Welcome to the Gather the Women Archival site.  The purpose of this site is to preserve the rich history of the Gather the Women initiative from its beginning in 2002 through the Global Events held in March of 2003 and 2004 and the inaugural Gather the Women Congress held in San Francisco in October of 2003. 

You are invited to explore the menu at the left to learn more about how Gather the Women was dreamed into a reality, the women who were at the core of the initiative, the photos we received from women around the world documenting the global events, the writings and artwork inspired by participation in the events, the photos, stories and movie from the San Francisco Gather the Women Congress, the articles, statistics and press releases in the Press Room, and the many resources we compiled during that magical year.

One aspect of Gather the Women was our focus on March 8 -- International Women's Day -- as declared by the United Nations. Many countries in the world have a rich tradition of celebrating this day with a variety of events to recognize and honor women. Gather the Women was envisioned as a grassroots movement to build more recognition and participation in International Women's Day so it can truly be celebrated around the world. We also held the vision that the Gather the Women events could establish a unifying goal of creating purposeful action in addressing the many challenges facing women and our mother earth.

Each year during the Gather the Women week (the week surrounding March 8), we envisioned women around the world stepping into leadership roles and creating local, regional and national women's gatherings. Through these small (as few as 3 women in circle in a living room) and large (a national event with thousands of women) events a global wave of positive energy would be created that would support women in linking together to create a peaceful, sustainable and harmonious world. The website provided a way for the events to be posted and for women to be linked to one another through the Gather the Women Living Directory.  During the first two years over 6000 women from nearly 80 countries heard the call and joined the GTW Living Directory.