Whatever Happened To NOW?

Somewhere along the line, NOW allowed itself to become distracted from the core issues of equality for all women to the issue of equality for the few. Maybe the wind just left their sails, but the net result is the alienation of many of us who are considered mainstream. And I am left wondering what happened to the bright future we were all promised.

We are still discriminated against in our daily lives. We earn less money than men, we have substandard health care and we are discriminated against in the courts, housing and just about everything that touches our lives. Sure, a few women have "broken the glass ceiling", but few are still around to talk about it. They fell back through long ago. We are still patted on the head by doctors and told to take two aspirin, although we die from the same aliments as men. And, in the courts, our lawyers treat us much the same way. "Let me handle it" is all we hear, with nary the chance for our own input with the net result of lose.

We are seen as emotional, weak and not able to stand up to crisis. We are drained emotionally, physically and financially by the men we are supposed to stand one pace behind. We are still seen as the 1950's ideal. The little woman in pearls, apron and high heels, greeting our man at the door with a pot-roast in one hand and a negligee in the other. The only difference is today, we are expected to augment that picture with a paycheck as well.

Men are pack animals and hunters. Women are singular and the gatherers. We prefer the environment of our homes and the security of our families. We have never learned to hunt as men have, and maybe this isn't such a bad thing, for hunting means aggression. And women, though most of us possess it, seldom use aggression as a weapon. We do not band together and fling arrows. We would rather talk about it than actually do something drastic.

With the majority of the population being women, I have decided that the reason NOW is not more successful in it's efforts is due to it's own membership. With the focus on Gay and Lesbian Rights, it has left many of us scratching our heads. Many of us lead faith based lives and would never be involved in such a radical agenda. Many of us believe in the traditional family, which cuts the grain of NOW. And many of us are just too tired from our daily responsibilities of work, family and chores to care about supporting a whole different set of values.

What is called for in this type of situation is a completely new beginning for us all A new national organization to represent our daily interests and us. For this reason, we are proposing that we do just that. We form a national organization appealing to the majority of our gender, The Woman's Alliance Movement or WAM.

The objective would be true equality for all women, not just a few. Equal pay, equal access to medical care, equality in the courts and equality in our family structures.

We need strong national and local leaders working together to support such an endeavor. We need to come together and start to fling the arrows, aprons, pearls and a few high heels in the name of equality and equity.

What we do not need is a pat on the head and told to go home and play nice.

Are you with us or again' us on this? If you are with us, leave a comment and contact us at womensalliance@live.com. We are in need of all types of expertise from bakers to bankers, from laundry workers to lawyers. Most of all, from woman to woman.

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