At a recent board meeting, NOW board members and officers approved a budget that includes a paid internship program at NOW’s National Action Center. This was an exciting and important step towards economic justice and pay equality, but it didn’t come until we, as feminist activists and nonprofit workers, grappled with some hard truths about privilege and oppression.

Picture this: a room full of feminist activists working for a nonprofit in Washington, DC are sitting around a conference room table swapping stories. A feminist further along in her career laughs at the memory of having once worked unpaid for a number of months while her organization was in transition. She laughs and rolls her eyes at the absurdity of it all, “but I personally think it’s unfeminist to not pay your employees.”

Sitting at the same table, a group of interns make quick side glances at one another. One particularly bold intern snaps back, “your interns agree!” Almost immediately, half the room—the younger half—falls silent and shares a brief moment of discomfort. The interns, each working close to 30 hours a week for three months, are unpaid.

In feminist activism, we are deep in discussion around the intersection of social identities, power, and privilege. However, we are often far from constructively supporting intersection. To land most entry-level jobs in Washington, DC, you are expected to have previous internship experience—in 2017, a college degree is rarely enough. To land many internships, you are expected to be enrolled and active in a four-year accredited college or university. To be accepted into a four-year college or university (not to mention affording higher education), you are assumed to have achieved a certain level of academic success. And the pattern continues.

It is clear that these institutional barriers, financial obstacles in particular, put the most vulnerable communities—the communities we advocate with and for: women, persons of color, LGBTQIA+, immigrants, differently abled, and lower-income—at a disadvantage. In short, you need privilege to even be given the opportunity, to have access to internship opportunities at all.

NOW long ago dropped the education requirement for internship opportunities, and recently for full-time employment as well, but it took our organization a bit longer to confront the fact that, despite all good intentions—for all the work we put in to deconstruct systems of power and oppression—by limiting internship opportunities to only those who could afford to spend an unpaid semester in one of the most expensive cities in the Unites States, we were in many ways reproducing the very thing we were working against.

An informal survey among past interns, all unmarried without families, showed that nearly every intern required financial help from their parents or university. The help took many forms: program grants, additional financial aid, allowances for food and transportation, housing or rent, etc. Several interns took up part-time jobs babysitting, dog walking, or interning at a second organization—bringing their work week to well over 60 hours—in order to afford a semester in Washington, DC. One intern admitted to taking on significant credit card debt to make it work.

As the Internship Program Coordinator—the person who decides who interns at the NOW National Action Center in Washington, DC—I’d come dangerously close to failing to recognize my own power and privilege when hiring, and I often attributed this failure to status quo: at 57 percent of the internships offered being unpaid, non-profits are the top provider of unpaid internships. Close behind, 48 percent of government internships available are unpaid. Offices of Democratic representatives on Capitol Hill are especially guilty.

Unpaid internships hurt women the most: as many as 77 percent of unpaid internships nationwide are held by women, and fields dominated by women, like education, social sciences, health sciences, communications and media, and arts and humanities are the most likely to offer unpaid internships.

According to a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers in 2014, hiring rates for students who completed an unpaid internship (37 percent) were nearly the same for those who had not completed any internship at all (35 percent), while students who had paid internship experience were more likely (63 percent) to secure employment post-graduation. Before they even hit the job market, unpaid interns in traditionally women-dominated fields are at a disadvantage.

The same study demonstrates disparities between young workers with paid and unpaid internship experience: students with previous unpaid internship experience tend to end up in lower-paying jobs than those with previous paid internship experience ($35,721 and $51,930 post-grad, respectively.) Fold in gender biases around education and occupational choice, as well gender biases around parenting and time away from work, and the outlook is grim. From unpaid internships to underpaid full-time employment, the gender pay gap has lifelong financial effects, contributing directly to women’s poverty and pushing women even closer to the margins.

At NOW, we advocate for economic justice, we recognize gender-race wage disparities, and we envision a worldwhere all women are socially, politically, and constitutionally equal to men. We also understand that limiting access to internship opportunities, and by extension, professional space in feminist activism, means essential voices are being left out of the conversation and out of the work. As feminist activists, it is not our job to be a voice for the voiceless. Rather, it is our duty to re-imagine the power structure: to listen, to create and give up space so that feminists can advocate for themselves.

It was an uncomfortable realization that, by relying on unpaid interns for so long, we were actively contributing to a society that further exploits and disenfranchises women and excludes important voices from the movement. I am absolutely thrilled with the progress NOW has made, honoring our mission, by implementing its first ever paid internship program this coming spring. It is now up to us to put pressure on our progressive allies and partners to make similar changes to their internship programs and reach our collective goal: to achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, and economic life.

Emily Imhoff is the Coordinator of the President’s Office and Internship Coordinator at the National Organization for Women (NOW) in Washington, DC. 

NOW President Toni Van Pelt recently sent a blunt letter to U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Acting Secretary Eric Hargan concerning the use of the term “life from conception” in an extensive draft plan that is to guide HHS policies for the next four years. Van Pelt expressed alarm that officials in the department are advancing a conservative religious viewpoint about when ‘life begins’ that will undermine sound health care policies and practices for millions of women and their families.

Writing on behalf of NOW’s hundreds of thousands of members and contributing supporters, Van Pelt objected by stating that the notion of “‘life begins at conception’ is not an evidence-based theory, but a religious one…”

Van Pelt added, “We cannot believe anything other than the inclusion of such language in the HHS Strategic Plan is a stealth initiative to advance a policy that would ultimately deny women contraception and abortion care in all instances.”

‘Life from conception’ and the ‘unborn’ are terms commonly used by certain religious groups and incorporating them in federal policy or law would be contrary to the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise of the Clause Constitution.

Elevating a fertilized egg to equal status with a pregnant woman can result in a conflict that would mean dire consequences for the health and life of the woman.
In the letter to the HHS Acting Secretary, Van Pelt demanded of the HHS Draft Strategic Plan that, “All policies referencing to life beginning at conception must be deleted and all proposed policies that elevate religious beliefs over patient health care needs must be eliminated.”

Clearly, this is a major step for the Trump Administration to severely restrict women’s access to vital health care services, ultimately aimed at a Supreme Court ruling that would make accessing abortion care nearly impossible. His nomination and the Senate’s confirmation of the ultra-conservative opponent of abortion rights, Neil Gorsuch, to the Supreme Court secured what could well be the fifth vote to greatly narrow or overturn those rights.

Van Pelt went on to say, “The heavy hand of Catholic bishops and their fundamentalist allies shows up in this critical document and we see similar efforts elsewhere. The House Republican tax plan gives fetuses federal benefits – plainly an attempt to codify in federal law the view that life begins at fertilization. This has to stop.”

Statement of NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

Feminists swept battleground states and districts this election night–proving just how strong #TheResistance can be.

We’re thrilled that Virginia and New Jersey will be led by Ralph Northam and Phil Murphy–candidates who will champion feminist policies as governors. Virginia voters elected progressives up and down the ballot, and we are especially proud to congratulate NOW leader Hala Ayala on her election to the Virginia House of Delegates.

Tonight’s message is clear: the time to elect feminists is NOW! NOW members and grassroots activists rolled up their sleeves, and got out the vote for the candidates who care about women’s rights–and their hard work paid off.

This is just a taste of what’s to come. We know that NOW activists will keep working hard, and keep winning–on November 6, 2018 and beyond.

Contact
M.E. Ficarra, press@now.org, 951-547-1241

The National Organization for Women (NOW) and the Feminist Majority are proud to endorse Ralph Northam for Governor of Virginia, Justin Fairfax for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, and Mark Herring for Attorney General of Virginia. Women win with these three feminist candidates who each have proven track records of championing the issues important to women.

“The Northam-Fairfax-Herring team will guarantee that we keep women’s health clinics open in Virginia. If the Gillespie-Vogel-Adams team had their way, they would ban safe, legal abortion and close women’s health clinics,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority.

“No question, one team is a fighter for women, the other would strip away the rights of women. We must turn out the vote and protect women’s right to birth control and safe, accessible abortion,” said Toni Van Pelt, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW).

Northam, Fairfax, and Herring will fight to expand access to abortion and affordable birth control for all women, while their opponents have vowed to ban abortion, oppose Medicaid expansion to 400,000 Virginians, and limit access to birth control. As a state senator, Northam led the fight against the cruel and invasive transvaginal ultrasound mandate, a bill that was sponsored by Fairfax’s opponent for Lieutenant Governor, Jill Vogel.

As leaders of the Commonwealth, Northam, Fairfax, and Herring will advocate for commonsense gun safety laws including background checks, an assault weapons ban, and closing the Gun Show Loophole. Meanwhile, their opponents all received A ratings from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and oppose commonsense gun reform.

Northam, Fairfax, and Herring are committed to making Virginia public colleges more affordable and will fight to reduce the burden of oppressive student loan debt. But their opponents want to drain public school funding, prevent DREAMers from accessing educational opportunities, and increase student loan interest rates.

From environmental justice, to LGBT equality, to ending sexual violence, the Northam-Fairfax-Herring ticket is clearly the key to moving Virginia women forward. Vote on November 7 for the team that champions women.

Contact
M.E. Ficarra, press@now.org, 951-547-1241

Statement of NOW President Toni Van Pelt:

Doug Jones, Democratic candidate in the Alabama special election, has the power to curb the misogyny plaguing women across the country. Alabama women have the power send him to the U.S. Senate.

As a U.S. Attorney, Jones took action to put violent anti-choicers behind bars. He spearheaded the prosecution of Eric Rudolph–who bombed the New Woman All Women Health Care Center in Birmingham, and later admitted to bombing an additional abortion clinic and an Atlanta lesbian bar. “I was having breakfast just blocks away and ran to the scene,” Jones remembers. “The image of a bombed building and body of a police officer will remain with me for the rest of my life.”

Speaking to Chuck Todd on MSNBC in late September, Jones delivered his full and unconditional support for reproductive choice: “I am a firm believer that a woman should have the freedom to choose what happens to her own body and I will stand up for that and make sure that continues to happen,” Jones said. “I want to make sure that as we go forward people have access to contraception and access to the abortion that they might need if that’s what they choose to do.”

Jones was also taken action to convict violent white supremacists–successfully convicting Thomas Blanton and Bobby Frank Cherry for murder 40 years after the church bombing in Birmingham that killed four young African American girls and galvanized the civil rights movement.

Jones stands in sharp contrast to opponent, Roy Moore, who has alienated even steadfast Republicans with statements revealing his misogynistic, homophobic, and hateful beliefs. Jones says: “America is a nation of laws, justice, equality and opportunity, and we must push back against those who threaten those fundamental American values.”

I agree, and so do Alabama’s women. Tai Hicks, president of Greater Birmingham NOW says: “Women, people of color and members of the LGBTIA community would sleep better at night knowing that Jones, not Moore is in the Senate. Alabamians have worked so hard to make life better for all her citizens; we cannot afford to go backward.”

Women across the U.S. are looking to the women of Alabama to show up to the polls on December 12. We’re calling on Alabama feminists to get out and vote for Doug Jones!

Contact
M.E. Ficarra, press@now.org, 951-547-1241