Celebrating 50 years of feminist legal activism with NAWL
The association reflects on “landmark achievements”
It’s been 50 years since the National Association of Women in the Law (NAWL) was founded to advance feminist law reform in Canada. In that time, it’s successfully advocated for feminist laws and continues its work to improve women’s rights.
“In partnership with the University of Ottawa Archives and Special Collections, we’re going to celebrate NAWL’s 50th anniversary by delving into our organizational history, including some of our landmark achievements,” says NAWL executive director Tiffany Butler.
The archival exhibit will be available on NAWL’s website (nawl.ca) and at the University of Ottawa Archives and Special Collections through the end of the summer. “It will focus on key areas, including women and work, violence against women, reproductive justice and marriage equality,” she says.
NAWL has had a major role in achieving significant milestones for Canadian women’s equality and its feminist legal analysis and advocacy has 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.
The Charter, which was signed in 1982, sets out the rights and freedoms that Canadians believe are necessary in a free and democratic society. Section 15 guarantees equity rights without discrimination, while Section 28 guarantees that all the rights in the Charter are granted equally to both men and women.
Another success came with NAWL’s brief on Bill C-53, which included the removal of a husband’s immunity in rape cases. “We challenged the presumption that husbands couldn’t sexually assault their wives just because they were married,” Butler says. “It’s just one example of a broader effort at that time to dismantle some of the inequalities that were embedded in the law and to promote gender equality.”
The 1970s were a busy time for feminists establishing women’s organizations. The Royal Commission on the Status of Women brought to light many inequalities that existed between women and men. The Windsor Law School conference where NAWL began was inspired by the growing second wave of feminism and influenced by several Supreme Court decisions that directly impacted the lives of women in Canada.
NAWL founders were looking for a place to work towards women’s equality as it was represented and achieved through the legal system. Most of those founders were law students, as well as women law professors and lawyers eager to combine their passions for feminism and law.
NAWL remains as relevant today as it was in 1974. It overcame a decades-long lack of funding that was eventually restored by the federal government in 2015, opening the door to rebuilding the feminist network. Last fall, in collaboration with Luke’s Place, it launched The Chanterelle Alliance for Feminist Law Reform with the goal of advancing feminist law reform and ending gender-based violence.
Recent successes include advocating for better protections for victims of domestic violence in gun control legislation and advancing rights of victims of sexual assault in relation to Canada’s publication ban regime, Butler reports.
NAWL is part of a coalition that is urging the federal government to reform the Divorce Act and ban parental alienation accusations in legal disputes, arguing the “sexist and unscientific theory” undermines survivors of domestic violence and puts mothers and children at risk of continued family violence.
NAWL envisions a day in which women’s substantive equality is fully realized and supported by Canadian laws and policies. “We want power to be equitably shared in all our lives. That’s our vision statement and it really captures what we’re aiming for as an organization,” Butler says.
“It’s important for the public to understand that a strong feminist movement in a country requires strong feminist organizations to be able to continue advocating for and advancing the rights not only of women but of all marginalized communities,” she says.
“I want to see a properly-funded feminist sector so the folks who are on the ground fighting every day so that we have substantive equality in Canada can continue to do their work and continue to make sure that all of our rights are protected. Only if we have that can we have full substantive equality in the country.”