National Women's Law Center

The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) is a United States non-profit organization founded by Marcia Greenberger in 1972 and based in Washington, D.C. The Center advocates for women's rights and LGBTQ rights through litigation, policy, and culture change initiatives. It began when female administrative staff and law students at the Center for Law and Social Policy demanded that their pay be improved, that the center hire female lawyers, that they no longer be expected to serve coffee, and that the center create a women's program.

The NWLC houses and administers the TIME'S UP Legal Defense Fund, which provides legal and public relations support to individuals who have been subject to sexual harassment and assault in the workplace.

History


The history of the Nation Women's Law Center originated with secretaries who were employed with the Center of Law and Social Policy (CLASP), wanting higher pay, an increase in women staff employment, the initiation of a women's organization, and to no longer feel responsible for serving the coffee in the morning. After the establishment of the National Women's Law Center (NWLC), the female organization they created entitled, the Women's Rights Project, found fault in a standard company policy. The issue was concerned with pregnant women being deprived access to disability coverage. The acknowledgment of this flawed procedure essentially aided the vote of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. The center has been developing for over 40 years and continues to make contributions today.

Marcia Greenberger was hired in 1972 to start the program and Nancy Duff Campbell joined her in 1978. In 1981, the two decided to turn the program into the separate National Women's Law Center. Marcia Greenberger and Nancy Duff Campbell stepped down as co-presidents July 1, 2017, and NWLC named Fatima Goss Graves President and CEO to succeed them.

Campaigns
The organization focuses on child care and early learning, education and Title IX, health care and reproductive rights, courts and judges, LGBTQ equality, military, poverty and economic security, racial and ethnic justice, tax and budget, and workplace justice.

The National Women's Law Center filed an amicus curiae brief in the 1996 Supreme Court case United States v. Virginia, which concerned the male-only admission policy of the Virginia Military Institute.

Time's Up Legal Defense Fund
The NWLC houses and administers the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund, which provides legal and media support to individuals who have been subject to workplace sex discrimination, such as sexual harassment.

The Fund as of 2022 had taken up the case of a female rugby referee who reported sexual misconduct by a man to the United States Center for SafeSport, misconduct which the man did not dispute, only to have SafeSport then investigate and attempt to punish her (the victim) for sharing documents related to the case. Jennifer Mondino, the director of the TIME'S UP Legal Defense Fund, said that: "You would hope that [SafeSport] would be being really thoughtful and intentional about setting up their processes in a way that would help survivors. And this seems to me to be exactly the opposite of that."

LGBTQ equality
NWLC advocates for LGBTQ equality as one of its core issues. NWLC "unequivocally supports the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports" and has said that "in recent years, the far right has been attempting to divide, and thereby weaken, our feminist movement with fearmongering around transgender women athletes in women’s sports." A statement by 16 women's rights organizations including NWLC, the National Women's Political Caucus, Girls, Inc., Legal Momentum, End Rape on Campus, the American Association of University Women, Equal Rights Advocates and the Women's Sports Foundation said that, "as organizations that fight every day for equal opportunities for all women and girls, we speak from experience and expertise when we say that nondiscrimination protections for transgender people—including women and girls who are transgender—are not at odds with women’s equality or well-being, but advance them" and that "we support laws and policies that protect transgender people from discrimination, including in participation in sports, and reject the suggestion that cisgender women and girls benefit from the exclusion of women and girls who happen to be transgender."

Affiliations
The organization receives financial support from a variety of institutions aligned on women's rights policies. This includes fellow advocacy groups, academic institutions, law firms, reproductive health organizations, and pharmaceutical companies. Notable donors are Bayer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), Rockefeller Foundation, Thomson Reuters, and Visa, among others.