In order to establish our commitment to women’s rights institutionally, the UEM set up an international Women’s Working Group in 1996. Its task is to see that women’s interests are included in the decisions taken by the UEM committees, and that resolutions passed there are put into practice in the member churches. The Women’s Working Group (WWG) has a four–year period of office, consists of two women members from Africa, two from Asia and two from Germany, and is supported by the Secretary for Women, Youth and Children  from the Wuppertal Central Office. In 2001 a dossier on the subject of “Violence against Women in Culture, Society and Church” was published at the initiative of the working group, as also a “Behavioural Codex against Sexual Harassment” which has been distributed at the meetings and conferences in the member churches since 2004.

In the meantime there has been a clear improvement in the awareness of women's interests and rights within the member churches of the UEM, the percentage of women in positions of leadership has increased and a number of resolutions have been passed that strengthen women’s rights. To name but a few: the requirement for a balanced proportion of women in the leadership of the church; the demand that wedding liturgies be revised, and that efforts be made to use inclusive language and to finance projects that support women.

The programme »Women to Women« enables women from the member churches of the UEM to get to know the daily  life of women in other member churches and cultures and to exchange ideas and talk about problems and possible solutions. During the two-week visit they can learn from each other and work together to better recognise  predjudice and injustice in their own culture and how to overcome it.