Welcome to our first newsletter of 2026. As an organization spanning the globe, we rely on virtual meetings, newsletters and other updates to keep us informed. I trust these messages find you well, and perhaps they inspire you to start your own project in your community. ICUUW is the place where we connect to advance women’s leadership and self-determination. We work together to end all forms of discrimination. It’s good to be in global community. As U*Us we are all part of the interconnected web.
We draw inspiration from each other and all the amazing women who came before us. As Fannie Lou Hamer said: “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” Fannie was a prominent Mississippi civil rights leader who was renowned for her voting rights activism. Wangari Maathai, Kenyan feminist, founder of the Green Belt Movement and Nobel Laureate, reminds us that women’s rights are human rights. “Human rights are not things that are put on the table for people to enjoy. These are things you fight for and then you protect.” Vida Goldstein was a pioneering suffragist in Australia who fought for women's right to vote and stand for parliament. Women’s right to vote was fought in so many countries. New Zealand was the first country in 1893, followed by Australia in 1902 and while universal suffrage is now common (but not everywhere yet), barriers to participation still persist.
What these women and their efforts have in common is that they were not discouraged by setbacks or the slow pace of change but kept working on making their communities and the world a better place for all by focusing on women’s equity. We in ICUUW continue these efforts.
Read about some of our efforts in this newsletter and reach out if you want to get more involved. Send an email to