About NAWL

The National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) is an incorporated not-for-profit feminist organization that promotes the equality rights of women in Canada through legal education, research, and law reform advocacy.

We work on our own and in collaboration with other women’s equality-seeking organizations to impact public policy on a wide range of issues, including:

• pay equity
• same-sex marriage
• custody and access
• the use of arbitration in family law
• the criminal response to rape and sexual assault
• the provocation defence in murder cases
• immigration
• women’s human rights
• social assistance
• women’s reproductive rights

NAWL was created at a conference held at the University of Windsor law school in 1974. Since then NAWL has used its unique research and educational strategies to raise public awareness about legal issues affecting women. The organization is governed by a National Steering Committee that functions as the Board of Directors. NAWL has played a major role in the following milestones towards women's equality in Canada:

• inclusion of Sections 15 and 28 in the Charter of Rights & Freedoms,
• amendments to sexual assault laws,
• positive changes to family law and to the Divorce Act,
• rape shield legislation, and
• criminal harassment legislation.