National Organization For Women

Type: Private - Not-for-Profit
On the web: http://www.now.org

What do they want? Equality for women! When do they want it? NOW! The National Organization for Women (NOW) works to promote the social, political, and economic interests of women by eliminating job discrimination and harassment, securing reproductive rights, ending violence against women, and supporting civil rights for all. Its tactics include lobbying lawmakers, conducting demonstrations, filing lawsuits, and engaging in political organizing. NOW has about 500,000 members in 550 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It publishes the National NOW Times and hosts a national conference each year. NOW was founded in 1966 by a group of 28 women that included author Betty Friedan.

Officers:
President: Terry O'Neill
EVP: Bonnie Grabenhofer
Membership VP: Allendra Letsome

(NOW) was created in 1966 when women activists became frustrated at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's refusal to investigate claims of employment discrimination filed under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. NOW has been a leader in efforts to secure passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and numerous pieces of legislation including the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

In 1971 NOW established the separate tax‐exempt NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund to secure the elimination of sex discrimination through litigation and to assist women who were the victims of such discrimination. Modeled after the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, NOW is now an active participant in Supreme Court litigation. It has filed amicus briefs in almost every major case involving gender‐based discrimination that has been decided by the Court.

NOW has played an active role in the debate about legislation that discriminates on the basis of pregnancy, believing that laws, such as the one at issue in California Savings and Loan Association v. Guerra (1987), discriminate against women when they force an employer to extend benefits to women that are unavailable to men.

NOW and its Legal Defense Fund have been major forces in the debate over abortion. NOW was the first major women's rights organization to call for a total repeal of all restrictive state abortion laws and continues to believe that abortion is a woman's right.

See also Gender.

— Karen O'Connor