National Organization for Women

A favorite of Red Room author, founder and CEO Ivory Madison, and Red Room authors chella courington, Stacia M. Fleegal, and Trina Robbins.

Name of founders: Betty Friedan and Pauli MurrayNOW

Year founded: 1966

Mission: The purpose of NOW, the National Organization for Women, 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.

 

Accomplishments:

  • Inspiring generations of women and men, organized mass rallies and marches: more than 100,000 marched on Washington, D.C., in support of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1978, and 250,000 gathered in 1995 to demonstrate against violence against women, and marches for reproductive rights drew hundreds of thousands in 1989, 1992, and 2004; the last of those was the largest mass action of any kind in U.S. history, with 1.5 million people attending.
  • 500,000 contributing members
  • Five hundred local chapters across the United State

Profile: NOW's holistic approach to women's rights assumes that issues of racism, economic inequality, and homophobia are inseparable from and operate in conjunction with systems that perpetuate sexual discrimination. This approach leads NOW to developing strategies that tackle a multitude of issues, including:

  • Economic equality and securing it with an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will guarantee equal rights for women
  • Championing abortion rights, reproductive freedom and other women's health issues;
  • Opposing racism and fighting bigotry against lesbians and gays; and
  • Ending violence against women.

Strategies that NOW employs to deal with these issues include:

  • Putting more women in political posts
  • Lobbying extensively at the national, state and local levels, and on campuses
  • Bringing lawsuits
  • Increasing educational, employment and business opportunities for women
  • Enacting tougher laws against violence, harassment and discrimination

To learn more, make a donation, or become involved in your local chapter, go to NOW's Join/Give page.

–Huntington W. Sharp, Editor, Homepage & Special Projects, Red Room

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