IB History Role of Groups Including NOW the National Women's Political Caucus and Affiliated Organizations Notes

Feminist Organisations: NOW, the NWPC, and the Movement's Infrastructure

1. The women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s was not a single organization.
   1. It was a network of groups with different strategies, goals, and theories of change.
   2. To understand how feminism advanced during this period, you need to know the key organizations that made it work.

NOW and Liberal Feminism

1. The National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded in 1966 by Betty Friedan and Pauli Murray, along with other civil rights and labor activists.
   1. It quickly became the largest feminist organization in the United States.
2. NOW's strategy was to work within the existing legal and political system.
   1. It lobbied Congress, filed lawsuits, and pressured employers and government agencies to enforce anti-discrimination law.
   2. This approach is called liberal feminism, because it sought reform through existing institutions rather than a wholesale transformation of society.
3. NOW's early priorities included ending workplace discrimination, pressing for equal pay, and pushing for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
   1. It used Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as a legal tool, filing complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission when employers treated women unequally.
4. By the early 1970s NOW had chapters across the country and tens of thousands of members.
   1. Its size gave it political credibility and made it the main voice of organized feminism in dealings with Congress and federal agencies.

The NWPC and Electoral Politics

1. In 1971, feminist leaders took a step beyond lobbying and founded the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC).
   1. Its founding members included Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, and Bella Abzug.
   2. The goal was direct: get women elected and appointed to public office at every level of government.
2. The NWPC was deliberately bipartisan.
   1. It worked with both Democratic and Republican women on the basis that women's political representation was a shared goal across party lines.
   2. This made it distinct from organizations that were more closely aligned with one party.
3. Shirley Chisholm's 1972 presidential campaign illustrated precisely what the NWPC was trying to build toward.
   1. Chisholm, already the first Black woman elected to Congress (1968), ran for the Democratic presidential nomination.
   2. She did not win it, but her campaign demonstrated that women and Black Americans could compete for the highest office in the country.
   3. The NWPC actively supported her bid.
4. The NWPC's founding reflected a broader recognition within the movement that lobbying alone was not enough.
   1. To change policy, you had to change who held power.
   2. That meant putting feminist women in legislatures, on courts, and in executive agencies.

Ms. Magazine and Feminist Media

1. In 1972, Gloria Steinem launched Ms. magazine, the first mainstream feminist publication in the United States.
   1. The name itself was a statement: "Ms." was a title that, unlike "Miss" or "Mrs.", did not define a woman by her relationship to a man.
2. Ms. covered topics that mainstream women's magazines largely avoided: reproductive rights, workplace discrimination, domestic violence, and political organizing.
   1. It reported on feminist activism and gave the movement a national platform to reach readers who were not already attending marches or joining NOW chapters.
3. The preview issue, included as an insert in New York magazine in late 1971, sold out in eight days.
   1. The full launch in January 1972 sold out newsstand copies within a week.
   2. That commercial success made clear there was a large audience for feminist ideas presented in accessible journalism.
4. Ms. also functioned as connective tissue for the movement.
   1. It reported on local organizing across the country, helped readers identify feminist groups near them, and kept a geographically scattered movement informed about itself.

Radical Feminist Groups

1. Not all feminists in this period agreed with NOW's approach of working through existing institutions.
   1. A separate current of radical feminism argued that the problem ran much deeper than discriminatory laws.
   2. The entire social system, these groups argued, was built on patriarchy, and reforming it from within would not be enough.
2. Key radical feminist groups of this period included New York Radical Women (founded 1967), the Redstockings (1969), and WITCH (Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell, 1968).
   1. These groups were smaller than NOW and operated in cities rather than building a national membership structure.
3. Radical feminists developed the practice of consciousness-raising: small group discussions where women shared personal experiences as a way of understanding the political structures shaping their lives.
   1. The phrase "the personal is political" came directly from this practice.
   2. It expressed the idea that what seemed like private problems (unequal housework, sexual violence, limited career options) were actually the result of systemic power structures.

1. The division between liberal and radical feminism was real, but the two strands were also complementary.
   1. NOW's lobbying created legal change.
   2. Radical groups shifted cultural norms and expanded what people thought it was acceptable to demand.
   3. Both mattered for the movement's overall impact.

Affiliated Organisations and Later Coalitions

1. NOW itself grew more ambitious over time.
   1. In 1967, it adopted a Bill of Rights for Women demanding enforced equal employment, paid maternity leave, tax deductions for childcare, and the repeal of laws restricting abortion.
2. Other affiliated organisations tackled issues NOW had not prioritised.
   1. The National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL), founded in 1969, coordinated state-by-state campaigns to legalise abortion, years before Roe v Wade (1973).
3. The movement's coalition, and its divisions, were fully visible by the end of the decade.
   1. The National Women's Conference in Houston (1977) brought thousands of delegates from every state to debate a National Plan of Action, while a rival conservative conference met nearby to oppose it.