For a few moments, as we were descending, it felt like we were going to land in the middle of downtown Washington. Then, just as we were about to touch down, it felt like we were going to belly-flop in the middle of the Potomac River. Mercifully, we landed where we were supposed to, right on the runway. If I’d arrived at the larger and busier Dulles Airport, it would have taken quite a while to make my way into the city. But Reagan Airport, the old Washington National Airport, is just three miles from downtown DC. Even with the tighter security imposed at an airport so close to the White House, I was still in a cab and on my way to my meeting in under twenty-five minutes from landing. Not bad. My destination was on H Street NW, not that far from the White House and the National Mall. The National Organization for Women (NOW) was created in 1966 over the course of two seminal meetings in Washington, DC. The forty-nine women and men – the vast majority were women – who attended those two gatherings, including the groundbreaking author of The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan, are considered the founders of the organization.
