National Organisation for Women Movement (Essay Sample)

National Organization for Women Movement
Name:
Institution:
National Organization for Women Movement (NOW)
The National Organization for Women is a movement based in Washington, D.C., fighting for equal rights for women. The movement came about in 1966 when the Third National Conference of the Commission on the Status of Women failed to guarantee equal rights for women. The movement felt that the society did not treat women well, and it decided to bring women together as a way of fighting for favorable social and economic conditions. The movement’s founders held that all human beings have equal rights, and the society should not oppress women by considering them inferior to men.
Goals of NOW
NOW leaders held that the government had protections it had established for women but were not in force. The protections related to women’s rights in the legal, political, social, and economic aspects of the society (NOW, 2015). The movement put pressure on the government to allow women to have access and enjoy all those rights without profiling the origin or color of the individuals.
Sexism and stereotyping brought about inequality through denying rights and privileges to some groups of people (NOW, 2015). One of the areas cited by NOW is the allocation of employment opportunities. The movement pushed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to abolish all forms of discrimination at the places of work. This related to job openings at the public and private sectors.
NOW aims to instill a deep vision that shall facilitate a transformative social change. Eshle (2001) says that scholars have identified that a social change is crucial when developing commitment to a movement for change. When there is no consensus and social vision, the movement shall lack the ability to retain committed activists and staff.
NOW collected data over a period showing that a number of women were not civilized, a factor that made it difficult for them to fight for their rights (Schreiber, 2013). The movement made it a point to educate women about their basic rights and it also gave them channels of reporting abuse and violations of their rights. Kainer (2006) also supported the factor of civilization by saying that women movements in USA and Canada have resorted to civilization as a way of fighting for their rights. They have embraced dialog as opposed to violence, a factor that has given them a wide following and an upper hand when pushing for reforms.
In the past, women lost their jobs when they proceeded for maternity leave (IMF, 2013). NOW made it part of its agenda to fight for a paid maternity leave and the movement sensitized employers the importance of allowing women to bring up families while working. In addition, the movement sued employers who replaced women on maternity leave.
NOW Leadership Structure
The NOW movement is headed by a president who is also a board member. The president is the spokesperson of the movement, and she presides over all major activities, conferences, and forums organized by the movement. The president is elected for a five-year term and can serve up to a maximum of two terms. Terry O’Neill, an attorney by profession, took office in 2009 and she is the current president of the movement (NOW, 2015).
The movement has two vice presidents. The first one is in charge of all administrative functions. She also chairs meetings when the president is not around and she maintains a record of active members. The vice president maintains records of all meeting minutes and correspondences between the movement and its stakeholders. The second vice president is in charge of mass action and she is the one who maintains dialogue with the government authorities. In addition, she maintains contact with people on the ground and informs them about the movement’s activities in relation to fighting for their rights and freedom (NOW, 2015).
The Movement has an executive committee that makes important decisions about its operations. Some of this committee’s duties include deciding where to open new offices and the number of employees to recruit into each office. In addition, the committee makes decisions on what action to take when fighting for women’s rights with options of prosecuting or calling for mass action (NOW, 2015).
Methods of Fighting for Women’s Rights
The movement stages protest marches where it calls the aggrieved parties to march along the streets as a way of passing its message to the concerned parties. The officials have always ensured the movement’s protest marches are legal and licensed by the relevant authorities.
Besides protest marches, the movement educates its members about their civil and economic rights. The education programs are overseen by volunteer members who are not paid, but they are knowledgeable in the respective fields of training.
The movement petitions relevant government authorities who do not enforce the fight against sexism. The petitions are usually in written form and they are served by the movement’s officials in the company of members of the public (Gilmore, 2013).
Gains Made by Women’s Movements
Women movements have achieved a number of gains in Canada and USA. They include the following.
Plurality beyond Liberal Feminism and an Ethic of Recognition
Through the use of movements, each individual member has achieved autonomous levels of access to rights and freedoms while developing a movement that addresses women’s needs and desires, and the recognition of the right of other feminists and women in general to similar freedoms (Motta, Fominaya, Eschle, & Cox, 2011).
Ethic of recognition underlies women’s understanding of feminist strategy. Women movements were vocal in the western countries because these jurisdictions had Anglo-Saxon policies in place, an active Protestant culture, and liberal parliamentary political systems (Choundry, Majavu & Wood, 2013). Most of the early movements were dominated by the middle-class women given that they were enlightened about their rights and had financial resources to fund the movements.
Experience and Voice
Early scholars focused on fighting for women’s rights to vote, to participate in politics, and in reform movements (Buechler, 2000). On the same note, the growth of women’s movements in Canada ran parallel to the rise of social history, generating interest in women’s working skills and lifecycle given that they dedicate more time to motherhood and child rearing, a thing not given much priority in America. Carstairs and Janovicek (2013) say that scholars defined the role of women to be homemakers, and when they worked, they earned wages after putting up an effort just as men did. The scholars also pointed out the great contributions of nuns in education and health especially in Quebec. Back then, women who dedicated more time to their careers joined the ranks of professionals but with much difficulty.
Affective, Embodied, Spiritual, and Psychological Dimensions of the Self
Movements play a big role in bringing out feminist love and anger, the importance of psychological healing, the freeing of our bodies, and sexualities. Newman (1999) says that women movements played a big role in subordinating women's rights with civil rights. That way, it was easy for the society to accept, appreciate, and support roles women played. Women in America have been more vocal than those in Canada in supporting women movements (IMF, 2013). In Canada, women with higher incomes support sexist thinking and behavior. Such wars among women have made it difficult to fight for women rights given that women discussing class and race disrupted utopian ideas of sisterhood grounded exclusively on the awareness of the reality that women have been in one way or another, victims of male domination. This calls for women to put aside differences among themselves and advise one another to speak with a common voice of fighting for equality (Mora, 2014).
Bashevkin (2012) says that black women and the Aboriginal have been contemporary in fighting for equality through movements in both Canada and USA. They have benefited from the movements activities that helped to end slavery, fighting for better-working conditions and higher salaries.
Communication
Hooks (2000) says that a number of people get the idea of female movements wrongly. They associate the movements with the idea of women who want to be like men. Hooks (2000) goes on saying that it calls for other men in the women movements to convince others that feminism is a movement to finish sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression. This definition informs people that the movements are not anti-male but against sexism. Such clarity informs people that female and male children are socialized when young to accept sexist thoughts and actions (Limoncelli, 2010).
Challenges Women’s Movements Face
OXFAM (2009) says that since the society follows a Christian culture, people follow teachings saying that God ordained women to support men. In societies where such beliefs are common, women movements meet repulsion when they fight for their rights especially the right to share responsibilities at home and the right for equal opportunities at the place of work. With such beliefs, the vision of domestic life that dominates the society is one in which the logic of the male domination is intact, whether men are around or not. Women, even those who participate in movements, propagate such ideas by treating their men as superior and do not like allocating duties to the men.
Hooks (2000) says that white and black men have shown support for women movements when they could not see a chance of the women gaining supremacy. Currently, reformist feminist thinking focusing primarily on equality with men especially at the working for...