The founder of this organization was Eliza Armstrong Cox, a minister who spent the last part of her life (1850-1935) in Whittier, CA. In 1881 after realizing that in many places Friends women were joining the new missionary societies of other denominations, she proceeded to organize a society for her yearly meeting in western Indiana. In 1888, after women had organized societies in other yearly meetings, representatives met and issued a call to an 1890 conference in Glens Falls, NY, the first of the Triennial conferences still being held today. Triennials were held in Whittier in 1938, 1954, and 1965. Whittier hopes to be represented at the 2010 Triennial in Mombasa, Kenya. 
 
The name adopted in 1890 was Woman’s Foreign Missionary Union of Friends.  It was changed in 1917 to Woman's Missionary Union, recognizing that the organization sponsored home mission work as well as foreign.  The name United Society of Friends Women, adopted in 1948, acknowledged a further broadening of interests.  International was added in 1974 to include the women’s societies of yearly meetings in Jamaica and Kenya.