National Organization for Women (NOW) is the largest women’s rights organization in the United States. It is devoted to achieving full equality between women and men. NOW pushes for equality through public education, elections, and legislation as well as through rallies, demonstrations, and marches. The organization has hundreds of thousands of members, including men, in chapters throughout the nation. NOW is a nonprofit organization whose operating funds come from private donations and membership dues.
NOW seeks to eliminate discrimination against women in many settings, including employment, education, the legal system, and the family. Over the years, it has expanded its goals by backing racial equality and economic justice as well as calling for an end to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and disability.
The organization supports legalized abortion and access to birth control. It seeks to guarantee women a right to prenatal care (medical care during pregnancy) and child care. NOW also works to protect women against sexual assault and other violence. In addition, it seeks to enable gay people to live in security and with self-respect.
NOW calls for the passage of an Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The amendment would require that men and women be treated equally by law. NOW’s first attempt to win approval of the amendment failed because only 35 of the necessary 38 states had approved it by a 1982 deadline. Since then, the amendment has been reintroduced in Congress a number of times but has not been passed.
Many people, including numerous women, oppose NOW’s goals, its methods, or both. Some of these people object to the organization’s support for abortion rights. Many of NOW’s opponents believe that the welfare of society and of the family depends on preserving traditional gender roles. These people criticize NOW for working to change women’s roles. Some people dislike NOW’s use of rallies, marches, and demonstrations to achieve its goals.
NOW disagrees that its activities weaken society or the family. The organization also points out that it supports the rights of all women, including homemakers, and that it acknowledges homemakers’ vital contributions to society and the family.
NOW was established in 1966. The American writer Betty Friedan was one of NOW’s founders. From 1966 to 1970, she served as the organization’s first president. Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique (1963), which examined the effects of societies that encourage women to be homemakers and discourage them from seeking careers outside the home. NOW headquarters are in Washington, D.C.
