Kim Gandy

Kim Gandy (born January 25, 1954) is an American feminist and was the president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) from 2001 until 2009. In 2009 Gandy was a Resident Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. She is now Vice President and General Counsel at the Feminist Majority Foundation in Arlington, VA.

Gandy was born in Bossier City in northwestern Louisiana to Alfred Kenneth Gandy (1928–2010), a native of Bossier City, and Roma R. Gandy (1927–1998), a native of Pennsylvania. Her father was an officer of the former Bossier Bank and Trust Company, an institution organized during the 1920s by her grandfather, W.A. Gandy. After Roma's death, A.K. Gandy married the former Shirley S. Lacobee (1925–2004) of Shreveport. Kim Gandy had a younger sister Kellie Ann, who, like their mother, died of cancer.

Kim Gandy graduated from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, the seat of Lincoln Parish, where she earned a bachelor of science degree in mathematics.

Having taken a job with AT&T, Gandy became outraged that the firm required her husband's permission for employee benefits. She joined Louisiana NOW in 1973 and devoted the next several years to the campaign that overturned the state's Head and Master law, which gave husbands unilateral control over all property jointly owned by a married couple. Inspired by her activism in NOW, she studied law at Loyola University New Orleans where she was a member of the Loyola Law Review and the National Moot Court Team. She graduated in 1978.

Gandy went on to serve as a senior assistant district attorney in New Orleans, and later opened a private trial practice, litigating cases seeking fair treatment for women. She served as president of Louisiana NOW from 1979 through 1981, national secretary of NOW from 1987 to 1991, and executive vice president of NOW from 1991 to 2001. She was elected national NOW president in 2001 and re-elected to a second term in 2005. She was term-limited in 2009.

In 2008, Gandy defended presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. She criticized MSNBC host Chris Matthews, himself a Democrat, for remarks that Matthews made about Clinton having received "sympathy" support because her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, "messed around." Gandy charged that Matthews "is a repeat offender when it comes to sexist attitudes toward women politicians. . . . I wasn't really looking for an apology. I was looking for a behavior change, and for him to treat female politicians the same way as [he treats] male politicians."

Gandy is married to Christopher "Kip" Lornell, an American ethnomusicologist and professor of music at George Washington University. They have two daughters.

External links

• NOW Officers: Kim Gandy – President
• 2005 National NOW Elections – Candidate Information
• Institute of Politics, Kennedy School of Government
• Feminist Majority Foundation

Preceded by Patricia Ireland

President of the National Organization for Women 2001–2009

Succeeded by Terry O'Neill