Timeline: 2000

Feminist Majority President Eleanor Smeal and other feminist leaders meet with State Department officials to argue that sex traffickers should not be given a way out of prosecution by the inclusion of the word 'force' in proposed legislation. Smeal argues that women are often coerced into stating that they consented to their situation, and argues that sex traffickers - not women victimized by the illegal sex trade - should stand trial and face prosecution.

The Feminist Majority sends a delegation to the Millennium March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights. Eleanor Smeal speaks to a crowd of 800,000 gathered on the mall to support LGBT rights, hate crimes legislation, and equal rights legislation.

Girls having school in a courtyard in PakistanEleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority, and Mavis Leno, chair of the Foundation's Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan unveil the Back to School Campaign - a new initiative to raise public awareness of gender apartheid and expand educational opportunities for Afghan women and girls. The Back to School Campaign includes an Adopt-A-School Project, an Afghan Women's Scholarship Program, and a petition drive urging the U.S. government to do more to help Afghan women and girls. Within weeks of the announcement, over 80 groups join the effort - from college feminist groups to women's organizations to elementary school classes.

The Feminist Majority wages legislative and online campaigns against the Coburn Amendment that would bar the Food and Drug Administration from testing, developing or approving abortion-inducing pills, including mifepristone. Meningioma patient Professor Doris Laird writes to members of Congress, telling how mifepristone is saving her life and urging Congress to defeat the Coburn Amendment. For the first time, Representative Tom Coburn's (R-OK) amendment is defeated in the House, thanks to the efforts of women members of Congress and women's rights groups.

Smeal and Leno deliver petitionsChair of the Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan Mavis Leno, Director of Policy and Research Jennifer Jackman, and President Eleanor Smeal meet with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and top officials in the state department on the horrific treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan, delivering 72,000 petitions from concerned FM members and supporters. FM learns that the state department is receiving more mail on this issue than any other foreign policy issue.

The Feminist Majority, along with the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, National Organization for Women, and leaders against domestic violence work to win reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Despite strong bi-partisan support for the bill, Republican leadership in Congress stalls on bringing the bill to a vote, threatening to allow it to expire, cutting off funding for women's and domestic violence resources throughout the country.

After the House passes the reauthorization bill, feminist leaders, including Eleanor Smeal, Patricia Ireland of NOW, and Gail Shaffer of Business and Professional Women, along with leading members of Congress, hold a press conference, calling for a vote on VAWA as a stand-alone bill. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) threatens to attach VAWA to a bill that President Clinton had promised to veto.

Days later, the Senate proposes to add VAWA to the Sex Trafficking Victims Protection Act, along with other measures. On October 12, the reauthorization of VAWA and the US's first anti-trafficking legislation become law. The law codifies VAWA for five years and authorizes $3 billion in funds for sexual assault and domestic violence prevention, including sexual assault prevention training for judges, battered women's services, state-based services for victims of domestic violence, and transitional housing for victims of domestic violence. The sex trafficking law authorizes $94.5 million for victims of sex trafficking, creates special visas for victims of trafficking and slavery, and doubles the current maximum penalty for sex trafficking. In addition, the bill specifies that the United States withhold certain aid from governments who fail to enforce the provisions.

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