National Organization for Women
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| National Organization for Women (NOW) | |
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| Website | www.now.org |
| Founded | June 30, 1966, by Aileen Hernandez & Richard Graham |
| Headquarters | , Washington, D.C. United States |
The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States. NOW has 500,000 contributing members and 550 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Since its founding in 1966, NOW's goal has been to take action to bring about equality for all women. NOW works to eliminate discrimination and harassment in the workplace, schools, the justice system, and all other sectors of society; secure abortion, birth control and reproductive rights for all women; end all forms of violence against women; eradicate racism, sexism and homophobia; and promote equality and justice in our society.
History==Founding
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 came to Congress, and feminists lobbied hard for the addition of an amendment prohibiting sex discrimination in employment. After much debate, the Act was passed with just such a prohibition in Title VII, added by a congressman who hoped to defeat the Act by including sex. But Title VII was still a shallow protection for women in the workforce.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was formed in 1965 to enforce the Civil Rights Act. Though future NOW founders Aileen Hernandez and Richard Graham fought hard as EEO commissioners to enforce Title VII's prohibition on sex discrimination, they were ultimately outnumbered 3-2, and the EEOC decided in September of 1965 that sex segregation in job advertising was permissible.
A month later, at a conference on Title VII and the EEOC, Dr. Pauli Murray, a law professor at Yale and a member of the President's Commission on the Status of Women, denounced the EEOC and its stance permitting Help Wanted Male and Help Wanted Female segregated job advertising. Betty Friedan, author of the eye-opening book The Feminine Mystique, immediately contacted Dr. Murray—one of many historic linkups that led to a reemergence of the feminist movement in the U.S.
Current objectives and activities
NOW's Top Six Priority Issues
Advancing Reproductive Freedom, Stopping Violence Against Women, Winning Lesbian Rights, Achieving Constitutional Equality, Ensuring Economic Justice, Promoting Diversity & Ending Racism
Advancing Reproductive Freedom
NOW affirms that reproductive rights are issues of life and death for women, not mere matters of choice. NOW fully supports access to safe and legal abortion, to effective birth control and emergency contraception, to reproductive health services and education for all women. We oppose attempts to restrict these rights through legislation, regulation or Constitutional amendment.
Stopping Violence Against Women NOW is unique in its approach to the issue of violence against women, emphasizing that there are many interrelated aspects to the issue -- domestic violence; sexual assault; sexual harassment; violence at abortion clinics; hate crimes across lines of gender, sexuality and race; the gender bias in our judicial system that further victimizes survivors of violence; and the violence of poverty emphasized by the radical right's attacks on poor women and children -- all of which result from society's attitudes toward women and efforts to "keep women in their place."
Organizational structure
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Achievements
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Public perception and controversies
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