N.O.W. Bill of Rights

National Organization for Women (N.O.W.) Bill of Rights, 1968
National Organization for Women, Inc., Washington DC.

Statement adopted by the National Organization for Women at its national conference in 1967 as the organization's "Bill of Rights in 1968." The bill consisted of a list of eight demands: that Congress immediately pass the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution; that equal employment opportunity be guaranteed to all men and women; that employers be legally required to provide maternity leave and to allow women to return to their jobs within a reasonable time after childbirth; that the tax laws be revised to provide home-care and child-care tax credits; that publicly-funded day-care centers be established; that all discrimination in education be prohibited by law; that poor women be given the same access to job training and public housing opportunities as men, without prejudice based on their status as mothers, and that the current welfare system be reformed; and that all laws limiting access to contraception and abortion be removed from current penal codes.

NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN BILL OF RIGHTS IN 1968 (ADOPTED AT THE 1967 NATIONAL CONFERENCE)

I. Equal Rights Constitutional Amendment

II. Enforce Law Banning Sex Discrimination in Employment

III. Maternity Leave Rights in Employment and in Social Security Benefits

IV. Tax Deduction for Home and Child Care Expenses for Working Parents

V. Child Day Care Centers

VI. Equal and Unsegregated Education

VII. Equal Job Training Opportunities and Allowances for Women in Poverty

VIII. The Right of Women to Control their Reproductive Lives

We Demand:

I. That the United States Congress immediately pass the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution to provide that "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex" and that such then be immediately ratified by the several States.

II. That equal employment opportunity be guaranteed to all women, as well as men by insisting that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforce the prohibitions against sex discrimination in employment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the same vigor as it enforces the prohibitions against racial discrimination.

III. That women be protected by law to insure their rights to return to their jobs within a reasonable time after childbirth without loss of seniority or other accrued benefits and be paid maternity leave as a form of social security and/or employee benefit.

IV. Immediate revision of tax laws to permit the deduction of home and child care expenses for working parents.

V. That child care facilities be established by law on the same basis as parks, libraries and public schools adequate to the needs of children, from the pre-school years through adolescence, as a community resource to be used by all citizens from all income levels.

VI. That the right of women to be educated to their full potential equally with men be secured by Federal and State legislation, eliminating all discrimination and segregation by sex, written and unwritten, at all levels of education including college, graduate and professional schools, loans and fellowships and Federal and State training programs, such as the job Corps.

VII. The right of women in poverty to secure job training, housing and family allowances on equal terms with men, but without prejudice to a parent's right to remain at home to care for his or her children; revision of welfare legislation and poverty programs which deny women dignity, privacy and self respect.

VIII. The right of women to control their own reproductive lives by removing from penal codes the laws limiting access to contraceptive information and devices and laws governing abortion.