The Religions for Peace Women's Mobilization Program was founded in 1998 in response to the enormous desires of religious women around the world to collaborate on shared concerns for peace. However, advancing women's concerns has been a major part of Religions for Peace's mission since its founding, and a Women's Conference has preceded each of the organization's seven World Assemblies, focusing on issues such as development, peace education and human rights. In 1994, Religions for Peace organized an International Women's Coordinating Committee whose members are chosen to achieve broad geographic and religious representation.

Today, the Women's Mobilization Program convenes women religious leaders and representatives at the local, national, regional and international levels to identify and examine major challenges to the well being of women and humanity; to promote the sharing of traditions, principles and values among religious women, which they then translate into efforts to build more peaceful societies; to encourage and assist religious women in identifying areas of common concern; and to facilitate multi-religious collaborations in the organization's fields of service.

In 2001 the program organized a Global Network of Religious Women's Organizations, an international, interactive forum that allows religious women to communicate and work together as never before.

The dedication to gender mainstreaming that has always helped guide Religions for Peace assemblies, programs and other activities reflects women's primacy in sustaining religious communities and extending their traditions. Working as lay activists, nuns, and public ministers, or passing on their beliefs and rituals to their own families, women have served throughout history as irreplaceable leaders within their religious traditions.

Today, religious women are leading their communities in confronting the great challenges of our time - poverty and disease, human rights violations, war, and the proliferation of destructive weapons. The Women's Mobilization Program at Religions for Peace assists them in their efforts and encourages collaboration among them; it also compiles and disseminates information on their achievements and strategies, via training programs, publications, seminars, and a twice-yearly newsletter.

The Program published a handbook in 2001, A Woman's Place: Religious Women as Public Actors, and offers workshops around the world on women and major social challenges such as peacebuilding, human rights, and HIV/AIDS.

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