About Us | Zonta Singapore

Zonta Club of Singapore’s History

It all started in 1971. Miss Betty Murphy, Past President of the Zonta Club of Trenton, New Jersey, USA visited her friend Miss Lim Bong Soo in Singapore and encouraged Bong Soo to start a Zonta Club.

Miss Lim Bong Soo contacted her friends Mrs Louise Albrecht and Mrs Florence Lim and they discussed the formation of a Zonta Club for Singapore. On 18 May 1971, a Charter Night was held to commemorate the formation of the Zonta Club of Singapore with 40 new members.

Zonta Club of Singapore is part of Zonta International, a worldwide service organization of women executives in business and the professions. Zonta International was founded in November 1919 in the USA at a time when women were empowered by their accomplishments during World War 1 and by the passage of the Equal Suffrage Amendment to the US Constitution. Under the leadership of the Charter President Marian Defrost, a playwright and newspaper critic, the initial membership was of women who had become leaders in their businesses and professions. The primary purpose of the club was to standardise and disseminate the business principles and practices, and to render a greater level of service to humanity through cooperative effort.

Today Zonta International has over 1200 clubs and over 30,000 members in 66 countries across the globe. It has consultative status with many international agencies including the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Council of Europe.