NOW to President Obama:
Appointment is Good, But Still Not Good Enough; More Women Should be in the Cabinet
Statement of NOW President Terry O’Neill

May 2, 2013
With President Obama’s appointment of Penny Pritzker to be Secretary of Commerce, his second-term roster of cabinet secretaries is nearly complete. NOW has done the math, and the numbers are good, but not great. The Obama cabinet is only about one-third women. With women making up 51% of the American population, President Obama’s cabinet should accurately reflect this and be one-half women.
NOW is particularly …

April 17, 2013
The National Organization for Women is proud to announce its support of The Inclusive Prosperity Act, a financial transaction tax introduced today by Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. The Ellison bill would create a Wall Street sales taxproviding hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue every year for such critical needs as jobs, health care, education, housing assistance for low-income individuals, and expanding and improving the social safety net.

“It’s about time Wall Street started paying its fair share,” said NOW President Terry O’Neill. “The people of this country are …

2013 National NOW Conference
Friday, July 5 – Sunday, July 7
Chicago, Illinois
Hilton Chicago
720 South Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60605
http://www.now.org/organization/conference/2013/

Next week we’ll begin celebrating Women’s History Month. Throughout the month, we’ll hear a lot of speeches from government officials about how they believe in gender equality and women’s empowerment.

That’s a good thing! But an even better way to celebrate Women’s History Month would be for legislators to ask one basic question before they pass another bill or implement another policy – What is the gender impact?

Gender equality is the law! We’ve found no constitutional or statutory exception to gender equality mandates. There’s …

February 12, 2013

The National Organization for Women lauds today’s Senate vote to pass an inclusive and long-overdue reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Despite efforts by a handful of misguided Republicans to undermine the bill’s important provisions, the Senate reauthorized the act with a bipartisan vote of 78-22, sending it to the House for immediate action.

Like the version passed by the Senate in the last Congress, S. 47 extends its protections and improved access to services to students, those in need of housing, immigrant women, LGBT individuals and Native American …

A petition for Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) ratification is currently
collecting signatures through the We the People petition process on the White House website.
The ERA petition has over 18,000 signatures. If the petition has 25,000 signatures by 11:59pm on February 9, the White House staff will review it, send it to the appropriate policy experts, and issue an official response. (Currently, the We the People process requires over 100,000 signatures,
but the ERA petition was filed before the increased requirement.)

It is time to get the ERA back high on the national agenda. …

Feb. 4, 2013

TAKE ACTION:

Will you be one of the One Billion Rising this Valentine’s Day? NOW is proud to partner with Eve Ensler, creator of The Vagina Monologues, along with more than 5,000 organizations in over 160 countries, for this worldwide event to demand an end to violence against women.
Join a V-Day event near you, or start one yourself. Dance, rally, speak, attend a reading of The Vagina Monologues and help spread awareness! Join the One Billion and rise with us!

BACKGROUND:

Last month, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was left …

January 22, 2013

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision that affirmed a woman’s right to abortion. On this day we remember the countless women who died from unsafe abortions prior to Roe. Those brave women were the senseless victims of a society that historically has treated women like second-class citizens, tossed their rights around like a political football and patrolled their bodies as if they belonged to the state.

We are at a critical turning point in this country. A recent poll shows that public support …

Actions and Events Hosted by Our Grassroots Chapter Network

Celebrate with your local NOW chapter! Don’t see anything near you?               Find your local chapter and contact them to see what they have planned.

Arkansas | California | D.C. | Florida | Indiana | Kansas | Michigan | Missouri| Montana | New Mexico | New Jersey | New York | North Carolina | Ohio |Pennsylvania | Texas | Virginia | Wisconsin

*Please note: this list will continue to be updated, so please check back often. To connect with NOW go to now@now.org

Arkansas
Little Rock NOW: 3rd Annual Rally for Reproductive Justice
Saturday, Jan. 19 • 1:00 …

January 10, 2013

President Obama has made a number of high-profile appointments recently — four at last count, and they are all white men. Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., was in line to follow Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. The right wing unjustly smeared Rice, and despite the efforts of NOW and allied women’s organizations, she was pushed aside and replaced with a white male nominee. And now we hear that Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis is leaving her post. Who will be …