National Organization for Women

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National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization founded in 1966 and has more than 500,000 members.. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C.[1] NOW was founded with the purpose to take action through intersectional grassroots activism to promote feminist ideals, lead societal change, eliminate discrimination, and achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, and economic life.[2]

History

There were many influences contributing to the rise of NOW. Such influences included the President's Commission on the Status of Women, Betty Friedan's 1963 book The Feminine Mystique, and passage and lack of enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (prohibiting sexual discrimination).[3]

The President's Commission on the Status of Women was established in 1961 by John F. Kennedy, in hopes of providing a solution to female discrimination in education, work force, and Social Security. Kennedy appointed Eleanor Roosevelt as the head of the organization. The goal of action was to reconcile those wanting to advance women's rights in the workforce (such as advocates of the Equal Rights Amendment) and those advocating women's domestic role needing to be preserved (such as organized labor groups). The commission was a way to settle the tension between opposing sides.[4]

Racism Allegations

A Daily Beast investigation published in June 2020 revealed allegations of racism in NOW reaching the highest levels of the organization. Interviews and internal documents showed that Van Pelt was accused of racist behavior by more than 15 former NOW staffers and interns and that her former vice president, Gilda Yazzie, had filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the organization. Among other things, Van Pelt was accused of telling staffers that she only chose Yazzie, who is Native American, as her running mate because she needed a woman of color to win.

But in the weeks following, six more former board members and employees—including Van Pelt’s current vice president, Christian Nunes—came forward to accuse Van Pelt of disrespecting and ignoring women of color, and making racially insensitive statements. Two of the three staff members who left NOW this year told The Daily Beast their exits were due in part to how Van Pelt treated staffers of color. (In one instance, a former staffer said, Van Pelt brought employees of color to tears during a diversity training session).

The staffers pointed to other episodes in Van Pelt's tenure that they said amounted to "illegal, morally reprehensible, dishonest, destructive, and frankly toxic behavior."[5]

Apology and Resignation

In the wake of that investigation, Van Pelt sent an email to NOW board members, state presidents, staff, and PAC members apologizing for any hurt she had caused and committing to five action items to improve racial justice within the organization.

“All Black Lives matter,” she wrote. “As a White woman, I’ll never understand the experiences of women of color. I challenge myself to address structural racism and recognize that this is a lifelong, ongoing process.”

“It’s important because we need to give a voice to those most oppressed in order to make everybody better,” Weeks told the audience, many of whom were around her mother’s age. “That’s women of color, that’s disabled people, that’s LGBTQ people.”

Twenty-six of the 35 NOW state signed on to a letter asking Van Pelt to resign, and several had submitted their own. The entire Washington, D.C., and Twin Cities boards also quit in protest. The organization’s head of college students resigned last month, saying in an email to The Daily Beast that “the organization’s actions have completely tarnished my work among many others.”

Nine of the 15 national board members had also called for Van Pelt’s resignation, setting off a tense showdown between the self-titled “Radical Nine” and Van Pelt’s supporters. The group needed three more votes in order to force Van Pelt out of her position—a feat they were not able to achieve despite continued pressure from state chapters. The same nine members were recently subjected to an internal grievance process that they claimed was intended to silence them.

“There is a real strong push to keep us from speaking up, and we cannot be silent anymore,” board member and Arizona state Sen. Victoria Steele said at the time. “If we allow this to be silent then we’re complicit in racism.”

As the result of the stirs in the organization, in an email to the NOW board, state presidents, and staff on Sunday night, President Toni Van Pelt announced she would be stepping down with two weeks' notice effective August 28, 2020.[6]

Inclusion and Diversity

Women of color have struggled to find the sense of belonging at NOW. In the 54 years since the organization was founded, few women of color have risen to its highest ranks. The organization’s leadership has always been dominated by white women, said Katherine Turk, a professor of history and gender at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who writes about NOW in her forthcoming book, “A Dangerous Sisterhood.” Ten of NOW’s 11 presidents have been white women. Twelve of its current 17 board members are white.

Black women were not so enamored with NOW. While the organization had several black women in leadership in the 1960s and ’70s — including NOW co-founder Pauli Murray, a prominent civil rights activist — many black women felt NOW failed to prioritize the issues most important to them, said Ashley Farmer, a professor of black women’s history at the University of Texas at Austin. Some of these black women left NOW and other predominantly white feminist organizations to start their own, Farmer said. The most notable were the National Black Feminist Organization, which was modeled on NOW’s local chapter system, and the Combahee River Collective, whose founding document provides the foundation for our modern understanding of the term “intersectionality.”[7]

References

  1. National Organization for Women. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  2. Who We Are. now.org. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  3. Lewis, Jone Johnson. Profile of the National Organization for Women (NOW). ThoughtCo. 21 September 2018. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  4. Lewis, Jone Johnson. The President's Commission on the Status of Women. ThoughtCo. 5 April 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  5. Neuman, Scott. NOW President Resigns Amid Allegations Of Creating Toxic Work Environment. npr.org. 18 August 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  6. Shugerman, Emily. NOW President Steps Down After Racism Allegations. The Daily Beast. 17 August 2020. Retrived January 23, 2021.
  7. Kitchener, Caroline. ‘How many women of color have to cry?’: Top feminist organizations are plagued by racism, 20 former staffers say The Lily. 13 June 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2021.