NOW National Conference: 2008

2008 National NOW Conference a "Super" Event

July 24, 2008

By Lisa Bennett, Communications Director

"No Capes, No Masks, No Boundaries: Feminist Super-Women Unite!" -- the 2008 National NOW Conference theme -- saluted the superhero in all of us. Hundreds of women and men from across the country gathered in Bethesda, Md., for the conference on July 18-20. And, yes, the speakers, honorees, workshop presenters and participants truly were fantastic.

Wonder Women: Speakers and Honorees

Photo by Liz Newbury Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) spoke at the PAC Brown Bag Lunch.

The weekend's first general session was a political brown-bag lunch on Friday, designed to engage more women in running for public office. Feminist Majority President Eleanor Smeal moderated the session with three dynamic speakers: U.S. Representative Donna Edwards (D-Md.), Maryland State Delegate Heather Mizeur, and political commentator and activist Jehmu Greene. Edwards was recently sworn in to the U.S. House, making her the first African-American woman to represent Maryland in Congress. She addressed the need for public financing of elections and the value of person-to-person contact in campaigns, and thanked NOW PAC for our early support of her campaign.

Mizeur spoke of the serious issues at stake for women in this year's elections, including health care, and the importance to being involved locally to make change. Greene, who as president of Rock the Vote had taken the organization from 1500 members to over one million members, talked about the power of the youth vote. She also addressed the continued under-representation of women in elected office and the discrimination women face when they do run, exemplified by the vilification of Hillary Clinton during the primaries. Greene stressed that women must have each other's backs.

At the Friday evening plenary session, NOW President Kim Gandy presented former president Patricia Ireland with the organization's Woman of Vision award -- just the third time in NOW's history that this honor has been bestowed. Ireland served as NOW president from 1991-2001, and was commended for her dedicated work on global women's issues, as well as her efforts to bring together the feminist, anti-poverty, civil rights, disability, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movements. Ireland shared stories of her time at NOW, including meeting and strategizing with women from all over the world. She also spoke of her recent battle with leukemia and the peace and sense of purpose she felt as she reflected on a life of activism.

The focus of Friday evening's general session was Global Feminism, and that topic was brought home by Irshad Manji, Mónica Alemán and U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.). Alemán, coordinator of the International Indigenous Women's Forum and program director of MADRE, an international women's human rights organization, spoke about indigenous women and the need for cultural diversity within the feminist movement in the U.S. and worldwide.

Manji is the best-selling author of "The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith," and has been called "Osama bin Laden's worst nightmare." Getting into the conference theme, Manji showed everyone her Wonder Woman wristband and encouraged the crowd to withstand the pushback that comes with speaking out for justice. Her ideas on patriarchy, religion and human rights were particularly thought-provoking.

Maloney, a longtime supporter of women's rights, and author of the new book "Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated," spoke about international women's issues, including the need to ratify CEDAW, sex trafficking, family planning and more. She also stayed for the entire conference, signing copies of her new book and attending workshops.

Photo by Liz Newbury Former NOW President Patricia Ireland was awarded the "Woman of Vision" award by NOW President Kim Gandy.

On Saturday morning, NOW presented its annual Woman of Courage award to two women who have been heroic in very different ways - Lilly Ledbetter and Barbara Hillary. Ledbetter worked as a supervisor for Goodyear Tire for 19 years, eventually suing the company for wage discrimination. In a dramatic reinterpretation of longstanding anti-discrimination laws, the Supreme Court took away every cent of back pay and damages she had been awarded, and now Ledbetter is working to get federal legislation passed that would help other women avoid the same fate.

Upon accepting her award, Ledbetter spoke of the importance of the 2008 elections and the probability that the next U.S. president will have the opportunity to make several Supreme Court nominations. She also told a funny, yet infuriating, tale of not one but two media outlets that interviewed her in her home and insisted on shooting "B-roll" (background) footage of Ledbetter in her kitchen making coffee and tea (they wanted her to bake a cake, but she drew the line there).

Hillary followed her dreams all the way to the North Pole, becoming the first African American woman to reach the Arctic -- at the age of 75! Hillary, who also is a lung cancer survivor, charmed and inspired the crowd with her humor and words of wisdom, encouraging everyone to have a "North Pole dream" they can work toward.

NOW President Kim Gandy delivered an expansive keynote speech. She thanked Hillary Clinton for putting 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, talked about her experiences traveling and speaking for the Clinton campaign, and spoke of the backlash that has followed the enormous progress of the women's movement. She concluded with an analysis of some of the key issues that the next U.S. president should tackle to advance women's equality.

Media on Notice

With cameras from C-SPAN rolling, Gandy presented the very first "awards" in NOW's Media Hall of Shame. The honors (or dis-honors) went to the offenders who scored the worst ratings from visitors to the Hall of Shame website. They represent some of the most misogynistic coverage during the election primary season. Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson (MSNBC) and Charlotte Allen (writing for the Washington Post) were the "winners," and NOW presented lifetime achievements awards to Chris Matthews (MSNBC) and Maureen Dowd (New York Times) for their seeming dedication to sexist commentary.

The Hall of Shame is an ongoing project, with NOW adding new offenders as the media shift their focus from Clinton to Michelle Obama. Because the media is such a hot topic right now, and so relevant to women's lives, the Saturday afternoon general session featured four media-savvy guest speakers.

Carol Jenkins, president of the Women's Media Center, regaled us with experiences from her 30-year career in broadcasting. Accused by a former boss of "agitating" the women at the TV station where she worked, Jenkins now agitates women to help change the face of media, which is overwhelmingly male and white. Jenkins also revealed how the right wing foots the bill to train and eventually "embed" pundits who will espouse the conservative agenda.

Dr. Erika Falk, associate program chair for the master's degree in communication at Johns Hopkins University, shared the fascinating research for her book, "Women for President: Media Bias in Eight Campaigns." The results showed that women have faced biased press coverage since Victoria Woodhull ran in the 1800s, and astoundingly the charts and graphs showed very little change from that time to the present. Despite this, Falk noted that when women run, women are just as likely to win. But how many women will want to run at all when they witness such negative or unbalanced coverage for other women candidates?

Journalist Marie Cocco enlightened the crowd about what it's like to be a syndicated columnist in a field where women are the exception, and where op-ed page editors think running one women writer is more than enough. Cocco wrote more than one piece on the sexism directed at Clinton during the primaries, including her popular column "Misogyny I Won't Miss." But when NBC's Meet the Press did a show about sexism in the media and extensively discussed her column, Cocco wasn't even invited to be on the panel.

Finally, author and former Miss America contestant Nancy Redd closed out the session with a lively and bold presentation. Redd spoke of her own early desire to live up to the unrealistic images of women promoted in the media, and how her first women's studies class opened her mind. She went on to write the book "Body Drama," which tells girls and young women the truth about their bodies, complete with un-airbrushed, honest, no-nonsense photos of real women and girls. A prospective editor even told Redd she wouldn't publish the book because the women pictured inside were too ugly - but making the New York Times' bestseller list gave Redd the last laugh!

Workshops: Building a Strategy for Justice

The weekend was filled with scores of compelling workshops and issue hearings. Some of the issues covered included: the impact of the subprime foreclosure crisis on women; sexual assault in the military; women caught in the mental health system; the prevention of sexually transmitted infections; women's retirement security; the road to same-sex marriage; women in prison; the problem with family courts; women and faith; and much more.

Photo by Liz Newbury Activists work on their feminist tool belt by canvassing outside the conference hotel.

A Grassroots Organizing Institute was designed to help activists return to their communities and form successful coalitions, organize in the streets, create actions, build a bridge from campus to community, get out the vote and build an online network. Participants earned their "feminist tool belt" through hands-on activities such as role-playing, canvassing outside the conference hotel for a better Family and Medical Leave Act, and creating their own Facebook profiles at the Internet Café run by NOW staff and interns.

The roster of workshops also included a series of Global Feminist Strategy sessions that addressed such issues as: forming alliances to stop exploitation, racism and sexism; immigrant women's rights; the murders of women in Juarez, Mexico; U.S. asylum for women fleeing gender violence; and women crossing borders to advance a common agenda.

Unfortunately, the workshop "Iraqi Women Activists Share Their Stories" had to be canceled because the U.S. State Department failed to approve the women's visa applications, despite the fact that requests were made early in the year. The women had wanted to share their compelling personal stories of living in a war zone and trying to organize Iraqi workers while keeping their own families safe; they were greatly disappointed they were unable to attend and sent their best wishes.

But That's Not All

Talk about a packed agenda! The weekend also included a welcome reception on Friday night that became an impromptu fundraiser for NOW PAC. While attendees enjoyed the complimentary food and beverages, NOW leaders and activists took turns at the microphone speaking on behalf of some of the fabulous feminist candidates running for office across the country this year.

Several of the conference speakers signed their books throughout the weekend, while an array of exhibitors helped educate members about social justice issues and marketed fun, woman-positive products. The NOW chapter development booth even offered a raffle to win a three-day visit from a national field organizer!

On Sunday, as always, NOW got down to business. Members discussed and passed an amendment to the National NOW Bylaws and eight resolutions that will guide NOW action throughout the coming year.

The resolutions called for action on the following issues: women's right to protect their own health, including access to abortion; proposed state constitutional amendments barring equal marriage rights in Florida, California and Arizona; the healthcare funding and access crisis in the U.S.; combating racism; the impact of law enforcement on female immigrants; global feminist issues; the backlog of Social Security benefits for people with disabilities; and the mentorship of new feminists within NOW.

"The 2008 NOW Conference was an extraordinary gathering of remarkable activists, and lived up to its 'super women' theme," said Gandy. "The women and men who attended the conference didn't have masks or capes, but they returned home inspired to be even stronger crusaders for women's equality."

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