Their Name May Be NOW, but History Is on Their Side

A new women’s rights group has emerged here with an old name and a message that goes back, officially, 150 years. What would be new, its members hope, is that they can attract more young people to their cause.

The group is called Orange County NOW, the new local affiliate of the National Organization for Women. The North and South County chapters of NOW have become one, something many thought they should have done long ago. Their primary goal is to revitalize local interest in women’s issues.

To quote the group’s coordinator, Colline Mathews: “Remember, feminism is not dead.”

The group is looking for a central location for meetings to accommodate both factions. Between them they have 400 members.

The NOW chapter’s first big event is an open house Sept. 19 at Wells Fargo bank on Ocean Boulevard in Laguna Beach. Its members have a special event to commemorate:

It was 150 years ago that 300 people, mostly women, met at the first national women’s rights conference in Seneca Falls, N.Y.

Its roots were in the antislavery movement. Women were upset that they were excluded from the leadership in the abolitionist cause. Members at that first conference were also inspired by the nearby Iroquois tribe, in which family rights passed through the women and each clan was headed by a Clan Mother.

At that first women’s rights convention, a Declaration of Sentiments was signed by 68 women and 32 men. But that was just one-third of those who attended.

Laguna Beach psychologist Kimberly Salter, who has researched that first meeting, says the majority refused to sign the declaration because they were unhappy with one of its planks--it called for the right of women to vote.

“The group split into two factions after that,” Salter said. “Some felt the vote issue was just too controversial.”

The other major planks of that declaration give you an idea of how bad women had it in 1848. For example, one called for women to get paychecks for their labor in their own name. They might work a 60-hour week in a factory, but their paycheck would be made out to a husband or father.

Another plank asked for church cooperation in recognizing equal rights.

“The churches often had more power than the government when it came to influencing businesses about how women should be treated,” Salter said.

Another plank: Women wanted the right to speak in public. In fact, at that very convention, the organizers had to put one of their husbands in charge to get needed cooperation.

Salter, who serves on the boards of both the Orange County NOW chapter and its state counterpart, was one of several Southland women who recently attended NOW’s national conference in Rochester, N.Y. Its 1,000-plus delegates created a new Declaration of Sentiments.

The group’ primary goal is some form of constitutional guarantee of equal rights for women, plus U.S. ratification of a pending United Nations convention to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women.

The wording in this new set of sentiments is far less hesitant than what the delegates’ predecessors came up with 150 years ago.

“We bring passion, anger, hope, love and perseverance” to a vision for women’s equality, the new declaration states. “. . . Today, we dedicate ourselves to the sheer joy of moving forward and fighting back.”

The new declaration is intended as a statement for the next millennium. It says in part: “We see a world where patriarchal culture and male dominance no longer oppress us or our Earth.”

It also acknowledges the pioneering efforts of those who signed the first declaration.

Seneca Falls is a 90-minute drive from Rochester. Salter was among the NOW delegates who took a trip there for a rally at Women’s Rights National Historical Park, site of the old Wesleyan Church where that first declaration was signed. There’s also a women’s Hall of Fame nearby. The delegates also toured the home of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who led that first conference and went on to be a major leader of the women’s suffrage movement.

By the way, Salter tells me that only one of the 100 signers of the original declaration lived long enough to see women get the constitutional right to vote in 1920.

“The message I get from this,” she said, “is that the journey is what is important. Whether I ever witness the rights I am fighting for is not so important. What is imperative is that I continue the good fight.”

Not bad sentiments for whatever cause we believe in.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com