WASHINGTON, D.C.---My groups have the power to convince others to engage in self-defeating behavior. With the tool of victimization, though, the National Organization for Women (NOW) manages to do just that.

The Capital Research Center is an education and research organization tracking philanthropy trends. The latest edition of Organization Trends, one of Capital Research's monthly publications, is dedicated to NOW. The story, written by Patrick Reilly, is a testament to the power of the sexism specter to crumble the common sense of even the most staid corporate executives.

NOW's continued presence is indeed a story about the power of "victim theory" in the nineties. As the face of the workplace changes and women meet with tremendous success in the workplace, NOW is searching for an agenda to try and stay relevant. To maintain its constituency, NOW has had to supply women in the workforce with a fresh set of complaints and to encourage women to organize like a labor union. Today, NOW's platform includes: advocating special civil rights legislation for gays and lesbians; preserving preference programs based on race and sex; preventing the rollback of abortion; and finally, fighting aggressively for unequal treatment in the workplace by granting women special privileges.

It is this last position that creates the ridiculous scenario of corporate donors supporting an aggressive agenda designed to upend their own institutions. In March, NOW launched a new initiative called "The Women-Friendly Workplace Campaign," which, according to Capital Research Center, encourages women to file lawsuits against their employers for alleged abuses.

One final element of this project is the "Employer's Pledge," which NOW members are asked to demand that their employers sign. The pledge outlines what NOW expects from a women-friendly workplace, including health benefits for same-sex couples; affirmative action programs; and "voluntary" benefits like child care, elder care, family leave, and flex time. As Reilly reports, if an employer decides not to sign the pledge, NOW encourages employees to protest with flyers and consumer warnings.

The real action, though, lies with litigation. The thrust of NOW's message is: sue, sue and sue. Reilly's piece reveals the story of May Company (which owns such chains as Lord & Taylor, Filene's, and Payless ShoeSource). May donated $1,000 to NOW in 1992, and increased the amount every year until 1995, when it gave NOW $35,000. Despite this support, May Company has been embroiled in many discrimination lawsuits – exactly the kind of suits supported by NOW. In fact, May was one of the few companies to lobby against the Civil Rights Act of 1990, in recognition of the costs it would have to incur should it become law – but it lost out to the activism of the identity politics crowd, headed up by NOW.

Why would a company support an agenda directly in conflict with its own best interests? This is the irony of corporate kowtowing to the "victim theory" crowd. No matter how hard they try to toe the politically correct line, the tactics and litigation promoted by NOW and its fellow travelers is fundamentally at odds with a competitive marketplace. The power of the victim pawns, like NOW, is that they've convinced corporate America to apologize for its success.

There are real costs to this embrace of self-flagellation. Perhaps a million dollar lawsuit is a drop in the bucket to May and other corporate NOW sponsors like Capital Cities/ABC, DuPont, AT&T, and General Mills, but it could crush smaller entrepreneurships, which coincidentally, are where many women are making their fortunes. So in the long run, it's not just their own toes the corporate giants are stepping on by supporting the likes of NOW. These groups could be sponsoring the slow death of small businesses everywhere.

—Katherine Post

Director of the Center for Enterprise and Opportunity