Book Review: The Women of NOW

Katherine Turk chronicles the early rise of a powerful feminist organization at the grassroots level

I recently finished reading The Women of Now: How Feminists Built an Organization That Transformed America by Katherine Turk. 

The book focuses on three women who went on to drive the group’s decision-making and advocacy at the grassroots during its inception and the years of its ascension. The National Organization For Women is the largest feminist group in the country, with 500,000 current members. 

At the story's core are profiles of Aileen Hernandez, a federal official of Jamaican American heritage, Mary Jean Collins, a working-class union organizer and Chicago Catholic, and Patricia Hill Burnett, a Michigan Republican, artist, and former beauty queen. 

The book is timely because it shows how most movements and powerful organizations grow out of the actions and decisions of people not part of New York City's exclusive sets. Often, they were at odds with what the more famous and influential feminists wanted to do insofar as the direction of feminism. That’s something I’ve seen in my reporting on the reproductive rights movement since the overturning of Dobbs. 

Turk places us firmly in that era–when the message most Americans got from media and society was that men were supposed to control everything. In some states, women were often forced to take surnames. Abortion was illegal, and rape was rarely prosecuted. In fashion magazines, they were taught to prize youthfulness over all else. Sadly, that last part has repeated itself in today’s society for many women. 

Key figures like Betty Friedan play a role in the book as people who mentored some of these grassroots activists and set them on their path to leading women. Friedan authored The Feminine Mystique, which critiqued the view that women could only find happiness as homemakers and wives. 

Burnett sought Friedan out and then developed a relationship with her. Friedan wanted to maintain a mainstream appeal for the National Organization for Women, including Republicans and suburbanites. Burnett was a runner-up for Miss America. 

Mary Jean Collins, whom I interviewed for my forthcoming book, was also a compelling case study in Turk’s work. When I spoke to her, we discussed how she traveled from community to community and primarily built the National Organization for Women’s presence in the Midwest into what it is today. At the center of her story was the fight for equal pay from corporations and against sex discrimination in job advertisements and hiring. 

The book talks about how feminism intersected and conflicted with other movements at the time, which could be male-driven and exclude women from leadership decisions. 

Hernandez is an excellent person to examine when studying the racial dynamics of second-wave feminism. She was the president of NOW from 1970 to 1971. Many feminists sought to say that all women were disadvantaged equally to give the movement more appeal. Hernandez and others pointed out that some faced more significant barriers because of race and other considerations. 

I intend to reach out to Turk again when her maternity leave ends. But I wanted to share my thoughts on her impressive work.