Agenda
The Washington Post said she "campaigned to reenergize what she called an outsider strategy of 'tapping into energy and outrage' felt by grass-roots feminists across the country over 'the ground we lost' during the Bush administration". [2]
NOW addresses are abortion rights, reproductive rights issues, violence against women, constitutional equality, promoting diversity, ending racism, LGBT rights, and economic justice. [8]
She was strongly critical of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, which attempted to place limits on taxpayer-funding of abortions (except in the cases of rape, incest, and life of the mother) in the context of the November 2009 Affordable Care Act. [9] The amendment was ultimately not included in the bill.
O'Neill has said the struggle against transphobia is a feminist issue. [10]
Individualist feminism or ifeminism is a conservative libertarian feminist tradition that emphasize individualism, personal autonomy, choice, consent, freedom from state-sanctioned discrimination against women, and equality under the law, while also opposing what they consider political or gender feminism.
Liberal feminism, also called mainstream feminism, is a main branch of feminism defined by its focus on achieving gender equality through political and legal reform within the framework of liberal democracy. As the oldest of the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought, liberal feminism has its roots in 19th century first-wave feminism that focused particularly on women's suffrage and access to education, and that was associated with 19th century liberalism and progressivism. Liberal feminism "works within the structure of mainstream society to integrate women into that structure." Liberal feminism places great emphasis on the public world, especially laws, political institutions, education and working life, and considers the denial of equal legal and political rights as the main obstacle to equality. As such liberal feminists have worked to bring women into the political mainstream. Liberal feminism is inclusive and socially progressive, while broadly supporting existing institutions of power in liberal democratic societies, and is associated with centrism and reformism. Liberal feminism "tends to be adopted by 'mainstream' women who do not disagree with the current social structure;" Zhang and Rios found that liberal feminism with its focus on equality is viewed as the dominant and "default" form of feminism. Liberal feminism actively supports men's involvement in feminism and both women and men have always been active participants in the movement; progressive men had an important role alongside women in the struggle for equal political rights since the movement was launched in the 19th century.
Feminists for Life of America (FFL) is a non-profit, anti-abortion feminist, non-governmental organization (NGO). Established in 1972, and now based in Alexandria, Virginia, the organization describes itself as "shaped by the core feminist values of justice, non-discrimination, and non-violence". FFL publishes a biannual magazine, The American Feminist, and aims to reach young women, college students in particular.
Eleanor Smeal is one of the major leaders of the modern-day American feminist movement. Smeal is the president and a cofounder of the Feminist Majority Foundation and has served as president of the National Organization for Women for three terms, in addition to her work as an activist, grassroots organizer, lobbyist, and political analyst.
Rosemary Dempsey a noted American Activist, has served many roles in second wave feminism, civil rights movements, and anti-war protests. Her most notable positions were Vice President for Action of The National Organization of Women (NOW) starting in 1990 and Director for the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy.
Lucy Komisar is a New York City-based investigative journalist and drama critic.
Kim Gandy is an American feminist who from 2001 to 2009 was the president of the National Organization for Women. Since 2012, she has been the president and CEO of the National Network to End Domestic Violence. In 2009, Gandy was a resident fellow at the Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. From January 2010 to October 2012 she was vice president and general counsel at the Feminist Majority Foundation in Arlington, Virginia.
Veteran Feminists of America (VFA) is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization for supporters and veterans of the second-wave feminist movement. Founded by Jacqueline Ceballos in 1992, Veteran Feminists of America regularly hosts reunions for second-wave feminists and events honoring feminist leaders.
The National Organization for Women (NOW) is an American feminist organization. Founded in 1966, it is legally a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and in Washington, D.C. It is the largest feminist organization in the United States with around 500,000 members. NOW is regarded as one of the main liberal feminist organizations in the US, and primarily lobbies for gender equality within the existing political system. NOW campaigns for constitutional equality, economic justice, reproductive rights, LGBTQIA+ rights and racial justice, and against violence against women.
Social feminism is a feminist movement that advocates for social rights and special accommodations for women. It was first used to describe members of the women's suffrage movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who were concerned with social problems that affected women and children. They saw obtaining the vote mainly as a means to achieve their reform goals rather than a primary goal in itself. After women gained the right to vote, social feminism continued in the form of labor feminists who advocated for protectionist legislation and special benefits for women. The term is widely used, although some historians have questioned its validity.
Noreen Connell is an American feminist organizer and writer/editor, known for producing, with fellow New York Radical Feminists (NYRF) member Cassandra Wilson, the 1974 New American Library book Rape: A First Sourcebook for Women by New York Radical Feminists. She first joined the feminist movement through the August 26, 1970 New York City Women's Strike for Equality March and Rally and an autumn 1970 NYRF consciousness-raising group. After working as a NYRF conference and speak-out organizer and a founding member of the Women Office Workers in the early 1970s, Connell has chiefly served as an elected officer of women's rights advocacy groups such as the National Organization for Women (NOW).
Erin Matson is an American writer and feminist activist. Matson was 23 when she became the youngest-ever state chapter president in the history of the National Organization for Women (NOW). In June 2009, she was elected Action Vice President of NOW. She is a co-director of the activist organization Reproaction with Pamela Merritt.
Feminist views on transgender topics vary widely.
Cecilia Ann Conrad is the CEO of Lever for Change, emeritus professor of economics at Pomona College, and managing director of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She formerly served as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Pomona College. She currently oversees the foundation's MacArthur Fellows and 100&Change programs. Her research focuses on the effects of race and gender on economic status.
Lois Galgay Reckitt is an American feminist, human rights activist, LGBT rights activist, and domestic violence advocate. Called "one of the most prominent advocates in Maine for abused women", she served as executive director of Family Crisis Services in Portland, Maine for more than three decades. From 1984 to 1987 she served as executive vice president of the National Organization for Women in Washington, D.C. She is a co-founder of the Human Rights Campaign Fund, the Maine Coalition for Human Rights, the Maine Women's Lobby, and the first Maine chapter of the National Organization for Women. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 1998.
Aileen Clarke Hernandez was an African-American union organizer, civil rights activist, and women's rights activist who served as the president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) between 1970 and 1971. She was also the first woman to serve on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Tania Christina Tetlow is an American lawyer and law professor who has been president of Loyola University New Orleans since 2018. She has been named president of Fordham University effective July 1, 2022. She is the first woman and the first layperson to hold each of those positions at those two Catholic universities.
Sylvia Roberts (1933-2014) was an American lawyer known for legal work on behalf of patients at the East Louisiana State Hospital’s Forensic Unit, for the National Organization for Women’s (NOW) Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDEF), as an educator and advocate for the legal rights of women in Louisiana, and on the behalf of victims of domestic violence. Roberts is best known for representing Lorena Weeks in Weeks v. Southern Bell, the first legal victory in which the National Organization for Women used Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to fight gender-based discrimination.
Ida Weis Friend was a suffragist, philanthropist and lifelong advocate for progressive causes in New Orleans. In 1920, she became the first woman from Louisiana to serve as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
Leslie Rosenberg Wolfe was an American women's rights activist, known for her work as the longtime leader of the Center for Women Policy Studies. She particularly focused her activism on the intersection of racism and sexism faced by women of color.
