NOW, MORE THAN EVER

On June 30, 1966, twenty-eight women met and created NOW--The National Organization For Women--I joined in 1968.  I have always liked the fact that we are The National Organization "FOR" Women, not "OF" women!   We have many men who believe in, and support, equality between the sexes.  With the assault on rights of women and other people by the current Administration, NOW is needed--MORE THAN EVER!

Betty Friedan, the author of The Feminine Mystique, became the first President of NOW.  Stalwarts like Shirley Chisholm and Anna Roosevelt Halstead were among the twenty-eight founders, along with Ada Allness, Mary Evelyn Benbow, Gene Boyer, Analoyce Clapp, Kathryn Clarenbach, Catherine Conroy, Caroline Davis, Mary Eastwood, Edith Finlayson, Dorothy Haener, Lorene Harrington, Mary Lou Hill, Esther Johnson, Nancy Knaak, Min Matheson, Helen Moreland, Pauli Murray, Ruth Murray, Inka O'Hanrahan, Pauline Parish, Eve Purvis, Edna Schwartz, Mary-jane Ryan Snyder, Gretchen Squires, Betty Talkington, and Carolyn Ware.

Today there are 550,000 members of NOW in 550 local chapters. 

Although the Equal Employment Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were meant to guarantee equality for women, the reality was far different.  NOW has continued the battle to protect reproductive rights, the Equal Rights Amendment, equality in hiring and promotions,  in lending and credit practices, maternity leave, child-care, access to college and graduate schools, equity in athletics, and elective office.

                                  STATEMENT OF PURPOSE from 1966

"We, men and women who hereby constitute ourselves as the National Organization For Women, believe that the partnership of the sexes, as part of the world-wide revolution of human rights, now taking part within and beyond our national borders."