National Organization for Women
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The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist group, founded in 1966, with 500,000 contributing members and 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
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[edit] Background
NOW was founded on June 30, 1966 in Washington, D.C., by 28 women and men attending the Third National Conference of the Commission on the Status of Women, the successor to the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. It had been three years since the Commission reported findings of women being discriminated against. However, the 1966 Conference delegates were prohibited by the administration's rules for the conference from even passing resolutions recommending that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforce its legal mandate to end sex discrimination.
The founders included Betty Friedan, the author of The Feminine Mystique (1963) and Rev. Pauli Murray, the first African-American woman Episcopal priest. Betty Friedan became the organization's first president.
During the 1970s NOW promoted the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The organization's membership is not limited to women, and has included many men who support its goals.
The organization remains active in lobbying legislatures and media outlets on women's issues.
[edit] Statement of Purpose
Betty Friedan and Pauli Murray wrote the organization's first Statement of Purpose in 1966 (the original was scribbled on a napkin by Friedan). The original statement described the purpose of NOW as "to take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all privileges and responsibilities thereof in truly equal partnership with men."
The current Statement reads, "Our purpose is to take action to bring women into full participation in society – sharing equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities with men, while living free from discrimination." Its current brochure also states "NOW is one of the few multi-issue progressive organizations in the United States. NOW stands against all oppression, recognizing that racism, sexism and homophobia are interrelated, that other forms of oppression such as classism and ableism work together with these three to keep power and privilege concentrated in the hands of a few." (From About NOW.)
[edit] Current Issues
Its top priority issues are: Advancing Reproductive Freedom, Promoting Diversity & Ending Racism, Stopping Violence Against Women, Ensuring Economic Justice, Winning Lesbian Rights, Achieving Constitutional Equality
It also works on other issues of concern to women.
It claims 500,000 contributing members and 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
[edit] Structure and Chapters
From the NOW FAQ: The membership, meeting yearly in Conference, is the supreme governing body of NOW. NOW draws its broad grassroots strength from a nationwide network of local chapters, which are chartered by national NOW and which engage in a wide variety of action programs in their communities.
State organizations serve to develop chapters, coordinate statewide activities and provide resources to the chapters.
There are nine regions which, in Conference, elect members to the National Board of Directors, the body which governs the organization between national conferences.
The national level of the organization is led by four elected national officers, by the national Board of Directors, and by national issues committees. These national leaders are responsible for implementing policy as formulated by the annual National Conference, for coordinating national actions, and for providing membership services.
NOW has had ten national presidents, beginning with Betty Friedan in 1966. Kim Gandy, the currently serving national president, was elected President on its 35th Anniversary, June 30, 2001 and reelected in 2005.
[edit] Congress to Unite Women
In 1968, NOW organized the first ever Congress to Unite Women. The pupose of this meeting was to open dialogue between NOW, and the fledging women's liberation movement. Betty Friedan presided over the first Congress, which resulted in a free for all.
A second Congress was held a few years later.
[edit] Conflicts over lesbianism and lesbian issues within NOW
In 1969 and 1970, NOW received sharp criticism from lesbian feminists, who claimed that NOW marginalized lesbian issues and lesbians within the organization. Betty Friedan in particular was criticized for statements about a "Lavender Menace" and a "lesbian conspiracy" to take over NOW (Brownmiller 1999, 70). Friedan was also quoted as saying she felt "very square" and "uncomfortable" about homosexuality. Lesbian feminist Rita Mae Brown angrily resigned her administrative position in NOW in February 1970, and began to meet with other lesbians to discuss possible actions against heterosexism in the women's movement. A group of lesbian feminists calling themselves the Lavender Menace, including Rita Mae Brown and Karla Jay, organized a "zap" of the NOW-sponsored Second Congress to Unite Women on May 1, 1970, at which they took over the stage, explained how angry they were about homophobia in the feminist movement and the exclusion of lesbians from the program at the conference, and distributed copies of their manifesto, "The Woman-Identified Woman." The action was very well received by the women in the audience and had a profound impact on NOW's later activism. At the next national conference of NOW in September 1971, delegates passed a resolution recognizing lesbianism and lesbian rights as a legitimate concern of feminism" [1]. By 1992, Olga Vives, chair of the NOW's national lesbian rights taskforce estimated that 40 percent of NOW members were lesbians.
[edit] NOW and Feminists for Life
NOW's decision to add abortion rights to its platform in 1968, met with a great deal of criticism from NOW members. A group of women attending the conference that chose to add the plank quit the organization to form the Women's Equality Action League, while other women in the organization continued to contest the decision. In 1972, Pat Goltz, and Cathy Callaghan, members of the Columbus chapter of NOW formed Feminists for Life of America. They also continued to protest the decision. Two years later Pat was expelled from the state chapter, but National NOW declined to follow suit.
This was the second wave of expulsions of organizational members for taking a position un-popular with NOW leaders. Pro-life members of the organization were routinely expelled, heckled, or trashed at NOW meetings. In protest pro-life members of the organization, and Feminists for Life picketed the National NOW conference during the 70's.
The most notable dissent came from Graciela Olivarez one of NOW's charter members, who had served on the first NOW board.
[edit] Third-party explorations
In Cincinnati, Ohio, at its 1989 convention on July 23, NOW delegates questioned the merits of the two-party system and broached the idea of forming a third party.
The convention issued a "Declaration of Women's Political Independence." An exploratory commission was formed for the possibilities of amending the United States Constitution to include freedom from sexual discrimination, the right to a decent standard of living, the right to clean air, clean water and environmental protections, and the right to be free from violence.
The commission was chaired by former NOW president Eleanor Smeal. A month earlier, NOW launched a Commission for Responsive Democracy, which included Smeal, John Anderson, Toney Anaya, Barry Commoner and Dee Barry.
[edit] ERA and CEA
In 1995, the National Organization for Women voted to drop the Equal Rights Amendment, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex," from their platform. During that same conference NOW wrote their own constitutional amendment which would cover all of NOW's programs of reform, including abortion, lesbianism, affirmative action, etc . . . and labelled it the Constitutional Equality Amendment.
Although NOW has given moral support to attempts to ratify the ERA, they continue to support the CEA as part of their official platform.
The CEA has never been introduced into any session of Congress, and no significant action has been taken on it.
