white, middle class women by watering down its feminist ideas (Giddings 344). The problem that NOW encountered was that conservatives tend to support the concept of equal rights in theory, but not in practice. ERA supporters wanted much more than theory. They advocated including women in all areas of everyday life that had been previously dominated by men, e.g., all male organizations such as the Boy Scouts and allowing women to participate in military combat: " . . . their ideology called for full equality with men not for equality with exception" (Mansbridge 3). Middle class white women were not ready for what they considered "radical feminism."
While NOW was wooing conservative white women, feminism in general was showing signs of strength among black women. The National Black Feminist Organization (NBF) was founded in 1973. NOW failed to realize that the timing for black feminism was ripe during the 1970s, because black militancy, which usually involves male chauvinism, was on the decline. NOW also failed to realize how critical black women were to its movement during a period when black militancy was not a part of the national consciousness. It is during these periods t
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