This series contains published and unpublished historical and general articles about the international work of the YWCA; general administrative records regarding the overall purpose and mission of the YWCA's international work; personnel lists, job descriptions, and biographical files; and annual reports from the years through 1913, and 1971-72. There are fragmentary files concerning conferences and events, and general correspondence.

There is a fairly complete run of minutes and reports documenting international work of the from the Foreign Department/Division through the World Relations Committee in the 1980s and early 1990s in this series. From 1907-61, these records are duplicated by the microfilm; International Division/World Relations Committee minutes from 1961-93 were not microfilmed. Additional minutes for individual committees, e.g., Finance, are in Series III.

This series primarily contains minutes for committees engaged in international work, but there is a variety of additional documentation, including reports, correspondence, printed material, financial files, rosters, and directories. The committee activities documented here are heavily concentrated from the 1950s through the 1980s; only committees devoted to finance were active earlier.

A wide variety of subjects encompassing the many components of the YWCA's international work are covered in this series, from World Mutual Service (or World Fellowship) beginning in 1910 to Education for Global Responsibility in the 1990s. The bulk of these records date from the 1970s on and include brochures, publications and other printed materials; proposals; reports; correspondence, minutes, and resource kits. It appears that some of these records consist of office files that were donated to the Library/Archives by individual staff members who worked on a particular program or project.

The Foreign Department/Division of the National Association produced some of it's own brochures, flyers, pamphlets, charts, maps, and newsletters, and they make up the bulk of this series. Publications about specific committees, projects, or programs are located in Series III. and IV., and those specific to a particular country or region are located in Series VI. Publications by others about international work are in Series I.

This series is a combination of older records, such as staff reports and minutes of various Sections that are duplicated on the microfilm; and reference materials about the various countries and regions that were collected by the Library/Archives from various sources, including individual YWCA personnel. General records consist of scrapbooks that appear to have been maintained by staff members over the years; records and publications of the International Survey of the YMCA and YWCA, carried out in the late 1920s and early 1930s; and minutes of the Section Chairmen. The scrapbooks were not microfilmed, but the Survey records and Section Chairmen minutes were. Files on individual countries and regions vary from those that are one folder containing a handful of publications (Argentina) to others like China, Japan, and Latin America, that consist of more than a document box of studies, minutes, reports, and publications, the bulk of which has been microfilmed. Besides the above mentioned types of material, the country files include correspondence, speeches, histories, publicity files, statements of purpose and policy, printed materials, and legal documents.