Planning for the Council of Women of P.E.I. began at a meeting in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in April of 1968, with the aim of forming a provincial branch of the National Council of Women (an umbrella group of women's organizations founded in 1893 in order to advocate and lobby for improvements to the conditions of women's lives). Over the course of its history the National Council has worked on issues such as suffrage, the legal status of women as persons, and divorce law.

The planning meeting in Charlottetown was attended by several representatives of local women's groups and by Mrs. Stanley Milne, the National President. An interim slate of officers was elected with Mrs. J. Gordon MacDonald as Chairman, Mrs. Jack McAndrew as Secretary, Mrs. Vernon Bolger as Treasurer, and three Vice Chairs: Mrs. Julian Herring, Mrs. Jack Walmsley, and Mrs. Ruth MacDonald. An organizational meeting followed in December of 1968, with the Zonta Club, United Church Women, Business and Professional Women, Anglican Church Women, and Eastern Star expressing interest in becoming charter members of the organization. By the time of the first annual meeting in May of 1969 membership encompassed 32 members in the Council, 26 organizational charters, and 7 individual members. The P.E.I. group had local council status within the national organization. The stated objectives of the organization were to: work closely with the National Council; organize new local councils; focus on matters of provincial concern with the purpose of spearheading new legislation at the provincial level; and to publicize the work carried out by the councils of women throughout Canada. Concerns of the P.E.I. Council included the implementation of a co-coordinated home care nursing program for the Island, day care programming, and the feasibility of a school lunch program.