Its emphasis has since shifted to a broad human rights focus and the importance and value of women`'s contributions as equal partners.

It also has representatives to the Arab League in Cairo and the Gulf Countries Council in Riyadh, and is a member of the European Women's Lobby in Brussels.

Speaking on trans inclusion, former IAW President Marion Böker said that for the women's rights movement, it is necessary to work on the basis of human rights, which are universal and indivisible, defend democratic values, and fight for an inclusive women's movement, describing anti-trans activists as "right-wing and racist.

[7] Its founders included Carrie Chapman Catt, Millicent Fawcett, Helene Lange, Susan B. Anthony, Anita Augspurg, Rachel Foster Avery, and Käthe Schirmacher.

IWSA, influenced by moderate liberal feminist Millicent Fawcett against the militancy of suffragettes in the style of Emmeline Pankhurst, refused membership to the WSPU at their 1906 Copenhagen meeting.

Most IAW members held "similar views of society and societal change, which assumed a top-down approach, where the elite were cast as the true agents of development."

In the alliance's journal International Women's News it was stated in 1946 that the support of the United Nations and democracy must "remain in the forefront of our programme.

"[10] Its third President Hanna Rydh worked actively to build cooperation in developing countries, partially to counteract communism.

In line with this, IAW affiliates such as Deutscher Frauenring advocate for trans-inclusive feminism[16] and emphasize that far-right movements that undermine the human rights of minorities threaten democracy.

[17] In 2021 IAW and its affiliate, the Icelandic Women's Rights Association (IWRA), co-organized a CSW forum on how the women's rights movement can counter "anti-trans voices [that] are becoming ever louder and [that] are threatening feminist solidarity across borders," where IAW's 16th President Marion Böker discussed her trans-inclusive position.

"[19] IAW's Norwegian affiliate, the Norwegian Association for Women's Rights, has warned against the anti-gender movement, expressed solidarity with the LGBT+ rights struggle and supported legal protections against discrimination and hate speech on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

In 1916, suffragists staged "The Golden Lane" at the national Democratic convention; to reach the convention hall, all delegates had to walk through a line of women stretching several blocks long, dressed in white with gold sashes, carrying yellow umbrellas, and accompanied by hundreds of yards of draped gold bunting.

Gold also signified enlightenment, the professed goal of the mainstream U.S. suffrage movement.An International Congress is held triennially in the home country of a member organization, and elects the executive board.

The executive board also includes the Secretary-General, the Treasurer and until 20 other members, including two Executive Vice Presidents as well as Vice Presidents for Europe, the Arab countries, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Africa, and Regional Coordinators for North America, Pacific, and South East Asia.

The IAW's current representative to the UN headquarters, Soon-Young Yoon, is also chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, New York.

The IAW pays particular attention to the universal ratification and implementation without reservation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and its Optional Protocol.

The current IAW Commissions deal with the topics: Justice and Human Rights; Democracy; Peace; Elimination of Violence and Health.