Kim Villanueva and Rose Brunache talk with Ms. about revitalizing grassroots chapters, mobilizing young feminists, and steering NOW into its next chapter of activism.
Almost 60 years ago, in 1966, Pauli Murray, a queer Episcopal priest and legal scholar, approached noted feminist Betty Friedan about the need for an organization to push the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce the Civil Rights Act. Although the act had passed in 1964 and banned discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex and religion, Murray understood that the law’s promise would remain unfulfilled without vigilance and pressure from activists.
Friedan agreed, and later that year, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was created.
Today, NOW’s work has gone beyond monitoring the EEOC to focus on six core issues:
- winning and protecting reproductive rights and justice;
- ending violence against women;
- fighting racism;
- ending gender-based wage disparities;
- gaining full recognition of the ratified Equal Rights Amendment in the U.S. Constitution
- ending discrimination against the LGBTQIA+ community.
Over the years, these commitments have led to a slew of actions and collaborations, not only in support of the ERA, pay equity and marriage equality, but in support of strengthening the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Violence Against Women Act, and the Family and Medical Leave Act.
At the federal and state levels, legislative work, get-out-the-vote campaigns, efforts to raise the federal minimum wage, enacting gun control measures and protests against police brutality and racial profiling have all been on NOW’s agenda.
Newly-installed president Kim Villanueva—the former president of NOW’s Illinois chapter, cofounder of the Asian American and Pacific Islander Caucus and chair of the National Election Committee—and vice president Rose Brunache, former president of the D.C. chapter, spoke to Ms. reporter Eleanor J. Bader one month after taking office. Although they were still settling into their new roles, they spoke about their desire to expand NOW’s membership and increase the organization’s visibility as a feminist counterpoint to cutbacks, voter suppression, and increased racial and gender animus.
Eleanor J. Bader: Why did you decide to run for NOW’s top positions?
Kim Villanueva: I feel that it’s a way to do some good. I’ve been involved in NOW for almost 40 years, since 1987, and have worked from the bottom up. I want to help make changes that start with the grassroots rather than coming from the top. I want to build our chapters because I believe that many important issues start at the local level. I also want to make sure women’s rights are protected.
Rose Brunache: Things are moving backwards in this country. I honestly didn’t think that Roe v. Wade would ever be overturned, but it was, and since then, I’ve witnessed things get progressively worse. I wanted to be vice president to have a say. NOW is one of the most prominent women’s groups in the country, and because it’s chapter-based, there’s a lot of work we can do at the grassroots level. I also want to help both new and established NOW chapters become as well-organized and creative as possible. I think we can be more effective in stopping bad policies in their tracks.
Finally, the ERA is also a big issue for me, and I want to push for an Amendment because we need equal rights for women in our Constitution. Civil rights protections are great, but laws can be repealed or overturned. A constitutional amendment cannot.
Bader: NOW has more than 300 chapters in 39 states. How much autonomy do they have? Do chapter members interact with one another to share strategies, actions, and ideas?
Villanueva: The chapters are really creative and determine their priorities themselves. The Idaho chapter, for example, has the Umbrella Twirlers. They took part in a parade and literally twirled umbrellas to bring attention to voter suppression and the need for the ERA. They found a fun way to inform folks about these important issues.
NOW chapters in red states have monthly meetings on Zoom where members talk about their priorities and share resources, ideas and experiences. They also talk about legislation that is pending in their statehouses. Strategies that can be replicated or adapted are discussed.
Brunache: We ran on a promise to expand the number of local chapters. Zoom is great, but most people now want to meet in person. Organizing lost momentum during the COVID shutdowns, but feminist activists feel the urgency to meet, plan and act.
There’s a lot of energy for advocacy and activism. I’m going to a women’s conference in Tyler, Texas, in a few weeks. This is a very conservative area, but people there are serious about organizing and recognize the need to come together to build support for abortion and voter registration. Many of the people involved had previously been part of single-issue organizations, but they want to work more intersectionally, linking the many issues they’re facing. They can do this as a NOW chapter.
Organizing lost momentum during the COVID shutdowns, but feminist activists feel the urgency to meet, plan and act.
Rose Brunache
Villanueva: Since the start of 2025, we’ve seen other new chapters form and older ones reorganize to become more fired up. The state chapter in Maine is regrouping, and there are new chapters in Wisconsin and West Virginia. A new NOW group in Appleton, Wis., has done banner drops in opposition to voter suppression, and a new chapter recently started in Huntington, W.Va. The issues they’re focusing on are largely economic, since West Virginia is so depressed, but the chapter is also pushing to erect statues of women labor leaders in their state capitol building.
Our goal is to build up chapters that are not in urban centers like Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. We’re particularly interested in helping activists in rural areas and can offer them technical assistance in starting a new group. We can also sometimes provide small grants to get things rolling.
One more story will illustrate the range of activities that chapters engage in. Almost immediately after I was elected, I visited a NOW chapter in Valparaiso, Ind., for their annual popcorn festival. Valparaiso is the home of Orville Redenbacher! Activists there told me that there used to be a lot of anti-feminist backlash when NOW members marched in the festival parade, but this year, the reception was mostly positive. After the parade, we set up a table and spoke to people about NOW. Students from Valparaiso College came by and told us that a big issue on their campus is period poverty; they are organizing for menstrual equity since their school does not provide pads or tampons in the bathrooms. This conversation led the NOW chapter to expand its product collection drive to help students in need.
We hope to see a great deal more of this.
Bader: Is campus organizing a priority for both of you?
Brunache: I ran on a promise to get more young people, particularly millennials and Gen Z, involved and on board. Right now, we have chapters on about 100 campuses and in some high schools, but we want to expand this. Young people have expressed interest in being part of feminist organizations that connect all of the issues they’re facing.
A lot of young people live online, so we need to utilize social media and start more conversations on TikTok and Instagram. We also need to be flexible about our outreach strategies.
People come into organizations in a variety of ways. I joined the NOW chapter in D.C. in 2016 through a book group they sponsored. After a few discussions, I began going to chapter meetings, and over time, I became chapter president. Other people join NOW for different reasons and in different ways. General discussions can spark interest in some people and can function like consciousness-raising. Social events can draw people, too.
I’m also committed to working in coalitions with other women of color because it’s important to bring them into NOW. I think the fact that I’m Black and Kim is Asian sends a good message.
Villanueva: We have to recognize that our starting point has to be reaching people where they are. Some might want to march and attend rallies, while others may be more comfortable driving people to a protest, making phone calls or writing letters or emails. There are many ways for people to plug in, and we know that if people do too much, over time, they tend to burn out.
At the same time, we know that sisters of like mind seek each other out and connect when there are ways for them to do this. It’s up to us as organizers and activists to provide these opportunities.
Our podcast, which we plan to resume shortly, will be biweekly; we hope it will both bring people to feminism and into NOW. The previous NOW president and vice president started the series, and we’ve covered a variety of topics: from violence against women to abortion, equal pay, queer liberation and crime.
Bader: Have you found any issues to be particularly unifying?
Villanueva: Violence against women. Interpersonal violence impacts just about everyone directly or indirectly. Violence is also intersectional because it’s tied to economic and racial justice. You can’t escape abuse if you have no money, no job, no access to childcare or healthcare and no access to transportation.
Brunache: Violence against women is a nonpartisan issue that resonates. But I find that many people are turned off by isms, whether racism, sexism or heterosexism. When we personalize issues, talk about our lived experiences with unequal pay, violence, racism, pregnancy, childcare and other concerns, people get pulled in.
Kim and I are both really direct people. We talk about issues without jargon or academic language, and we are never paternalistic. We approach organizing as if we’re having a conversation with friends.
Interpersonal violence impacts just about everyone directly or indirectly.
Kim Villanueva
Bader: The Trump administration has revived pronatalist sentiment and has announced plans to give an award to women who have four or more children. Does NOW plan to respond to this?
Villanueva: It goes directly to the issue of who has control over our bodies. It should be a woman’s choice to have or not have children, but it would be nice to have a government that supported those who want to have children. Cutting SNAP, Medicaid and housing subsidies does not encourage childbearing.
Brunache: People like JD Vance have put down women who don’t have children or who don’t want to have children. There definitely is a stigma towards childfree women, and there is nothing wrong with choosing not to have children. However, JD Vance doesn’t understand that there are women who want to have children but can’t because childcare is expensive and often unavailable. If people like JD Vance are obsessed with American women having children, they should invest in childcare and get heterosexual men to do 50 percent or more of the day-to-day work of childcare.
Bader: Since the Trump administration is overtly hostile to people of color, women and progressives, many longtime activists have become demoralized. What’s your strategy for staying involved and still believing that progressive social change is possible?
Villanueva: I have two emails that I sent to myself that I engage with repeatedly. One is a song by singer-songwriter Kristen Lems that urges listeners not to give up. The second is a speech by Republican Jill Ruckelshaus, who led the White House Office of Women’s Programs under Nixon. The speech is about her support for the ERA. I find it inspiring because she reminds us that we need to stay active for the long haul, and even if the work we’re doing doesn’t have the immediate results we‘re hoping for, it may lead to changes that will benefit our daughters, granddaughters and future generations.
Brunache: I remind myself that the world would be in even worse shape if we did nothing to fight hateful rhetoric, cutbacks and policies that deny us our human rights. The sharing of ideas between younger and older activists is also helpful because it puts the current moment into perspective.
