The social action organization, Women for a Meaningful Summit (WMS), was established in July of 1985 in Washington D.C. as an ad hoc coalition of women. The group formed in anticipation of the November 1985 summit meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev. The summit, held in Geneva, Switzerland, was the first meeting in six years between the two world superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. The topics covered during the summit ranged from nuclear weapons, America's Strategic Defense Initiative popularly known as “Star Wars,” arms control, regional conflicts, and human rights. The goal of the members of WMS was to raise public, media and governmental expectations for the summit meeting.
The founding members of WMS agreed from the outset that their approach would be firm and unambiguous. They were determined to bring global awareness to the importance of halting nuclear testing. It was agreed that the WMS approach would be neither confrontational nor strident, and that members would disassociate themselves from illegal civil disobedience. All of the women participating in the summit delegation were carefully briefed both stateside and in the summit location. The intention of WMS was to be a strong, substantive and important political presence during the summit talks. It was agreed that the women invited to form the delegation would represent broad and diverse professional fields. The 1985 delegation included elected officials, university presidents, athletes, performing artists, public policy experts, educators, scientists, businesswomen, authors, philanthropists, and organization leaders. WMS saw the high quality and seriousness of the delegation’s membership as a means to enable the delegation to successfully raise positive attention to their message.
The initial delegation in Geneva consisted of thirty-five women. The main objective of the group was to make their presence, hopes, and goals known to the international leaders and media. The delegation delivered requests for meetings with the superpower leaders and their wives. General Secretary Gorbachev held a forty-five minute meeting with the WMS delegation and Reagan sent a state department official to meet with the women. A petition with thousands of signatures, urging an end to nuclear weapons testing, was delivered to both Gorbachev and the U.S. government representative.
WMS was eager to involve women from the communities surrounding Geneva and made an effort to connect with all the European women in attendance. Efforts at the initial summit became the cornerstone for a strong international constituency that was lead by former first lady of Greece, Margarita Papandreou. Papandreou, as the WMS International Liaison, hosted multiple international conferences and initiated an international campaign in which women from many countries sought signatures on a petition to stop all nuclear weapons explosions.
After two years of successful action, WMS had grown to become a worldwide network dedicated to ending nuclear weapons tests, preventing the escalation of the arms race into space and encouraging the reallocation of the world’s resources from military purposes to funding human needs. By 1987 WMS had matured and was ready to establish itself as a permanent, ongoing coalition of organizations and individuals linked to international concerns, programs, and women’s networks. The organization was rearranged to reflect its permanent status. The name was changed to Women for Meaningful Summits/USA, also known as WMS/USA, and a board of directors was established. The board of directors was made up of not fewer than twenty and not more than thirty-five women; organizations and individuals were represented. The board of directors was elected annually and elected officers who appointed committees and approved the executive director. WMS/USA policy stated that the cultural, ethnic and economic diversity represented in the American population would be reflected at all levels of governance. The organization’s founding statement and policies were laid out and the group was formally incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization. The principal goals of WMS/USA continued to focus on establishing a presence at international summits, but the desire to address long-term goals was added to the agenda. These goals included efforts to reduce military forces, explore alternative defense strategies and empower women through educational programs. During the late 1980s, WMS/USA also served as a clearinghouse to alert people of the important work of participating social action groups and various international programs.
