Our Current Work
Recent Updates
Parental Alienation Allegations: The Standing Committee on the Status of Women Recommends Reforming the Divorce Act
Government delay threatens women’s lives and safety
Budget 2025: Multi-year and ongoing funding for WAGE, but a significant drop in annual spending
NAWL Media Statement: Budget 2025 Investments in Gender Equality Support Women’s Inclusion, Justice and Security
Our Priority Areas
Ending Violence Against Women
Violence against women and girls remains a critical issue in Canada and one that requires urgent and ongoing action. All analysis of the legislative framework required to prevent and respond to violence against women (VAW) must be framed to also recognize and redress women’s poverty and economic insecurity, which structures and shapes women’s experiences of violence, especially those of groups of women that are particularly vulnerable to VAW in its many forms.
Recognizing the historic and current context is essential to inform this analysis, particularly in relation to colonialism and the ongoing impacts of colonialism, including the impact on violence against Indigenous women. Indigenous peoples’ history and contributions must be clearly and overtly connected to our collective commitment to bring about justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG).
Reproductive Justice
The direct relationship between reproductive rights and women’s equality, and the precarity of women’s gains in this area, are among the reasons why reproductive rights continues to be a key focus of NAWL’s feminist advocacy.
While freedom of choice is a fundamental right in Canada, equal access to safe abortions for all women and anyone who can be pregnant, is still far from a reality in Canada. NAWL will continue to be laser-focused on assuring that reproductive rights in Canada remain at the forefront of our law reform agenda.
Women's Rights & the Climate Crisis
“Gender inequality coupled with the climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges of our time” – United Nations.
The climate crisis is a systemic crisis with intersecting economic, social, political, and geographical challenges all disproportionately affecting women, particularly Indigenous, marginalized, and racialized women. Effective climate action requires an intersectional and feminist approach. As the Canadian government moves towards responding to the climate crisis, NAWL will advocate for an intersectional feminist and gender analysis to be applied to new legislation, ensuring it recognizes and addresses the existing gender inequalities and unique threats posed by the climate crisis to women’s livelihoods, health, and safety.
Advancing Women’s Economic Security and Prosperity
Women’s work continues to be underpaid, undervalued, and precarious. As such, poverty is highly gendered, with women experiencing higher rates of poverty than men. Levels of poverty also differ among women, with racialized and disabled women experiencing some of its most extreme forms. The economic precarity faced by women renders them vulnerable to violence and exploitation and makes it difficult for them to thrive. Economic abuse also frequently accompanies coercive control, thus threatening women’s economic security and their ability to escape a violent relationship.
NAWL is working to ensure that all women in Canada are able to live in dignity and safety by taking a holistic approach to advancing women’s economic security. Advancing women’s economic security and prosperity means, among other things, advancing pay equity and pay transparency legislation, advocating for safe, affordable, and accessible housing, and enacting broad social safety nets that lift women and their families out of poverty.
