Men:their rights,nothing more.

Women:their rights,nothing less.

~ Susan B. Anthony

"If the shoe doesn't fit, must we change the foot?

This thread runs through her life as an activist and change agent,

dedicated to fashioning a world that does fit the needs of its people.

• co-founder of New York magazine in 1968

• a major feminist leader in the late 1960s

• in 1971, co-founded MS Magazine where she serves as contributing editor today

• in 1971 she was a co-convener of the National Women's Political Caucus

• in l972 helped found the MS Foundation for Women which raises funds to assist underprivileged girls and women.

Betty Friedan has been central to the reshaping of American attitudes toward

women's lives and rights. Through decades of social

activism, strategic thinking and powerful writing,

Friedan is one of contemporary society's most effective leaders.

• detailed the frustrating lives of countless American women who were expected to find fulfillment primarily through the achievements of husbands and children.

• set off shock waves around the country and is now regarded as the catalytic work of the women's movement triggering a period of change that continues today.

• Friedan has been central to this evolution for women, through lectures and writing.

The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the twentieth century in the United States. Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As shemade the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, atepeanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night—she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question—Is this all?

• She was 1 of 28 founders of the NOW and its 1st president

• Founder of NARAL

• a convener of the National Women's Political Caucus

• a key leader in the struggle for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.

• She published her latest book, The Fountain of Aging in Fall, 1993

Original Statement of Purpose

The purpose of NOW is to take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all privileges and responsibilities thereof in truly equal partnership with men.

Issues and Goals of NOW

• Women's Work

• Equal Rights Amendment

• Elected Feminists

• Sexual Harassment and Violence

• Promoting Diversity and Ending Racism

• Abortion Rights and Reproductive Freedom

• Lesbian Rights

The Philosophy:NOW is the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States with 250,000 members and 550 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. NOW's official priorities are winning economic equality and securing it with an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that will guarantee equal rights for women; championing abortion rights, reproductive freedom and other women's health issues; opposing racism and fighting bigotry against lesbians and gays; and ending violence against women.

The Method:NOW activists do extensive electoral and lobbying work and bring lawsuits.

They also organize mass marches, rallies, pickets, and non-violent civil disobedience. A march in support of the Equal Rights Amendment drew more

than 100,000 people to Washington, D.C. in 1978. In 1995, NOW organized the first mass demonstration to focus on the issue of violence against women

-- and drew a quarter million people to the Mall.

The Impact:These ongoing efforts established NOW as a major force in the sweeping changes that put more women in political posts; increased educational, employment and business opportunities for women; and enacted tougher laws against violence, harassment and discrimination.