June 13, 2001
As feminists battle ultra-conservatives in the White House, Congress and the courts, the National Organization for Women (NOW) prepares to bid farewell to its longest-serving president, Patricia Ireland. Due to term limits, Ireland is retiring after more than ten years as president and fourteen as a national officer. New leadership will be elected by activists at the National NOW Conference, June 29 to July 1 in Philadelphia. Ireland will retire in August.
"This is an exciting and crucial time for feminists and NOW. From the Bush administration's attacks on women's rights to the change in Senate leadership, NOW activists have their hands full protecting the advances we've made together over the past decades," Ireland said. "Yet I am confident that the new team of feminists to lead NOW will continue to enact more groundbreaking laws that ensure our rights, elect more feminists to all levels government and further prevent the packing of the courts with anti-women's rights nominees."
For over a decade, Ireland has led the largest, most visible and most successful feminist organization in the United States. Ireland's major contributions include organizing NOW activists to: defend women's access to abortion, elect a record number of women to political office, work more closely with other social justice and civil rights groups and champion international feminist issues.
From forcing reopening of Clarence Thomas' confirmation hearings after Anita Hill's revelations to organizing the spirited protests outside John Ashcroft's hearings, Ireland has been in the forefront of the fight for equal rights. During her presidency Ireland has worked to form and expand strong and effective working relationships with not only traditional allies in the civil rights, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights communities, but also new coalition partners in the welfare and poverty rights, and disability rights movements.
Ireland has inspired a new generation of activism by working with young women and men on hundreds of campuses. Her vision and dedication have laid a strong foundation on which NOW's next president will build.
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