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National Organization for Women

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National Organization for Women
National Organization for Women Over the years women have been pushing for the same equality as men. Women are typically looked down upon and are ignored when it come to standing up for their rights. So what do women do in order to be heard? In the 1960s an organization called the National Organization for Women was established. This organizations main focus is to eliminate discrimination in the workplace, secure abortion, birth control and reproductive rights for all women, and end all forms of violence towards women. The National Organization for Women (NOW) is the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States and was founded in 1966 by an author named Betty Friedan. Friedan wrote NOWs official mission statement which is “to take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all the privileges and responsibilities there of in truly equal partnership with men”. NOW has 500,000 contributing members and 550 chapters in all 50 states. To this day NOW is constantly planning events and walks to improve women equality. The first reason why NOW is such an important organization is because it focuses on the discrimination towards women in the work place. Women have been discriminated from many different jobs for years. Men believe that women aren’t as capable as they are therefore women are denied by many different industries and companies. Though women have come such a long way since the 1960s women are still not paid as much as men and are still dealing with discrimination. Take Wal-Mart for example. One of the largest lawsuits in U.S. history known as Wal-Mart V. Dukes, filed by 1.5 million women employees who were discriminated while working for this retail. A lady named Betty Dukes who felt that she was being discriminated due to her sex started this lawsuit. Unfortunately, Wal-Mart won the case because they are too big of a corporation to sue and there was no actual evidence of


Cited: Glazer, Sarah . "Will the landmark abortion ruling stand." CQ Researcher . N.p., 28 Nov 1997. Web. 19 Mar 2013. <http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1997112800&PHPSESSID=0ddbibn0khnorqg4f7qn2d9pv7>. "NOW to Honor 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade with Vigil at Supreme Court." National Organization for Women. N.p., 17 January 2013 . Web. 19 Mar 2013. <http://now.org/press/01-13/01-17.html>. "Sexual Harassment Remains Serious Problem on Campus." National Organization for Women. N.p., 06 Mar 2006. Web. 19 Mar 2013. <http://www.now.org/issues/harass/030206aauwreport.html>. "Supreme Court to Women of Wal-Mart: You 're on Your Own." National Organization for Women. N.p., 20 June 2011 . Web. 19 Mar 2013. <http://now.org/press/06-11/06-20.html>.

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