start to address the struggle for the improvement of the living conditions of women in all spheres of Portuguese society, covering equal rights and constitutional freedoms, as well as aiming to combat illiteracy, hunger, disease, and poverty.

After the 25 April 1974 Carnation Revolution, which overthrew the Estado Novo, some past members wanted to reactivate the AFPP but a meeting held to discuss such a proposal rejected the idea because there was by then in existence the Conselho Português para a Paz e Cooperação (Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation -CPPC).