FAWCO (Federation of American Women's Clubs Overseas, Inc.) was founded in 1931 by Caroline Curtis Brown, then President of the American Women's Club in London, who believed that enlightened women, working cooperatively throughout the world, could do much to help achieve international peace. Its objectives, defined at a meeting of seven clubs in London, were to "work towards international goodwill and the preservation of world peace, to help one another solve problems common to them all and to aid women whose citizenship rights were being ignored or restricted."

In 1990, FAWCO joined forces with the Association of Americans Resident Overseas (AARO) American Citizens Abroad (ACA) and the European Council of American Chambers of Commerce (ECACC) to form the World Federation of Americans Abroad (WFAA) whose representatives have gone regularly to Washington to meet with policy makers on behalf of the more than three million Americans who live abroad. Recognized by the United Nations as a Non Governmental Organization in 1995, FAWCO defined a platform at its 1995 Biennial conference, held in Nairobi, which was defended at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in autumn 1995. It was also represented at Habitat II in Istanbul and sent representatives to the Peace Conference in The Hague in May 1999.

Today, FAWCO's clubs stretch across six continents, from Norway to Kenya, and from Antigua and Barbuda to Australia. The issues that led to its creation continue to be addressed through voter registration drives worldwide; dissemination of information on education, U.S. citizenship, living and working abroad; support for literacy and training programs for women and children in Third World countries; and environmental protection projects.