“True Equality for All Women”

In 1966, Conroy, Matheson, and Murray cofounded the National Organization for Women (NOW) to bring about what its Statement of Purpose called “true equality for all women in America.” While NOW also included women from government, education, business, journalism, and health care, it was the labor women, more than those from any other perspective, who laid NOW’s foundation. They knew how to build a strong and durable organization that could hold power brokers accountable.

At NOW’s founding meeting, Conroy “pulled out $5, plunked it down and said to us, in essence, ‘Put your money where your mouth is,’” recalled a fellow Wisconsin feminist. Conroy intended to finance the new group and to secure people’s commitment. She also understood the need to broker consensus. When NOW’s 1967 conference voted on the Equal Rights Amendment and abortion rights, some members quit in protest. Conroy’s mentee “wondered if there would be anybody left by the time we got done.” Conroy shook her head at the defectors, explaining that to nurture an organization, “You have to keep your eye on the ball” and compromise.

Hernandez, NOW’s second president, drew from her union experience the need for democratic governance, clear lines of authority, and broad participation. She pushed to resolve what was “a great deal of duplication and a fuzziness about who has responsibility for what” in NOW, she wrote to the national board in 1968. The former ILGWU organizer spent the next decade helping NOW “find ways of getting more varied in our membership ranks.”

Many of these labor women departed NOW within a few years, but the groundwork they laid positioned the organization to pursue the gender equality many now take for granted. Across the late 1960s and 1970s, NOW turned “on paper” entitlements into concrete, enforced rights. Its lawsuits ended sexist state laws for working women and sex-segregated job advertisements.

The group’s members targeted discriminators, then testified at hearings, picketed and boycotted, and used the law to force them to reform. NOW helped pass the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and secured nondiscrimination provisions in public accommodations and housing. In addition, the organization broadened reproductive rights, nearly won ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, and pursued maternity leave and subsidized childcare. NOW’s efforts transformed American culture, so gender equality was no longer a punch line.

Along the way, several of NOW’s founders established the Coalition of Labor Union Women, which drew union women together to forge a common agenda across employment sectors. They also reformed their own unions, ensuring that pay equity, parental leave, and anti-harassment provisions were written into contracts.