NOW’s National Network Includes Washington, D.C.

The National Organization for Women, commonly known as NOW, is a national feminist organization with a presence in Washington, D.C. Its work spans several policy areas, including LGBTQIA+ rights, constitutional equality, economic justice, reproductive rights and racial justice. The organization also campaigns against violence against women.

Founded in 1966, NOW operates as a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. Its network includes 550 chapters across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The group reports having about 500,000 members and is described in the source material as the largest feminist organization in the United States.

NOW’s approach is centered on advocacy within the existing political system. In practical terms, that means lobbying and organizing around changes to law and public policy rather than functioning solely as a service provider or community organization. Its agenda connects gender equality with other movements for civil rights and social justice, including advocacy on behalf of LGBTQIA+ people.

For Washington readers, the organization’s national structure is significant: the District is included in a chapter network that reaches every state in the country. The source material does not provide details about the activities, leadership or priorities of a specific Washington, D.C., chapter, so those local questions require separate reporting. It does, however, establish the District as part of NOW’s broader organizational footprint.

The organization emerged amid a wider period of attention to discrimination against women. Influences identified in the source include the President’s Commission on the Status of Women, Betty Friedan’s 1963 book The Feminine Mystique, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, including concerns about how effectively its prohibition on sex discrimination was being enforced. The commission had examined discrimination affecting women in education, employment and Social Security.

NOW’s history and platform place it within the liberal feminist tradition in the United States. Its stated priorities show how that tradition has expanded beyond workplace and legal equality to include reproductive freedom, racial justice, opposition to gender-based violence and LGBTQIA+ rights. For an LGBTQ-focused audience, that intersection is the clearest reason to follow the organization: NOW treats LGBTQIA+ equality as one part of a larger campaign addressing discrimination and unequal treatment.

Source and reuse information This automatically generated backgrounder adapts text from “National Organization for Women” on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Organization_for_Women The adapted text is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. The source article’s linked references are provided below where available. This story has not been independently reviewed or fact-checked.

Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://books.google.com/books?id=0EUoCrFolGcC&pg=PA134 - https://books.google.com/books?id=qJZdHuZ0aM0C&pg=PA145 - https://books.google.com/books?id=ioM-8naFn60C&pg=PA264 - https://books.google.com/books?id=7V73W75tGssC&pg=PA27 - https://books.google.com/books?id=bIe7ZtOubc8C&pg=PA105 - https://web.archive.org/web/20110902232426/http://www.now.org/history/purpos66.html Image rights Photograph description: A historic dialogue with some of the LGBTQ Communities of Washington, DC. Guided by some of the most transformational leaders of our time. Everyone deserves to be safe. Creator: Ted Eytan. License: CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3A2017.05.09_LGBTQ_Communities_Dialogue_and_Capital_Pride_Board_Meeting_Washington_DC_USA_4548_(34170924440).jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.