
Delegation for Friendship Among Women
1990 Yemen, Oman and Morocco
1992 Southeast Asia
1993 Albania Hungary
1995 Polynesia and New Zealand
1998 Bulgaria Romania Poland
2002 Cuba
2005 Libya
2007 Argentina
2008 North Korea
2010 Venezuela
2013 Cuba
Trip Itineraries
1969 Soviet Union
1978 Egypt, Saudi Arabia
1979 China
1980 China
1980 Guatemala, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil
1982 India, Sri Lanka
1984 Egypt
1984 Southeast Asia
1985 Soviet Union, Turkey
1987 South Africa, Kenya, Abu Dhabi, Jordan, Egypt
1988 Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, South Korea
1990 North Yemen, Oman, Morocco
1992 Vietnam, Cambodia
1993 Albania, Hungary
1995 Western Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand
1998 Bulgaria, Romania, Poland
2002 Cuba
2005 Libya
2007 Argentina
2008 North Korea
2010 Venezuela
2013 Cuba
2015 Rwanda
2016 Mongolia
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.