A meeting on widows' rights was convened by Margaret Owen, a British lawyer, and herself a widow, at the Huairou NGO Forum held prior to the 1995 Beijing Fourth UN World Conference on Women, which was attended by experts from a wide spectrum of cultures, religions and regions.

The graphic testimonies given at the Widows' Rights meeting shattered these myths. For example the assumption that widows in developing countries are supported by their extended families or by adult sons; that they quickly, voluntarily re-marry a kin members, and that they are mostly elderly women cared for in the community. Or the assumption that where laws do officially grant widows their inheritance and other rights, few widows are aware of their rights. Widows are victims of the conflicts and confusion concerning the relationship between modern law and patriarchal customary, religious modern law, and the monopoly that the male-dominated local courts have over all disputes concerning family and land issues.

A consensus emerged at this meeting that discrimination against widows was so severe that there was an urgent need to establish an organization which would place their interests on the international agenda.As a result EWD was launched in November 1996 on the publication of Margaret Owens' book
A World of Widows

WRI, is a nonprofit, unincorporated development and advocacy organization. It is managed by a Board of Trustees and has a part-time Director.