Scope and Content Note

These standing and ad-hoc committee files are arranged alphabetically by committee and chronological within each committee. Committees whose names and status (standing or ad-hoc) changed over time are kept together under their original name and arranged chronologically. Committee newsletters have been separated and are to be catalogued with Tamiment's periodicals.

• 1. AD HOC COMMITTEES--MISCELLANEOUS [Box 10]: A. AD HOC COMMITTEE ON ARTISTS, WRITERS, MUSICIANS, AND PHOTOGRAPHERS (1971) This file contains press releases and promotional statements; B. AD HOC XYZ COMMITTEE (1972); C. SPORTS COMMITTEE (1972-1977); D. WOMEN AND HEALTH COMMITTEE (1975-1980). These folders contain correspondence, flyers, questionnaires, and announcements; E. WOMEN AND POVERTY (1974); F. WOMEN AND VOLUNTEERISM TASK FORCE (1973).
• 2. ARTS COMMITTEE (1966-1974) [Box 10]: This committees goal was to promote women in the fine and performing arts. The group's members were painters, sculptors, actors, poets, and artists of other media. Materials include correspondence, minutes, schedules, and a telephone tree. See also the NP Collection, which includes a photo reproduction of an ink wash ("Babbling Brook," 1966) by Zalmar, the first committee chair, and an 8" x 10" poster for a NOW gala in 1974, featuring Alice Neel's well-known portrait of Linda Nochlin and her daughter. NP folder contains a photograph and numerous flyers and programs by and about women in the arts.
• 3. CHILD CARE COMMITTEE (1969-1974) [Box 10]: From 1969 to 1971, this committee was run as a National Task Force; in 1971, it became the NOW-New York Child Care Committee. These folders contain correspondence, flyers, position statements, and speeches.
• 5. CONSCIOUSNESS RAISING COMMITTEE (1971-1984) [Box 10]: These folders contain brochures, clippings, correspondence, descriptive literature, flyers, and members lists.
• 6. EDUCATION COMMITTEE (1970-1977) [Boxes 11-12]: In 1970, this committee protested the sex-role stereotypes on the children's television show "Sesame Street" by threatening to boycott the show's sponsor General Foods (and won). The bulk of the materials from 1971 consists of surveys on the educational opportunities of girls and boys in the New York City junior high and high schools, which resulted in the widely-circulated "Report on Sex Bias in the Public Schools." The main event of 1972 was NOW-NY's Education Action Conference. These folders contain agendas, brochures, correspondence, legal documents, minutes, reports, speakers' lists, and surveys.
• 7. EMPLOYMENT COMMITTEE (1968-1980) [Box 12]: In 1972, the Employment Committee accused the American Broadcasting Company of discrimination in hiring practices. It also charged other companies, such as Clairol and General Mills, with discrimination, correspondence about which appears in these folders. In 1973, this committee produced the "Report on Sex Discrimination in Employment Agencies." At this time NOW-NY acted as an employment agency for its members and received numerous job listings from corporations. Selected postings and letters are included. These folders contain clippings, correspondence, depositions, press releases, meeting announcements.
• 8. E.R.A. TASK FORCE (1969-1984) [Box 13]: This committee began as an ad-hoc committee in 1969 and soon thereafter became a subcommittee of the Legislative and Political Affairs Committee. In 1977, it became a standing committee. This collection contains much material on NOW-NY's assistance to the Illinois chapter in its efforts towards ratification in the state legislature. In the final year of the E.R.A. fight (1981-1982), this chapter conducted two large-scale assistance efforts, the Equality Riders Campaign, to send organizers to other states, and the Message Brigade Campaign, to inundate legislators with pro-E.R.A. letters. The 1980 publication "E.R.A. Impact Clearinghouse" lists state court cases relevant to the ratification struggle. These folders contain agendas, cartoons, clippings, correspondence, flyers, pamphlets, reports, schedules, Senate hearing transcripts, and voting records. See also the NP Collection for business-size cards with the Equal Rights Amendment on them, and an "E.R.A. YES" bumper sticker.
• 9. FINANCE COMMITTEE (1969-1979) [Box 14]: These folders contain annual reports, budgets, correspondence, minutes, policy statements.
• 10. FUNDRAISING COMMITTEE (1969-1980) [Box 14]: The flyers for many early NOW-NY events appear in these files. In 1971 were the Women's Dance Project, the 5th Anniversary Christmas Party, and the NOW Boutique through which the committee sold clothing and cosmetics to raise money. In 1972, it celebrated Susan B. Anthony's birthday with an event, and in 1973, they honored Sylvia Plath with a performance of her poetry entitled, "A Difficult Borning." The collection includes material on the commercial products and catalogues of cosmetics the committee used for the NOW-Boutique/Fashion Show.
• 11. IMAGE OF WOMEN COMMITTEE (1970-1979) [Box 15]: The main event for this committee in 1971 was its campaign to reform advertising offensive to women. The committee corresponded with numerous advertising agencies and corporations, namely National Airlines, whose campaign, "I'm Cheryl. Fly Me," incensed NOW committee members. In 1972, this committee produced reports recommending better reporting on women in the New York Times and in the New York Daily News. On February 12, 1979, this committee renamed itself the Media Reform Committee. Materials include print advertisements, brochures, clippings, correspondence, greeting cards, press releases, reports, and speeches.
• 12. LEGISLATIVE AND POLITICAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE (1969-1984) [Box 16]: This committee formed in November 1968. These folders contain materials on the annual State Lobby Day in Albany, New York in 1979 and 1982. They also contain the 1971 report, "Women and the City: How to Use the Machinery," as well as information about NOW's legal action against ABC, some of which is included in the Employment Committee files. These folders contain correspondence, legal documents, policy and position statements, press kits, reports, transcripts, and voting records. [Formed November 1968]
• 13. LESBIAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE (1974-1984) [Box 17]: These folders contain correspondence, proposed civil laws, and a consciousness-raising kit.
• 14. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE COMMITTEE (1970-1980) [Box 17]: Called the MARRIAGE AND FAMILY COMMITTEE first in 1968 and later known as the FAMILY RELATIONS COMMITTEE in 1978, this committee offered legal advice and referrals to women going through divorces. It also worked to change existing divorce laws that put women at a disadvantage in the divorce courtroom. It produced the report, "The Family Court: How It Is, But Not How It Should Be." This committee organized the 1974 NOW State Conference on Marriage and Divorce. Materials include clippings, correspondence, flyers, legal documents, legislative bills, transcriptions, voting records.
• 15. MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE (1967-1983) [Box 18]: Materials include brochures, correspondence, forms, lists.
• 16. MINORITY WOMEN'S ISSUES COMMITTEE (1971-1973) [Box 18]: These folders contain correspondence and minutes.
• 17. OVER-45 COMMITTEE (1971-1973) [Box 18]: In 1971 when this committee was first formed the main issue was employment discrimination. This committee worked closely with another group, Older Women's Liberation (OWL), so closely that OWL published Volume 1, Number 2 of the Over-45 Committee's newsletter, "Prime Time." The 1972 conference, "OWL Speaks Out for Change for All Women," bears OWL's name, but NOW-N.Y.C. participated. These folders include brochures, correspondence, minutes and fact sheets. Renamed the OLDER WOMEN'S ISSUES COMMITTEE (1979-1981) [Box 12], this committee sponsored the conference, "A Time for Changes and Choices: A Conference for Midlife and Older Women." Materials contain announcements, correspondence, fact sheets, flyers, and minutes.
• 18. PROGRAM COMMITTEE (1973) [Box 19]: This folder contains minutes of a meeting of thirty black women who gathered to discuss their issues as black women in the feminist movement. At this meeting, they formed the Program Committee.
• 19. PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY COMMITTEE (1972-1984) [Box 19]: This committee met to discuss problems of female psychotherapy (the committee's term) and to facilitate the development of feminist psychological theories. The committee operated a psychotherapy referral service for its members, and certain meetings were set aside for the discussion of personal psychotherapy experiences. In 1978, this group renamed itself the PSYCHOLOGY COMMITTEE and published the sixteen-page booklet, "A Consumer's Guide to Nonsexist Therapy." Materials include correspondence, mission statements, progress reports.
• 20. PUBLIC RELATIONS COMMITTEE (1966-1984) [Box 19]: This committee produced press releases for committee actions for outside press as well as the NOW newsletter. Materials include correspondence, fact sheets, a press handbook, layouts for brochures and flyers.
• 21. RAPE PREVENTION COMMITTEE (1971-1981) [Boxes 20-21]: In 1973 this committee worked to win repeal of the New York State's corroboration requirement, under which a rape victim had to prove through third-person evidence that she was raped. Mary Vasiliades testified before the state legislature to this end in November 1973, and the committee sent petitions to the governor. Included is a ten-page report by 1974 coordinator Mary Scott Welch upon leaving the position. Noteworthy is correspondence between 1976 committee coordinator Luba Fineson Zimmermann and Justice Edward Greenfield of the New York State Supreme Court over his decision in the Martin Evans rape trial. This committee's newsletter Rape Line is renamed The Rape Issue on January 15, 1975. Included in the yearly files for this committee are typed pages of commentary by Mary Scott Welch--often addressed to then-current coordinator Yolanda Bako in the form of suggestions--in 1976 on the activities of the committee from 1974 to 1975. Materials include brochures, clippings, correspondence, flyers, legislative bills, minutes, newsletters, petitions, press releases, reports, resolutions. See also the NP Collection, which includes material on the "Focus 15" slide show, including 5 slides, a "Focus 15" name tag, and numerous cassettes of the WBAI rape conference in 1975 and other shows.
• 22. SEX EDUCATION, CONTRACEPTION, AND ABORTION COMMITTEE (1969-1970) / REPRODUCTION AND ITS CONTROL COMMITTEE (1971-1975) / REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS COMMITTEE (1976-1984) [Box 22]: This committee worked to repeal all abortion-related laws and to make contraception widely available. Beginning in 1971, this committee began working with the larger coalitions that formed to fight and repeal restrictive abortion legislation. NOW-NY participated in the Women's National Abortion Action Coalition (WONAAC) in 1972. In 1973, they demonstrated for abortion and contraception at the annual convention of the American Medical Association. This committee continued to organize and participate in demonstrations to support abortion rights annually from 1979 to 1982. In 1981, they organized a phone bank, a petition campaign, and a public-opinion-messages campaign to send pro-choice messages to state and federal legislators. Materials include flyers, information sheets, press releases, reports, correspondence, statements of legislative goals and legislative activity, clippings, legal documents, legislative bills, position statements, resolutions.
• 23. SEXISM AND RELIGION COMMITTEE (1970-1976) [Box 22]: Materials include clippings, correspondence, press releases.
• 24. SEXUALITY AND LESBIANISM COMMITTEE (1971-74) [Box 22]: In 1971, Shere Hite sent out questionnaires on sexuality under the auspices of the "Feminist Sexuality Project." The committee itself did not form officially until April 1973 (as an ad hoc committee). In September 1974 it became a standing committee, and changed its name in June 1976, although the last materials we have date from 1974. The committee organized conferences in 1973 and 1974. According to the Executive Board minutes, the committee was revived and renamed the SEXUALITY AND INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS COMMITTEE (1975-78). These files include workshop materials, conference announcements, programs, correspondence.