UUWF is a continental membership organization that advances justice for women and promotes their spiritual growth. It is an independent non-profit, 501c3 corporation and one of only three associate member organizations of the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Inheritor of a proud tradition, UUWF was formed in 1963 through consolidation of the Association of Universalist Women (founded in 1869 and believed to be the first organization of lay church women in the United States) and the Alliance of Unitarian Women (1890).