Established in 1966, the National Organization for Women (N.O.W.), was born out of frustration at the lack of progress on women's issues in the wake of John F. Kennedy's 1961 establishment of the President's Commission on the Status of Women in the United States. Similar commissions had been set up in all 50 states, but their failure to achieve their goals provoked a core group of activists at a national convention in 1966. Gathering in Betty Friedan's hotel room and writing their guidelines on a paper napkin, the activists laid the groundwork for N.O.W., which was formally launched that October at a convention that attracted 300 men and women. Friedan was elected the group's president. By the end of the twentieth century, N.O.W. had grown into the largest and most organized of the women's groups...