1966 June 30

The National Organization for Women (NOW) is Founded

 

Betty Friedan and a small group of her friends attending a women’s conference in Washington, D.C. became so disgusted at the lack of action on women’s rights that they decided to form a national advocacy organization for women. Thus was born NOW, the National Organization for Women, which was formally chartered on October 29, 1966.

For some of NOW’s early actions see August 30, 1967 (picketing the New York Times); December 12, 1967 (protesting at EEOC field offices); and May 7, 1969 (picketing the Nixon White House).

Friedan established herself as a leader of the reborn feminist movement in the 1960s with the publication of her best-selling book The Feminine Mystique in 1963. See the incredibly hostile review of the book in The New York Times on April 7, 1963.

Read Betty Friedan’s classic book: Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (1963)

See and Hear Betty Friedan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO304aoUAWE

Read: Stephanie Coontz, A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s (2011)

Learn more at the NOW web site:http://www.now.org/

Watch a video on the 40th Anniversary of NOW: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GXcNYaY5Yk

Read the NOW FBI file: http://vault.fbi.gov/National%20Organization%20for%20Women%20%28NOW%29

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