1966--National Organization for Women founded
. . .
1966, June: Washington, DC, meeting of state commissions on the status of women. Betty Friedan and others present were unsatisfied with the lack of action plans coming out of this meeting, and 28 met in Friedan's hotel room, leading to the creation of the National Organization for Women (NOW).
NOW Founded:
In several informal meetings followed by a national conference, a number of activists came together to form the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966, seeing the need for a civil rights organization specifically focused on women's rights. Betty Friedan was elected the first president of NOW and served in that office for three years.
NOW Statement of Purpose 1966: Key Points:
women's rights as "truly equal partnership with men," "fully equal partnership of the sexes"
focused on activism: "confront, with concrete action, the conditions that now prevent women from enjoying the equality of opportunity and freedom of choice which is their right as individual Americans, as human beings"
women's rights seen in the context of "the world-wide revolution of human rights"; equality of women as an opportunity to "develop their fullest human potentials"
purpose to put women in the "mainstream of American political, economic and social life"
NOW's commitment "equality, freedom, and dignity for women" specifically defined as not being about "special privilege" for women or "enmity towards men"
Key Feminist Issues in Statement of Purpose:
employment -- the most attention in the document is to issues around employment and economics
education
family including marriage and divorce laws, home responsibilities by gender role
political participation: in parties, decision-making, candidates (NOW was to be independent of any particular political party)
images of women in the media, in culture, in laws, in social practices
briefly addressed issue of "double discrimination" of African American women, linked women's rights to broader issues of social justice including racial justice
opposition to "protectiveness" in work, school,
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http://womenshistory.about.com/od/feminism/p/now.htm
