Letter on Sexism and Gender Inequality
To: H. Rap Brown, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
It is my intent in this letter to provide you and other members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) with information regarding the central mission of the National Organization of Women (NOW), to compare and to contrast potential conflicts between the goals of NOW and SNCC, and to recommend solutions that could resolve any conflicts between the ambitions of SNCC and those of NOW. Both SNCC and NOW fall within the general category of what Jean Hardisty (1999) has called grassroots rights movements with New Left ideology -- an ideology that challenges institutionalized racism and its near cousin, sexism. It is my deep conviction that the goals of SNCC with respect to racial justice and equality are in many ways congruent with the goals of NOW in terms of gender inequality.
In describing NOW's agenda, Jo Freeman (2004) commented that this voman's rights organization sought nothing less than bringing women into full participation in mainstream American society and giving women the ability to assume all privileges and responsibilities implicit in participation by creating a true equal partnership with men.
SNCC's mission is similar. SNCC has long focused on making those changes in society that are necessary to promote civil rights, to empower and to enfranchise individuals and groups that have been denied meaningful participation in the social, cultural, and political mainstreams (Klatch, 1999). To that end, SNCC has (as has NOW) worked to improve voter registration, used protest as a means of highlighting injustice and initiating a call for action, created and pursued legislative and judicial change, and challenged mainstream American society to recognize the causes and effects of oppression.
SNCC has advanced the cause of civil rights in the United States and in conjunction with groups such ...