PRESS ADVISORY
CONTACT: MELINDA SHELTON, 202-331-0066 x767; MONIQUE DOUSSARD, 771

FEMINIST FIREWORKS ON THE 4TH PROMISED AT NATIONAL NOW CONFERENCE IN MEMPHIS

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 1997

National elections, key agenda-setting discussions, tributes to women fighting discrimination and rousing keynote speeches from prominent feminist political leaders will be the focus of this year's National NOW Conference July 4-6 at The Peabody hotel in Memphis.

Conference highlights include:

• Keynote speeches by congressional feminist leaders Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill., and Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga.; and National NOW President Patricia Ireland, author of What Women Want (Plume, June 1997).
• "Women of Courage" awards presented to women who filed sexual harassment and discrimination suits against Wall Street brokerage firm Smith Barney and a Mitsubishi automobile manufacturing plant in Normal, Ill. Both corporations were named Merchants of Shame in NOW's intensifying Women-Friendly Workplace Campaign.
• Policy-making and strategy sessions on pivotal issues such as: fighting escalating attacks against abortion; ending sexual harassment in the workplace, including the military; preserving the gun ban for domestic violence offenders; exposing the misogynistic, racist and homophobic messages of right wing groups such as the Promise Keepers; passing a constitutional equality amendment; and electing more feminist candidates to office.
• Election of national officers to lead NOW into the 21st Century.

"We're fighting against resistance to our progress as more women move into previously all- male bastions, such as Congress, the military and higher paying jobs in manufacturing or financial markets," said Ireland, who is up for re-election as NOW's president. "We'll set a course of action not only to make the feminist movement stronger, but also to increase momentum in our work for women's equality and women's lives."

For press credentials, contact Melinda Shelton or Monique Doussard.

(This news release can be linked to at: http://www.now.org/press/06-97/06-11-97.html)