Given FMF’s stature as one of the women’s rights movement’s most reputable organizations, coalition work is a particularly strategic approach for achieving its agenda. Many of FMF’s staff members have worked at other social justice or NGO-type organizations in DC, as such they have been able to create the connections necessary for creating and joining coalitions. These coalitions are incredibly useful for lobbying public officials, as well as expanding FMF’s expertise on a particular issue. For example the Equal Rights Amendment, originally proposed in 1972, which ultimately forbids the denial of equal rights on the basis of sex, has been brought back to the center stage. Recently, Illinois became the 37th state to ratify the ERA amendment. This victory brings the ERA movement just one state away from national ratification. FMF is part of the ERA coalition – a coalition made up of multiple social justice-oriented organizations – which has been at the forefront of a rededicated fight for its ratification. Two weeks ago the ERA coalition was able to lobby over a dozen senators and house representatives in order to have the ERA’s first mock hearing in 33 years. A mock hearing is a simulation of a real congressional hearing. Whilst a real congressional hearing is conducted by the members of the relevant committee to gain more information on a particular issue, a mock committee can be used for strategizing purposes and is sometimes a partisan endeavor. In this case this mock hearing was attended solely by Democratic congressional members and had partisan testimonies. The ERA Coalition’s wide social network that includes major women’s rights stalwarts such as Ellie Smeal (President of FMF) and Alyssa Milano (Actress), meant that it was able to build the social pressure on politicians and leverage the connections necessary to have a successful hearing. The hearing drew much needed media attention to an amendment that is unknown by many in younger generations, therefore widely publicizing the importance of ratifying the ERA. As such, I think that coalition building is the strongest approach I’ve seen during my time working at FMF.
Additionally, FMF uses political consulting as a measure of influencing politics. In the face of the upcoming state elections in most states, FMF is intent on ensuring that individuals with favorable women-centered policies are elected, particularly in deeply Republican states. This strategy allows the organization to work in collaboration with political actors to ensure that women’s rights are at the top of their policy agenda. This approach also aids the organization in realizing its goal of equal political representation on federal, state and local levels. However, given that FMF is a multi-issue organization, it is difficult to find politicians with ethos that wholly represent the organization’s views. And particularly in a two-party system, where legislative races are mostly limited to Democrats and Republicans, the work of finding candidates that espouse all of FMF’s policy positions is difficult. And even if one were to find a politically similar candidate, the organization desires to support folks who can win, therefore often eliminating those in third parties. As such, although political consulting has been useful for achieving FMF’s policy agenda, the lack of political choice inhibits FMF’s ability to endorse individuals who fully represent their policy positions.
