The Feminine Mystique: The National Organization For Women

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Recommended: Second wave feminist movement essay

Justine N. Peñas
HIST 2323-02 10:00 AM
FEMINISM: THEN AND NOW

“The National Organization for Women Calls for Equality” is the mission statement of The National Organization for Women (NOW), as part of the second wave feminist movement. Journalist Betty Friedan and others founded the organization in 1966, where Friedan then served as NOW’s first president. There were several events believed to have led to the creation of NOW. From 1961 to 1963 was the President’s Commission on the Status of Women. In 1963, Friedan’s “The Feminine Mystique” was published, addressing the traditional idea that a woman’s role in society was to be kept in the home as a good wife and mother. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited gender …show more content…

These are responsibilities that include the financial means to sustain a household, and the homemaking skills to cultivate a wholesome home life, including childcare. It is rejected that a woman must rely on a man to sustain her livelihood, just as it is rejected for only women to dominate the household. The document addresses a state of “half-equality” that discriminates against both genders.
NOW reinforces that for American women to fully exercise equal rights, it is of their responsibility. To reinvent the image of the American woman, it is a woman’s purpose in doing so to speak up and act. It is best to keep in mind that women should not act out of hostility towards men, but because of the purpose in itself, and having the self-respect and dignity to not undervalue oneself. Instead of acting against men to rise above this depravity, it should be a goal to act with …show more content…

An issue stated by NOW today and NOW during the second-wave feminist movement is economic justice. According to the National Organization for Women website, “NOW advocates for wide range of economic justice issues affecting women, from the glass ceiling to the sticky floor of poverty. These include welfare reform, livable wages, job discrimination, pay equity, housing, social security and pension reform, and much more” . Also on the website pertaining to economic justice, “winning a constitutional guarantee of equality for women remains one of NOW’s top priorities” . Along with the continuing struggle of economic justice, some pressing issues for the American woman are reproductive rights and justice, violence against women, LGBT rights, and racial justice where women are now being doubly discriminated

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