Priority Areas

The National Association of Women and the Law helps change laws that negatively impact women’s lives. Its mission is to advance women’s rights and substantive equality in the priority areas of ending violence against women, fighting for reproductive justice, defending women’s rights in the climate crisis, and advancing women’s economic security and prosperity.
Advance feminist law reform in Canada

National Association of Women and the Law

Since our founding at a conference held at the University of Windsor law school in 1974, the National Association of Women and the Law (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.

Today, we continue to write briefs and discussions papers and appear before Parliamentary and Senate committees, and meet with decision makers to influence the law making process on current and emerging feminist law reform priorities. Working with feminist lawyers, students, service providers, academics, activists and allies, we are (re)building a feminist law reform network and increasing the capacities of women to engage in the law making process.

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Our History

Historically NAWL’s operations and work have been supported by: public funding primarily from the federal government, membership fees, and funds received from foundations, individuals, and other sources from time to time. At the request of the Trust, NAWL also delivers activities funded by charitable donations made to the Trust. When NAWL was defunded in 2006 by the (then) federal government, all staff were laid off and the office was closed. More than a decade later, through the hard work of NAWL’s dedicated National Steering Committee, NAWL received a multi-year grant and operations fully resumed in 2017.
Our history
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    Our Staff

    Tiffany Butler

    Tiffany Butler

    Executive Director
    Deirdre O’Beirne-Røsæg

    Deirdre O’Beirne-Røsæg

    Head of Communications
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    Suzanne Zaccour

    Head of Feminist Law Reform
    Merry Sun

    Merry Sun

    Finance Administrator
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    Rose Ghaedi

    David Asper Centre for Constitutional Rights Summer Fellowship

    Staff Bios


    Our National Steering Committee

    We are governed by a National Steering Committee that functions as our Board of Directors.

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    Left photo of our 2019/2020 National Steering Committee — back row from left to right: Lorena Sekwan Fontaine, Susana May Yon Lee, Lisa Cirillo and Zahra Taseer; front row left to right: Martha Jackman, Naomi Telford, Anne Levesque and Cheryl Milne. Absent: Sasha Hart.
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    Right photo of our 1991/1993 National Steering Committee — from left to right: Kerry Burke, Diane Zwicker, Ann Martin, Suki Beavers, Maeve Baird, Sue Brown, Susan Vella, Roz Currie, Sandra Sellens, Joan Brockman. Absent: Barb Janzen. Photo courtesy of the University of Ottawa Archives and Special Collections Fonds 10-036.
    From 1974 to present

    Our National Steering Committees over the years

    Learn more

    Our Feminist Law Reform Working Groups

    NAWL is committed to working in collaboration with other feminist and equality seeking groups and individuals in Canada working towards advancing women’s equality rights.
    To ensure that NAWL remains connected to our three key priority areas, we established three Feminist Law Reform (FLR) Working Groups:
    • FLR & Reproductive Rights: Chair: Julia Tetrault-Provencher, Kerri Froc, Alison Southern,
    • FLR & Climate Crisis: Chair: Sabaa Khan, Melanie Snow, Jewelles Smith, Lauren Marshall
    • FLR & Violence Against Women: Chair: Lise Gotell, Amanda Therrien

    Our Priority Areas

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    Ending Violence Against Women

    Femicide and violence against women and girls continue to rage unabated across Canada requiring urgent and ongoing intervention. Violence against women is shaped by racism, homophobia, transphobia, colonialism, and ableism which means that ending violence against women requires a systemic and intersectional approach.

    Legislative interventions which aim to prevent and respond to violence against women must also be framed to address women’s poverty and economic security, which structures and shapes women’s experiences of violence, especially for racialized women, disabled women, 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals, and women with precarious immigration status.

    Ending violence against women also requires addressing both the historic and ongoing impacts of colonialism. The voices and needs of Indigenous women and communities must be at the centre of this work and NAWL calls upon all governments, institutions, and individuals to work collectively towards enacting the Calls for Justice outlined by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

    Our work to-date
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    Fighting for Reproductive Justice

    Since its inception, NAWL has been fighting for women’s reproductive justice.  However, the gains made in this area are increasingly under attack. For that reason, reproductive justice remains a key focal point of NAWL’s work.

    While reproductive justice encompasses equal access to safe abortions for women and individuals who can become pregnant, it goes much further than that. A reproductive justice-based approach to advocacy means working to ensure that the autonomy, safety, and self-determination of women are prioritized via a spectrum of supports, from abortion services to free contraception, robust sexual education, and access to inclusive health services.

    Women cannot achieve substantive equality without reproductive justice. For that reason, NAWL will continue to ensure that reproductive justice remains at the forefront of our law reform agenda.

    Our work to-date
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    Defending Women's Rights in the Climate Crisis

    The climate crisis is a systemic crisis with intersecting economic, social, political, and geographical challenges that disproportionately affect women, particularly Indigenous and racialized women. The climate crisis not only exacerbates existing political, social, and economic issues faced by women, but also creates additional threats to their health and wellbeing.

    Effective climate action requires an intersectional and feminist approach. NAWL will continue to call on all levels of government to urgently address this threat to women’s safety. As we move towards climate solutions, NAWL will continue to apply an intersectional lens recognizing that these solutions must centre the needs and lived experiences of the women who are the most impacted.

    Our work to-date
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    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.

    Our work to-date