The story
On June 30, 1966, at a conference of state commissions on the status of women in Washington, 28 participants founded the National Organization for Women (NOW). Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique, became the first president. Its statement of purpose called for women to take part in 'the mainstream of American society' in 'truly equal partnership with men', and NOW became the largest and most visible organization of second-wave feminism.
The immediate trigger was a law. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned employment discrimination because of sex as well as race, a clause added late in House debate. But the new Equal Employment Opportunity Commission treated sex complaints as a joke and would not enforce it, even refusing to end sex-segregated job ads. Women at the conference, including the lawyer Pauli Murray and the EEOC commissioner Aileen Hernandez, decided they needed an organization like the NAACP to press for enforcement. Friedan's book in 1963 had already given millions of women a name for their frustration.
NOW sued employers, lobbied Congress and picketed. It pressed for equal pay, child care, an Equal Rights Amendment and, from 1967, the repeal of abortion laws. On August 26, 1970, it organized the Women's Strike for Equality, with marches in dozens of cities. Congress passed the ERA in 1972 and Title IX the same year, but the ERA fell three states short of ratification by 1982. Opponents, led by Phyllis Schlafly, fought back, and the movement faced internal splits over race, class and sexuality. The campaigns changed law and daily life: job ads, credit rules, college sports and attitudes to work.
Why it mattered
- It pushed enforcement of Title VII, ending sex-segregated job ads and opening professions to women.
- It helped win the 1972 Title IX ban on sex discrimination in education, which transformed girls' and women's sports.
- Its campaign for abortion rights fed the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 and the long political fight that followed.
- It sparked a decades-long struggle over the Equal Rights Amendment and a conservative counter-movement that reshaped American politics.
Sources
- National Organization for Women Library of Congress
- The Long Road to Equality: What Women Won from the ERA Ratification Effort Library of Congress
- How Phyllis Schlafly Derailed the Equal Rights Amendment History.com
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