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Presidency in NOW organization

First Term of Presidency (1977-1979)

Eleanor Smeal was first elected as the President of NOW in 1977, preceeded by President Karen DeCrow. In total, Smeal was elected as NOW’s President three times.

Smeal was elected at a time when conference delegates had authorized a NOW ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) Strike Force to campaign for ratification. Upon hearing that the deadline for the ratification for ERA, Smeal convinced Elizabeth Holztman, a member of the United States House of Representatives, to bring the proposal to Congress. In this time of great desire for equal rights, Smeal played a key role and was a major organizer of the 1978 March for ERA. This march brought over 100,000 marchers and as a result, Congress voted to extend the deadline for ERA to June 30, 1982.

Second Term of Presidency (1979-1982)

In 1979, Smeal was reelected as NOW’s President, running for her second term as the head of the organization. In her second run as President, Smeal focused her efforts on making Social Security more fair for women, testifying against restrictions on abortion funding for military personnel and their dependents, and Lesbian and Gay rights. Smeal led NOW organizers to help stage the 1979 National March for Lesbian and Gay rights.

At the time of Smeal’s second term of Presidency in NOW, Ronald Reagan was also elected as the United States President. Around the time of his inauguration in January, Smeal and the NOW organization launched and led a national campaign to stop Reagan’s anti-abortion “Human Life Amendment.” Smeal was also the first person to coin the term “gender gap” when she analyzed in the National NOW Times just how different the votes by men versus the votes by women really are. Despite the grand efforts made by NOW during Smeal’s presidency to get the ERA ratified, towards the end of Smeal’s second term in 1982, the Amendment was shy three states and therefore did not get passed.

At the end of her second term, which lasted longer than a traditional two year term due to the decision to allow Smeal to continue her efforts, uninterrupted, on ratifying the ERA, Smeal had boosted NOW to a whopping 220,000 members and a budget of $13 million annually. While Smeal worked extensively on the ERA, some members felt that she lacked focus in areas such as minority and abortion rights, which became part of the focus of Smeal’s successor, Judy Goldsmith.

Third Term of Presidency (1985-1987)

Smeal’s run for presidency the third time around was hard fought against previous President Judy Goldsmith. Smeal initially supported Goldsmith when she ran for Presidency after Smeal's second term, but now challenged Goldsmith the second time around. Smeal, during a telephone interview, stated that while her and Goldsmith did not differ on the philosophical concepts of equal rights, they differed on the political realities of how to obtain those  rights to the fullest. Much of the campaign focused not on the issues the candidates themselves supported, but rather on their tactical approaches towards the issues.

One of the biggest reasons Smeal decided to run for yet another term as President was not only due to the support of many other NOW members, but from her wish that NOW could be more outspoken, assertive, and publicly active on multiple different issues. These issues included abortion rights, on the role of women in the church, and the Vatican’s policy on reproduction. Smeal also noted that while Goldsmith was in power the organization lost its focus and membership declined and she wanted to do something about that.

In July of 1985, Smeal won by a 139-vote margin over Goldsmith. Upon being elected for the third and final time as NOW’s President, Smeal stated she would continue Goldsmith’s efforts on reproductive rights as well as set forth plans to stage a reproductive rights march for the next year. This march, which took place in 1986 was the first March for Women’s Lives and brought over 150,000 people to Washington and Los Angeles in support of women’s reproductive rights. In 1987 Smeal also founded the Feminist Majority.

Personal Life

While attending Duke University Eleanor met Charles Smeal, an engineering student, whom she married on April 27, 1963. Eleanor and Charles had two children together and lives in the area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Smeal's interest in feminism and her awareness of femininst issues became increasingly stronger during the late 1960s. Already confronted with a lack of day care facilities for her young child while also dealing with a back disability, Smeal realized there was no disability insurance for wives and mothers. It was this issue that pushed Smeal into researching further into feminism. Then in 1968, Smeal began a term lasting four years on the board of the local League of Women Voters, and then two years later, joined (along with her husband) the National Organization for Women (NOW).