[5][4] Within five months of the first meeting, the society ran its first literary competition for prose and poetry, with Senior and Junior (under 21) categories.
Branches were founded in Auckland, Waikato and Hawke's Bay after the 1950s, with some informal associated groups existing in other parts of New Zealand.
[1][2][7] The NZWWS published magazines of members' work, first in April 1934 under the title Women Writers' and Artists' Journal; a review in The Dominion newspaper commented that the work deserved wider circulation and congratulations, albeit "more for the promise they show of better things to come in the future than for any intrinsic merit they possess".
[1][9][10] A review of the 1938 issue of The Quill by The New Zealand Herald called it a "decided credit to the society" which "provides some very pleasant reading".
[1][9] Evening Post commented that "disciplined technique has in several instances saved poems from mediocrity", but recommended the book for the "originality of its scope and conception".
[24] In the early 1980s, an anthology of members' work was published, along with a book of its history, to mark the fifty-year anniversary, and a Christchurch branch was established.
[1][2] In 1960 it was estimated that 68 percent of members were based outside New Zealand's main cities, with the society and its publications enabling their connection to other women writers throughout the country.