NOW

National Organization of Women



Founded in 1966, NOW is an organization dedicated to fighting women’s rights, predominantly made up of feminist activists in the United States. The organization was founded over the course of one weekend, by a group of 15-20 feminists all gathered in a hotel room during late August. From then on, the organization rapidly grew, and soon stretched to all states in the country. They wrote a Statement of Purpose, which included rules and philosophies which the member of the group closely followed. The group’s biggest efforts at the beginning of their founding were the support to pass and ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). NOW branched off into other topics of women’s rights, such as work opportunities and equal pay, reproductive rights, lesbian rights, and support for rape victims and pregnant women. The organization is still growing, and has impacted and lifted the feminist movement to its full potential, and has forever changed the way the United States and the world looks at women’s rights and causes.

NOW is an organization composed of feminist activists in the United States. Going strong since 1966, NOW has put together many programs and has passed many laws which are the basis of a lot of the issues. The ERA, Equal Rights Amendment, was put together and passed by the house after an intense campaign by NOW. The campaigned worked to get ERA ratified in the country and that was continued at the Actions Center in DC. NOW put together a protest which was the Women’s strike for equality and it consisted of 50,000 women in NYC. This went on to create women equality day and eventually was demonstrated by NOW members on Gay freedom day. NOW worked for the rights of women, one which included sex-segregated employment. After years of complaints, Supreme Court ruled to prohibit sex-segregated employment advertisements. Because of the strong efforts on behalf of NOW, the congress opened military academies to women. They soon after created the Rape Shield Law, which is a law that limits a defendant’s ability to cross-examine rape complainants about their past sexual behavior. This law also protects the identity of an alleged rape victim. The NOW founder soon after drafted the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. This act prohibits employers from discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or any other related medical conditions. NOW also eliminated all anti-abortion bills.