History of the Delegation for Friendship among Women

The idea for the Delegation came from Margaret McNamara when she and her husband RobertS. McNamara, Secretary of Defense, were on an official visit to Japan in 1963. After a few official dinners and sightseeing, she wondered what the concerns were of women in Japan, how did they raise their children and how did they care for their elderly parents. Upon returning to the United States, Mrs. McNamara expressed her desire to her friend Bernice Behrens, the official hostess of California, to form a group of women that could travel from the United States to developing countries to exchange information on the challenges facing women at that time. After successful trips to Russia and Eastern Europe in the 1960s, Elly Peterson, chairperson for the Minnesota Republican party, Rhoda Lund, state chairperson for the Republican party, Lenore March, active in Minnesota women’s groups, and Mary Pomeroy, who had been in one of the first official groups of women to visit Russia in 1965, founded the Delegation for Friendship among Women. Several trips later these four women went to Washington and established the Delegation as a tax-exempt organization. The Delegation has the express purpose of promoting friendship and understanding among women leaders of the world of comparable interests and backgrounds. We are a non-political organization and are committed to a cultural appreciation, friendship and peaceful coexistence among the many peoples of the world. All involved in the experience are enriched by developing a shared understanding and appreciation of both our differences and our similarities as cultures and as individuals.

The Delegation is distinguished by the diversity of its members who represent every region of the United States and whose backgrounds include academia, business, health care, arts and volunteerism. It is an autonomous, self-funded group that receives briefing and information from the United States State Department. Delegates have met with women leaders in Argentina, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Cuba, Egypt, Guatemala, Hungary, Indonesia, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, New Zealand, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, North Korea, Oman, Peru, Rwanda, The People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, Western Samoa, South Korea, Syria, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tonga, Russia, Venezuela and Yemen. Delegates have also participated in international women’s conferences. The information and experiences of the delegates are formally communicated to civic organizations in the United States. Since its inception, the Delegation has visited and talked with women leaders at universities, primary and secondary schools, orphanages, hospitals, textile factories and home projects, farms, new housing developments and impoverished neighborhoods, homes for the aged, facilities for the homeless, district courts, national museums and historical sites. In every country the Delegation tours projects that the women of the country are engaged in and share information on projects from other countries that could be helpful to the women they are visiting. They have been advised and entertained by our Ambassadors in almost every country they have visited.

Among the outstanding women that the Delegation for Friendship among Women has had the privilege to meet over the years are: Valentina Tershkova, Russian first woman in space; First Lady Jehan Sadat (Egypt); First Lady Suzanne Mubarak (Egypt); First Lady Barbara Bush (U.S.); First Lady Pat Nixon (U.S.); Prime Minister Golda Meir (Israel); Princess Ashraf (Iran); First Lady Mrs. Hafiz al Assad (Syria); Empress Farah Diba (Iran) Her Highness Shaykha Fatima (United Arab Emirates); Mother Teresa (India); Prime Minister Indira Ghandi (India); Princess Ashi Wangchuck (Bhutan); and Princess Badial Al Saud (Kuwait). Over the past 50 years, delegates have: given books for village schools in Egypt and sewing machines to village women in India; sponsored two girls from Albania to come to the United States to finish their education; helped sponsor a doctor from the People’s Republic of China to come to the United States to become a heart surgeon; helped with a project in Vietnam to record hill folk music; sponsored and directed an exchange of women from Egypt and from South Africa to come to the United States to talk to American women to examine some of our projects; helped start a bank for women in Samoa; hosted a visit of women from Bhutan, Egypt and South Africa; exchanged books, materials and information on each delegate’s field of expertise with their counterparts in the visited country.