The National Organization for Women (NOW) was an American feminist organization founded by Betty Friedan and 27 other women in 1966. NOW was formed in response to the United States government's failure to enforce non-discrimination laws, as employers were still discriminating against women in terms of hiring women and giving them lesser pay than men. In 1972, the group succeeded in convincing the government to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, but it was not ratified by any state legislatures before the 1982 deadline. The left-leaning NOW would come to champion women's rights, feminism, the Equal Rights Amendment, civil rights, gay rights, and reproductive rights, and it was headquartered in Washington DC.