The Feminist Movement
One of the
most enduring and important initiatives to emerge from the Great Society era
was the women’s-equality movement, which found institutional support in the
form of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Below are excerpts from NOW’s “Statement of
Purpose”, which was adopted at the group’s organizing conference in
We, men and women, who hereby
constitute ourselves as the National Organization for Women, believe that the
time has come for a new movement toward true equality for all women in
We
organize to … break through the silken curtain 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 and every other field of importance in American
society….
In all
the professions of importance to society, and in the executive ranks of
industry and government, women are losing ground…. There is no civil rights
movement to speak for women, as there has been for Negroes and other victims of
discrimination. The National
Organization for Women must therefore begin to speak.
Download the National Organization for Women pdf file
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