NOW at 40: What's left to do?

As a young editor in the mid-1960s, Karen DeCrow paid $5 in dues to join a fledgling group called the National Organization for Women (NOW). It was a simple act ("I didn't even get a membership card," she recalls), but it marked the beginning of a lifelong commitment to working for women's equality.

This weekend that commitment will take her to Albany, N.Y., where she and more than 800 other members will observe a milestone: NOW's 40th anniversary. Amid balloons and confetti, partygoers will watch a video tracing the group's history. They will also honor founders and past presidents, among them Ms. DeCrow.

"It will be a gala celebration of how we changed the country and the world for women, for children, and definitely for men," says an exuberant DeCrow.

Although NOW puts its membership at 500,000 and counts 550 chapters, the anniversary comes at a time when the group is far less visible than it was in the heady 1970s and 1980s. That is leading both self-described "old-timers" of DeCrow's generation and younger activists to find new ways to work for equality. Leaders note that a growing conservatism in the courts and challenges to reproductive rights are drawing new members.

"I see renewed energy around the country," says Kim Gandy, NOW's president. "There's an increased sense that women need to get involved personally and put themselves on the line to make change, that they can't sit back and say, 'Let Jane do it.' "

Early seeds of change were planted 40 years ago this month when a small band of women gathered at the Washington Hilton seeking ways to enforce a federal law outlawing sex discrimination at work. Betty Friedan, author of "The Feminine Mystique," scribbled three letters – NOW – on a napkin, and an organization was born.

At the time, airline stewardesses, as they were then called, typically lost their jobs when they married, got pregnant, or reached the advanced age of 32. Some waitresses were forbidden to work at night. Women in Utah could not be hired if a job required them to lift more than 15 pounds. Employment ads were segregated by gender.

"Sometimes when I teach or talk to students about the women's movement, I tell them that when I started work, newspaper ads identified jobs as 'Help wanted – male' and 'Help wanted – female,' " says Judy Goldsmith, a former NOW president. "They say, 'Oh, come on.' They don't want to believe it. It's so Neanderthal."

DeCrow remembers other unenlightened attitudes in those early days. "Everyone laughed at us and made fun of us and ignored us. When it seemed we were making progress, they attacked us. It wasn't like the doors were open: 'Oh girls, come in. We're so glad you're calling attention to the fact that there are no women astronauts in the NASA program.' We had barriers everywhere. But it was exciting. People would come from all over the world to meet with us. We could pick our targets, because everything was a target."

Today discrimination is more subtle and the targets are less obvious, she says. "The issues have matured. We don't have to fight to get women into law school anymore, but overwhelmingly the partners in major firms are still men. Getting into medical school is not an issue. However, at the top there are still problems."

Other issues on NOW's broad-based agenda include violence against women, abortion rights, and legalizing same-sex marriage.

And then there is the family. "One of the wonderful things that has happened is a much greater acceptance and encouragement of men's involvement in child-rearing," Ms. Goldsmith says. "It's taken some of the pressure off men to be the great provider and the rock that everyone leans on."

Yet DeCrow still includes the family on her agenda, saying, "We need a sense that children are a shared responsibility for mothers and fathers. We haven't gotten there yet, although the young fathers of today certainly do a lot more than their dads and grandfathers did."

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