Feminist Majority Foundation

The FMF—an IRS 501(c)(3) tax deductible, non-profit organization—is a research and education organization and the publisher of Ms. magazine. Founded in 1987 by Eleanor Smeal, Peg Yorkin, Katherine Spillar, Toni Carabillo, and Judith Meuli, it has offices in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, California. Its chair is Peg Yorkin.{{cite web | title = Peg Yorkin (profile) | url = http://feministmajority.org/peg-yorkin/ | website = feminist.org | publisher = Feminist Majority Foundation }}

FMF became the publisher of Ms. in 2001,{{cite news |last= Farmer |first=Rebecca |title= Ms. Magazine and Feminist Majority Foundation Join Forces | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130604212431/http://www.now.org/nnt/special-2001/msmagazine.html | archive-date = June 4, 2013 |url=http://www.feminist.org/news/pressstory.asp?id=5933 | work = National NOW Times |publisher= National Organization for Women |date= November 12, 2001 |access-date=September 22, 2016 }} supporting the magazine in becoming a non-profit organization. Co-founded in 1972 by political activist and feminist Gloria Steinem, Ms. is a women's magazine owned and produced by women that publishes articles on the conditions of women in the United States and abroad.{{cite journal |last1=Smeal |first1=Eleanor |last2=Steinem |first2=Gloria |author-link1=Eleanor Smeal |author-link2=Gloria Steinem |title=Dear Reader |url=http://www.msmagazine.com/spring2002/fromtheeditors.asp |journal=Ms. |date=Spring 2002 |page=1 |access-date=2016-09-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018153930/http://www.msmagazine.com/spring2002/fromtheeditors.asp |archive-date=2016-10-18 |url-status=dead }}

The FMF has several campaigns and programs that deal with Women's Health and Reproductive Rights domestically and abroad, including:

• National Clinic Access Project
• Campaign for Women's Health
• Mifepristone
• Feminist Campus (Choices Campus Leadership Program)
• Global Reproductive Rights Campaign
• Campaign for Afghan Women and Girls{{cite news|last1=Mann|first1=Judy|title=The Grinding Terror of the Taliban|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/408497263|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=July 9, 1999|access-date=July 6, 2017|archive-date=September 23, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923051314/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/doc/408497263.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jul+9%2C+1999&author=Mann%2C+Judy&pub=The+Washington+Post&edition=&startpage=C.11&desc=The+Grinding+Terror+of+the+Taliban|url-status=live}}
• Emergency Contraception Initiative
• National Center for Women and Policing
• Education Equity Program
• Rock for Choice{{cite magazine | last = Neely | first = Kim | title = The fight for the right to choose | url = https://www.rollingstone.com/coverwall/1993#0652 | volume = 652 | issue = 22 | magazine = Rolling Stone | date = March 1993}}

During 1989-92, the FMF conducted the Feminization of Power campaign,{{cite news | last = Leyva | first = Ric | title = Former Now President Kicks Off | date = October 14, 1987 | url = https://apnews.com/8395c6867f19bd4c183a332999271ef7 | work = Associated Press | access-date = March 11, 2014 }} recruiting an unprecedented number of women to run for public office, resulting in doubling women's representation in the United States Congress in 1992 (the Year of the Woman). In 1992, FMF helped to secure support for the Iowa Equal Rights Amendment and, in 1996, it helped to counter an anti-(reverse)discrimination ballot measure in California.

In 2004, the Feminist Majority was one of five principal organizers of the "March for Women's Lives", which brought more than 1.15 million women and men to Washington, D.C., in support of reproductive rights.{{cite news | last1 = Clock | first1 =Michele | last2 = Wilgoren | first2 = Debbi | last3 = Woodlee | first3 = Yolanda | title=Abortion Rights Advocates Flood D.C | date=April 25, 2004 | newspaper = The Washington Post | url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41023-2004Apr25_2.html }} In 2006, FMF failed to overturn an anti-discrimination ballot measure in Michigan (the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, which passed in 2006 and was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2014{{cite news | first=Jonathan | last=Adler | title=Supreme Court upholds Michigan civil rights initiative | date=April 22, 2014 | newspaper = The Washington Post | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/04/22/supreme-court-upholds-michigan-civil-rights-initiative }}) and to pass a ballot initiative in South Dakota to repeal a state abortion ban. On March 23 and 24 of 2013, FMF hosted its 9th Annual National Young Feminist Leadership conference in Arlington, Virginia, with speakers such as Dolores Huerta (President, Dolores Huerta Foundation/Co-Founder United Farm Workers/Recipient of Presidential Medal of Freedom), Morgane Richardson (Founder of Refuse The Silence), Monica Simpson (Executive Director, Sister Song), Ivanna Gonzalez (Who Needs Feminism?).{{cite web | title = National Young Feminist Leadership Conference (2013 NYFLC) | url = http://feministcampus.org/conferences/2013-nyflc/ | website = feministcampus.org | publisher = Feminist Majority Foundation | access-date = 2014-03-11 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140923043326/http://feministcampus.org/conferences/2013-nyflc/ | archive-date = 2014-09-23 | url-status = dead }}

Despite its declared support of non-violence, the FMF endorsed the war in Afghanistan with the justification

that it would help to protect and liberate Afghan women,{{cite book | last=Sheehi | first=Stephen | date=2011 | title= Islamophobia: The Ideological Campaign Against Muslims | publisher= Clarity Press | page= 113 | isbn= 9780932863676}} a position which was criticized by American politician Tom Hayden in 2011.{{cite web | url = http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-hayden/pentagon-enlists-feminist_b_238715.html | title = Pentagon Enlists Feminists for War Aims | last = Hayden | first = Tom | date = 25 May 2011 | work = The Huffington Post | access-date = 16 May 2016 }}

The Feminist Majority has also been a leader in legislative victories for women including amending the Civil Rights Act of 1991 to provide for monetary damages to women who win sexual harassment and sex discrimination lawsuits in court; winning passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993; the Violence Against Women Act and the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, in 1994; passing the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban, in 1996; restoring Title IX, in 1988, and then successfully defending Title IX against the Bush administration's attempts to discourage discrimination against men, in 2003, among other victories.{{Citation needed|reason=Given link provides no data, assertion regarding Bush especially unclear|date=October 2019}} {{cite web|title=Speakers |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140226232450/http://now.org/about/conference/speakers/ |archive-date=2014-02-26 |url=http://now.org/about/conference/speakers/ |date=2015 |website=now.org |publisher=National Organization for Women |url-status=dead }} The Feminist Majority continues advocating for U.S. ratification of, both, the United Nations Women's Rights Treaty CEDAW, the Convention to End all forms of Discrimination Against Women) and the International Criminal Court.

{{Portal|Society}}

• Equal Rights Amendment
• Feminism
• Liberal feminism
• Social justice
• Progressivism

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://www.feminist.org Feminist Majority Foundation online]
• [http://www.feministmajority.org/ Feminist Majority]
• [http://www.feministcampus.org Choices Campus Leadership Program]
• [http://msmagazine.com/ Ms. Magazine]
• [http://www.womenandpolicing.com/ National Center for Women and Policing] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614030344/http://womenandpolicing.com/ |date=2020-06-14 }}
• [http://www.feminist.org/afghan/ Campaign for Afghan Women and Girls]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20101006024446/http://feministcampus.org/fmla/program-materials/pdf/1-OverviewInnovativePrograms.pdf "Overview of the Feminist Majority Foundation"], FMF Campus Program.

{{Feminism}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Feminist organizations in the United States

Category:Organizations established in 1987

Category:Women's political advocacy groups in the United States

Category:Second-wave feminism in the United States

Category:1987 establishments in Virginia

Category:History of women in Virginia

Category:Equal Rights Amendment organizations