Beginnings

In the early 1900s, while working in a prominent role at the Buffalo Express newspaper at a time when women rarely held leadership positions, playwright and journalist Marian de Forest conceived the idea of a strong network of women in executive positions who would work to take their rightful place in the professions next to men.

By March of 1919, five women organized to achieve this mission and chartered the first Zonta club in Buffalo, New York, USA. Membership grew rapidly. A confederation of nine Zonta clubs formed with 600 members. These members were among the first generation of college educated women, the first generation of North American women to vote, and a part of the growing legion of women entering the workforce.

On 8 November 1919, the Confederation drafted and adopted Bylaws and a Constitution, and selected the name Zhonta - a word meaning honest and trustworthy, derived from the Lakhota (Teton Dakota) language of the Native-American Sioux peoples. Later changed to Zonta, the word's meaning was incorporated into the Zonta Emblem, which was officially authorized, along with the Zonta colors of mahogany and gold, at the first executive session of the Confederation’s officers in 1920.

The Confederation became Zonta International upon organizing the first European club, the Zonta Club of Vienna, Austria in 1930. In September of that year, Zonta International was incorporated in the State of Illinois, USA