About
The National Association of Women and the Law Charitable Trust for Research and Education was established as the charitable arm to complement the advocacy work of the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) to protect and promote the equality rights of women through legal education, research and law reform advocacy.
Since our founding in 1974, NAWL has worked on its own and in collaboration with others to advance feminist law reform in Canada. We’re proud to have had a major role in achieving significant milestones for Canadian women’s equality, and for our feminist legal analysis and advocacy to have impacted countless laws and policies across the country — most notably in relation to the Canadian Human Rights Act and Sections 15 and 28 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
NAWL continues to play a vital role on both the national and local level —our success is largely due to the commitment and many volunteer hours put in by our dedicated subject-matter experts, our ability to work in coalition with other organizations, and the fact that we have achieved a networking system, consisting of women lawyers, judges, academics, students, and activists willing to lend their time, knowledge and skills towards the legal advancement of women’s equality.
Through our history, NAWL gained a reputation of excellence for its legal research and providing feminist legal analysis and sound legislative advice and NAWL is consistently asked by the government for our views on any legislation pertinent to women’s equality.
Our Impact
Thanks to our resilient volunteers and supporters, NAWL continues to write briefs and discussion papers and appear before Parliamentary and Senate committees and meet with decision makers to influence the law on current and emerging feminist law reform priorities including but not limited to — women’s equality rights, family law, reproductive rights & access, ending violence against women, women rights & climate change, COVID-19 response & recovery, pay equity & workplace discrimination. Working in coalition, we are building a stronger feminist law reform network and increasing the capacities of all women to engage in the law-making process.
NAWL’s public education provides practical, accessible, and engaging tools for participants who wish to develop or improve skills to assist in feminist law reform to advance women’s equality rights. Inspired by the Feminist Law Reform 101 course, in 2019, over one hundred women from across the country participated in introductory workshops on feminist law reform. The Gender and the Law Manual: An Introductory Handbook for Law Students , aims to encourage feminist students and future lawyers to think critically about the law and take action to denounce inequality and injustice.