2 nd year of studies Ttaru, Elena-Alina (gr. 3) Irina Prvan (gr. 3) Picu, Ligia-Cristiana (gr. 3) Rusalim, Alexandra (gr.

5) Canciu, Ana-Maria (gr. 5) NOW Statement of Purpose

19th December, 2011

1. Historical Context ( Alina Ttaru) The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the largest feminist organization
in the United States. It was founded in 1966 and has a membership of 500,000 contributing members. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

NOW was founded on June 30, 1966, in Washington, D.C., by 28 women and men
attending the Third National Conference of the Commission on the Status of Women, the successor to the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women. It had been three years since the Commission reported findings of women being discriminated against. However, the 1966 Conference delegates were prohibited by the administration's rules for the conference from even passing resolutions recommending that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforce its legal mandate to end sex discrimination.

The founders included Betty Friedan, the author of The Feminine Mystique (1963),
Pauli Murray, the first African-American female Episcopal priest, and Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman to run for president of the United States of America. The movement spawned by Friedan's book is embodied in NOW, the National Organization for Women, which works to secure political, professional, and educational equality for women. Founded in 1966 with Betty Friedan acting as an organizer, NOW is a public voice for equal rights for women. It has been extremely effective in enacting rhetorical strategies that have brought about concrete changes in laws and policies that enlarge women's opportunities and protect their rights.

During the 1970s feminist leaders promoted the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution. After Congress approved the amendment in 1972, it was quickly ratified by 28 states, and its passage seemed assured. However, a Stop ERA campaign, led by Phyllis Schlafly, crushed the progress of the legislation. By 1973, of the needed 38 states, 35 had ratified the amendment, but no remaining state would ratify the ERA.

Betty Friedan and Pauli Murray wrote the organization's Statement of Purpose in 1966
(the original was scribbled on a napkin by Friedan). The statement described the purpose of NOW as "To take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all privileges and responsibilities thereof in truly equal partnership with men."

 This brochure also states: "NOW is one of the few multi-issue progressive
organizations in the United States. NOW stands against all oppression, recognizing that racism, sexism and homophobia are interrelated, that other forms of oppression such as classism and ableism work together with these three to keep power and privilege concentrated in the hands of a few."

NOW also works on the issues of affirmative action, disability rights, family
law, global feminism, health and body image, immigration, judicial nominations, same-sex marriage, media activism, mothers/caregivers economic rights, education, welfare, promoting women-friendly workplaces, women in the military, young feminist programs and more. Justice for immigrant women: NOW supports "real 'immigration reform' legislation that provides a path to citizenship, promotes the reunification of families, includes protections against exploitation in the workplace, and doesn't include fences, walls or border prisons."

Global issues: According to NOW's bylaws, NOW's primary focus is on

domestic American issues; however, NOW does some work on other issues of importance to women and children globally.

The national level of the organization is led by four elected national officers, by the
national Board of Directors, and by national issues committees. These national leaders are responsible for implementing policy as formulated by the annual National Conference, for coordinating national actions, and for providing membership services. NOW has had ten national presidents, beginning with Betty Friedan in 1966. Terry O'Neill, the currently serving national president, was elected in 2009.

Glossary: Ableism: is a form of discrimination or social prejudice against people with disabilities. It is known by many names, including disability discrimination, physicalism, handicapism, and disability oppression. Board of Directors: is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Bylaws: can refer to a law of local or limited application passed under the authority of a higher law specifying what things may be regulated by the by-law. It can also refer to the internal rules of a company or organization. Classism: is prejudice or discrimination on the basis of social class. District of Columbia: commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of theUnited States.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC): is an independent federal law enforcement

agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination complaints based on an individual's race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, perceived intelligence, disability (such as alcoholism) and retaliation for reporting and/or opposing a discriminatory practice.

Equal Rights Amendment (ERA): was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time. NOW: The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the largest feminist organization in the United States. It was founded in 1966 and has a membership of 500,000 contributing members. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Phyllis Schlafly: is a Constitutional lawyer and an American politically conservative activist and author who founded the Eagle Forum. She is known for her opposition to modern feminism ideas and for her campaign against the proposed Equal Rights Amendment.. Rhetorical Strategies: strategies through the art of discourse. Status of women: is the study of the role that women have played in history, together with the methods needed to study women.

Bibliography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Organization_for_Women http://usinfo.org/docs/democracy/demo.htm Mary Beth Norton, ed., Major Problems in American Women's History (1989), 397-400.

2. First part of the text (Irina Prvan):

In 1960, American women were discriminated by the entire society. They were excluded from politics, men were paid better than them, were kept as households in their houses, and their most important job was to take care of their children. The fact that womens rights were denied, made them fight for their liberty and for equality between man and women. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited racial discrimination. In the implementation of the Act, extension of equality to women lagged behind advancements experienced by African Americans. Women continued to be spurned from equal economic and political participation, trapped under a glass ceiling of socially constructed gender roles. The expectation of women serving the role of wife and mother in American society hindered any tangible progress. The National Organization for Women (NOW) was formed in response to what many women saw as neglect of the concerns and condition of women during the Civil Rights Movement. Betty Friedan's groundbreaking work, The Feminine Mystique, had given a voice to widely held feelings in 1963 and NOW sought to mobilize an increasingly conscious female population. NOW resolved to fight the iniquities of women being consistently marginalized in politics, paid only a percentage of what men earned, and all but barred from the professions and higher education. NOW not only targeted the surface-level problems, but denounced the ideology that created them. In the 1966 Statement of Purpose, NOW expounded upon its rejection of traditionally conceived gender roles in which the man acted in the public sphere while the woman was relegated to a life of domesticity. NOW did not shy away from controversy, advocating such measures as the creation of nationwide childcare

facilities that would alleviate women from having to sacrifice ten to fifteen years of their life in childrearing. The organization postulated that women possessed the same abilities to contribute on every level of society as men, and NOW sought to help blaze a trail for equal opportunity in education, politics, and the workplace. President John Kennedy created the President's Commission on the Status of Women which spoke for women's basic rights, opportunity for women, the national interest in security and defense of a more "efficient and effective utilization of the skills of all persons," and the value of home life and family. It charged the commission with "the responsibility for developing recommendations for overcoming discriminations in government and private employment on the basis of sex and for developing recommendations for services which will enable women to continue their role as wives and mothers while making a maximum contribution to the world around them." Glossary: Betty Friedan: (February 4, 1921 - February 4, 2006) was an American writer, activist, and feminist. A leading figure in the Women's Movement in the United States, her 1963 book The Feminine Mystique is often credited with sparking the "second wave" of American feminism in the twentieth century. In 1966, Friedan founded and was elected the first president of the National Organization for Women, which aimed to bring women "into the mainstream of American society now [in] fully equal partnership with men". The Feminine Mystique: published February 19, 1963, by W.W. Norton and Co., is a nonfiction book written by Betty Friedan. It is widely credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States. In 1957, Friedan was asked to conduct a survey of her former Smith College classmates for their 15th anniversary reunion; the results, in which she found that many of them were unhappy with their lives as housewives, prompted her to begin research for The Feminine Mystique, conducting interviews with other suburban housewives, as well as researching psychology, media, and advertising. She originally intended to publish an article on the topic, not a book, but no magazine would publish her article. The Presidential Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW): was established to advise the President of the United States on issues concerning the status of women. It was created by John F. Kennedy's executive order 10980 signed December 14, 1961. The Equal Pay Act of 1963: is a United States federal law amending the Fair Labor Standards Act, aimed at abolishing wage disparity based on sex It was signed into law on June 10, 1963 by John F. Kennedy as part of his New Frontier Program. In passing the bill,Congress denounces sexual discrimination for the following reasons: It depresses wages and living standards for employees necessary for their health and efficiency; it prevents the maximum utilization of the available labor resources it tends to cause labor disputes, thereby burdening, affecting, and obstructing commerce; it burdens commerce and the free flow of goods in commerce; and it constitutes an unfair method of competition. Civil Rights Act of 1964: was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States[1] that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation. It ended unequal application of voter registration requirements and racial segregation in schools, at the workplace and by facilities that served the general public ("public accommodations").

The African-American Civil Rights Movement: (19551968) refers to the movements in the United

States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring voting rights to them. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South. The emergence of the Black Power Movement, which lasted roughly from 1966 to 1975, enlarged the aims of the Civil Rights Movement to include racial dignity,economic and political selfsufficiency, and freedom from oppression by white Americans. Bibliography

1. http://womenshistory.about.com/od/laws/a/status_women.htm 2. http://www.answers.com/topic/now-statement-of-purpose-1966-by-national-organizationfor-women

3. Second part of the text (Ligia Picu): NOW is the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States.
They considered that it was the time for a new movement respectively , true equality for all women in America and fully equal partnership of the sexes.

they also wanted to move beyond abstract ideas to certain facts , discussion and
symposia over the status and special nature of women ; to confront the conditions that averted women from benefiting the equality of opportunity and freedom of choice which is their right as individual Americans and also as human beings.

women are first and foremost human beings who must have the chance to evolve their
potential.

this equality can be reached only by accepting the challenges and responsibilities as
part of the decision-making mainstream of American political, economic and social life.

They organized to commence action nationally by organizations or individuals , to cease the existence of prejudice and discrimination against women in government, industry, the professions, the churches, the political parties, the judiciary, the labor unions, in education, science, medicine, law, religion.

it cannot be spoken about civil rights movement in the case of women as in the case of
Negroes. therefore The National Organization for Women must begin to speak. The American law and the protection guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution to the civil rights of all individuals must be applied and enforced to isolate and remove patterns of sex discrimination, to ensure equality of opportunity in employment and education, and equality of civil and political rights and responsibilities on behalf of women, as well as for Negroes and other deprived groups.

Glossary : Activism: consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing businesses, rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, and hunger strikes.

Bibliography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activism http://www.now.org/history/purpos66.html

4. Third part of the text (Ana-Maria Canciu):

NOW considers that women's problems are linked to many broader questions of social justice.

One solution of this is to give active support to the common cause of equal rights for all those who suffer discrimination and to support NOWs efforts toward equality for women.

The Organization do not accept the token appointment of a few women to high-level positions in government or industry as a substitute for a serious continuing effort to recruit women according to their individual abilities.

NOW urged the American government to mobilize resources of ingenuity and command so that women can progress like men.

 The Organization wants to innovate new social institutions which will enable women to enjoy true equality of opportunity and responsibility in society.

They do not accept the traditional assumption that a woman has to choose between marriage and motherhood, on the one hand, and serious participation in industry or the professions on the other. They also reject the assumption that these problems are the unique responsibility of each individual woman, rather than a basic social dilemma which society must solve.

True equality of opportunity and freedom of choice for women requires such practical and possible innovations as a nationwide network of child-care centers.

NOW believe that it is as essential for every girl to be educated to her full potential, because education is the key to effective participation in today's economy and society.

The decline in the proportion of women receiving higher and professional education is considered an evidence of discrimination. This discrimination may take the form of quotas against the admission of women to colleges and professional schools, of lack of encouragement by parents, counselors and educators, and of denial of loans or fellowships.

Glossary:
Western World, The: also known as the West and the Occident, is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Organization_for_Women

5. Forth part of the text (Alexandra Rusalim):

 In the fourth part of the text the organization rejects the ideea that men should be the only support of the family; they ask for an equitable sharing of the responsabilities of home, children and especially of the economic support.

The text states that women will ask fo a reexamination of laws because they consider that the current state of "half-equality" between the sexes discriminates against both men and women.

The statement affirms that women should have an important part in the political life and even run for different positions themselves.

It is consisered by the organization that women have a false image with respect to the society; this bears them away from policies and practices - in church, state, college, factory, or office which undermines their confidence in their own abilities.

Women assure that no important political order which ignores the principle of full equality between the sexes will be accepted and they will mobilize to obtain the necessary number of votes from men and women who believe in their cause, in order to win right to be free and equal human beings.

In the end the organization states that women will try to create a new image of women and obtain a self-respecting partnership with men because in that way they will get confidence in their own ability and the conditions of their life, their choices, their future and their society will change.