The first summit took place March 12–14, 2010, and included appearances by Queen Rania of Jordan, Meryl Streep, Valerie Jarrett, Christine Lagarde, Hillary Clinton, Madeleine K. Albright, Nora Ephron, and Katie Couric.

At the second summit, held March 10–12, 2011, participants included Hillary Clinton, Dr. Hawa Abdi, Condoleezza Rice, Sheryl Sandberg, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Diane Von Furstenberg, Melinda Gates and Ashley Judd.

At subsequent summits, featured guests included Angelina Jolie, Oprah Winfrey, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee, Barbra Streisand, Nancy Pelosi, Gloria Steinem, Zainab Salbi, Christiane Amanpour, Justin Trudeau, Masih Alinejad, Nikki Haley, Lynsey Addario, Cecile Richards, Priyanka Chopra, Melinda Gates, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nicholas Kristof, Ajay Banga and Anna Wintour.

In 2012, Women in the World expanded outside of the U.S. with a summit held in São Paulo, Brazil.

Between 2012 and 2019 Women in the World summits and salons were held in New Delhi, Toronto, London and Dubai, as well as Washington DC, San Antonio, Dallas, Los Angeles and Miami.