Diversity Statement
SF NOW supports all efforts to oppose racism and examine the concerns and needs of women of color. To that end, we support civil rights legislation at all levels of government aimed at ending discrimination in employment, voting rights, housing, lending practices, and other areas that impact the quality of life of women of color. Other principal goals of our diversity efforts are to increase, educate, integrate, and diversify SF NOW’s membership.

Statement of former SF NOW Diversity VP:

As VP of Diversity for SF NOW, my initial objective was very simple. I wanted to increase the membership of women of color. This narrow objective reflected my uninformed view of the greater mission of NOW and my many years of working in a corporate environment. As an HR executive, I was always concerned about increasing the number of underrepresented groups. My focus was on creating employment opportunities for different groups, because it was good for business and the right thing to do. While those efforts were well intended, they were incomplete. Just bringing people in the door did not really create opportunities if they did not stay because they felt misunderstood, were treated poorly, or were not valued.

In the same way, while recruiting more women of color to the organization is a good thing, it is not enough. Like corporations, NOW must help to create a community where every woman can succeed and enjoy all that life has to offer, regardless of her background. This requires involvement and advocacy in issues to prevent discrimination toward women.

We must also give a voice to all faces of feminism. Valuing diversity in the world of feminism means accepting varying definitions of what it means to be a feminist – the stay-at-home mom, the executive, the model, the athlete- each may live by her own definition of feminist. Being a feminist is not about one’s vocation, it is about her life’s perspective. A perspective that reflects a conscious decision to live authentically, to recognize the challenges that women face, and a commitment to improve the lives of women.

Challenging ourselves to purge biases, stereotypes, and discriminatory behavior toward others from different backgrounds or different expressions of feminism is the first step we can all take to create a more inclusive community. While we can put pressure on legislation and policies, we can actually control our own behavior toward one another. And while forms of institutional discrimination are extremely powerful in one’s life, the day- to –day experiences interacting with others are also powerful. As a woman of color, the instances where I felt discrimination and prejudice the most were situations where I was interacting with a person, not an institution. The message here is that our work must be multi-faceted- work on ourselves to become more aware of biases and assumptions we may make about other groups; influence laws and policies to erode institutional forms of discrimination; and seek education and experiences to deepen our understanding of all forms and expressions of feminism and diversity.

With this approach, we can make progress toward attaining equality for all women, and improve our general experience of life.