It was organized by Catholic priests in preparation for the October 1907 election to the third State Duma but discussed only cultural and economic issues.
Different developments took place in Kaunas where women's issues were taken up by the members of the Catholic clergy, particularly by priest Povilas Januševičius [lt].
[2] According to Sofija Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė, the congress originated from an idea to establish a shop of homemade textiles and a need to recruit village women for the enterprise.
The priests selected seven women for the organizational committee, however, according to Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė, only one of them – Cecilija Leonienė, the wife of attorney Petras Leonas – had attended a gymnasium.
She also proposed Sofija Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė and Marija Pečkauskaitė as vice-chairs, Ona Pleirytė-Puidienė [lt] as secretary, and Petras Leonas as advisor.
According to Leonas, due to poor health and weak voice, Petkevičaitė presided over the proceedings only on paper; Pleirytė-Puidienė managed most of the actual work.
[3] The proceedings opened with a cantata about Lithuanian women composed specifically for the event by Ksaveras Sakalauskas-Vanagėlis [lt].
Women attendees also complained about their suffering – villagers about husbands who abused alcohol, city maids and servants about their exploitative employers.
[2] The committee included Gabrielė Petkevičaitė as chair, Sofija Kymantaitė-Čiurlionienė and Marija Pečkauskaitė as vicechairs, Ona Pleirytė-Puidienė [lt] and Marija Putvinskaitė-Žmuidzinavičienė [lt] as secretaries, Celina Leonienė and Kotryna Norkytė as treasurers, and Joana Griniuvienė, Elena Vaitkevičienė, and Teklė Augustinavičiūtė as members of the revision sub-committee.
Therefore, the congress included women from different social classes and political convictions but since the proceedings were in the Lithuanian language, other nationalities (Russian, Polish, Jewish) were not represented.
Men participants included Petras Leonas, Mykolas Sleževičius, Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas, Konstantinas Olšauskas, Povilas Dogelis [lt], Vincas Kapsukas, Karolis Požela, Steponas Kairys, Augustinas Janulaitis,[2] Kazys Grinius.