National Women’s Law Center (NWLC)

Policy Advocacy

Employment And COVID-19

At the beginning of 2021, a National Women’s Law Center report stated that all jobs lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2020 belonged to women. ² NWLC used the report to advocate for larger federal subsidies for COVID-19 relief, including funding for paid family and sick leave and subsidies for childcare.  ³

Emily Martin, vice president for education and workplace justice at NWLC, claimed that women were leaving the work force in high numbers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that the government should provide more aid to states and cities to help women get their jobs back. ⁴

Ms. Magazine published an article written by NWLC that encouraged lawmakers to make “large-scale and comprehensive public investments” into the market due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The article claimed that such investments were necessary to offset the impact of the pandemic on women and girls and advocated for left-of-center government programs to provide more social assistance to frontline workers, offer direct payments to American families, and bail out state governments struggling during the pandemic. ⁵

In June of 2020, NWLC’s sister organization, the National Women’s Law Center Fund, created the Legal Network for Gender Equity and expanded its services to include assisting eligible workers with receiving paid time compensation in relation to COVID-19. ⁶ The Network offered workers one free telephone conversation, then paid services if employees wanted to take further action against their employers. ⁷

Economic Policy

The National Women’s Law Center supports increasing the federal minimum wage, expanding child tax credits, implementing universal paid family and medical leave, implementing federally funded “baby bonds, ” federally funding college tuition, and other left-of-center economic policy priorities. ^{8 9}

NWLC proposes funding these and other programs by “taxing the patriarchy” and “taxing billionaires” through mechanisms that include taxes on wealth and unrealized investment income, as well as increased corporate taxes. ^{9 10}

Health Care and Abortion

NWLC supports a supposed “right” to abortion and launched multiple initiatives in the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that there is no such federally protected right. ¹¹

In 2023, NWLC was one of the founding members of the “Abortion Defense Network,” a referral service to connect health care providers or people who are seeking or have had abortions with pro bono legal services, funding, bail bond payments, and other services. ^{12 13} It also launched an Abortion Access Legal Defense Fund, which funds legal expenses for people accused of violating state abortion laws. ¹⁴

NWLC opposes efforts by states to regulate abortion drugs and calls medication-induced abortion “totally safe,” claiming the drugs are safer than Tylenol or Viagra. ¹⁵

During the first Trump administration, NWLC president and CEO Fatima Goss Graves accused former President Donald Trump and his administration of limiting access to government-funded abortions and birth control, making it difficult for sexual assault victims on campus to file complaints, and removing pay regulations that supposedly protected equal gender pay. ¹⁶

In January of 2018, NWLC and the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a Freedom of Information Act request for information pertaining to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights’ creation of a new division to focus exclusively on religious and moral exemption laws. NWLC claimed that the new department would deny healthcare and access to abortions on religious grounds. ¹⁷

NWLC supports the expansion of government-controlled health care programs and has encouraged the Biden administration to eliminate Medicaid work requirements. ¹⁸

In 2016, Gretchen Borchelt, vice president for reproductive rights and health at the NWLC, filed an amicus brief on behalf of 68 other organizations claiming that religious institutions other than churches should not be exempt from the mandate to provide employees with full contraception insurance imposed by the Affordable Care Act.  ¹⁹ The case, Zubik v. Burwell, challenged whether an employer’s religious beliefs could determine women’s insurance coverage for birth control. ²⁰ On May 16, 2016, the United States Supreme Court sent the case back down to the lower courts and did not hear the case. ²¹

LBGT Issues

NWLC threatened to retaliate with legal action against former President Trump and his administration after it proposed to change health care provisions established under the Affordable Care Act regarding healthcare for transgender people and women who have abortions. ²²

On President Joe Biden’s first day in office, he signed an executive order to protect LGBT people from discrimination, signaling that his administration would follow the United States Supreme Court’s ruling that LGBT employees are covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. NWLC supported the controversial executive order, which allows transgender athletes to participate in athletics programs in accordance with their adopted genders, claiming that it does not pose a threat to girls and women in sports.  ²³

In 2023, NWLC filed an amicus brief in a federal lawsuit challenging an Arizona law that requires K-12 athletes to compete as the gender they were given on their birth certificate, in support of middle school and high school athletes who were born male but wanted to compete in girls’ sports. ²⁴ Later that year, NWLC president Fatima Goss Graves testified to a Congressional hearing on transgender athletes in school sports that “Excluding women and girls who are trans hurts all women and girls.” ²⁵

NWLC supported President Biden’s appointment of then-Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine as Assistant Health Secretary. Levine is the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. NWLC has claimed that transgender people face challenges in accessing health care and that Levine’s appointment will advance transgender interests in medicine. ²⁶

In 2023, NWLC was part of a coalition of organizations that issued a statement criticizing the retailer Target for removing some LGBT-themed children’s merchandise from its stores. ^{27 28}

Title IX

The National Women’s Law Center advocates for the expansion of federal laws that ban sex-based discrimination by schools that receive federal funding, traditionally referred to as “Title IX,” to cover gender identity and sexual orientation. ²⁹ It also advocates for the elimination of what it views as unnecessary due process protections during investigations of sexual harassment or assault on campuses. ³⁰

In 2022, NWLC filed a brief on behalf of 33 organizations in support of a University of Arizona athlete’s Title IX claim that he lost his track scholarship after filing a complaint that he was harassed by his teammates for being gay. ³¹

NWLC supports efforts by the Biden administration to overturn U.S. Department of Education (DOE) regulations issued during the Trump Administration by then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that clarified how schools that receive federal funding should adjudicate allegations of sexual harassment or assault. ^{32 30}

The Trump administration regulations emphasized that schools’ policies for investigating and ruling on sexual assault claims needed to include meaningful due process protections, reversing unofficial policy changes created when the Obama administration Department of Education issued a “Dear Colleague” letter that it identified as a “significant guidance document” for school administrators in 2011 without going through the formal regulatory process. ³³

The Obama administration guidance, which the NWLC supported, was widely criticized for changes such as encouraging schools to replace the traditional “clear and convincing” evidence standard with a far less rigorous “preponderance of the evidence” standard, meaning that a student could be kicked out of school and suffer other serious consequences if an administrator simply thought it was more likely than not that they had committed the alleged offense. ^{33 34} It also allowed schools to adjudicate complaints without an in-person hearing or opportunities for the accused to cross-examine witnesses or offer evidence on his own behalf, a model that federal appeals courts rejected for violating the U.S. Constitution’s Due Process Clause. ³⁵

In June of 2020, NWLC filed a lawsuit against then-Secretary DeVos and the Department of Education, challenging the regulations on behalf of several students claiming that they experienced sexual harassment and assault on campus. ³⁶ Federal courts rejected 12 of the 13 claims in the lawsuit, sending one regulation regarding how schools could use statements by people who declined to be cross-examined back to the Department for re-consideration. ³⁷

Political Activism

Opposition To President Trump

At the beginning of 2021, NWLC was named as a supporter and joint signer of a letter to Congress in support of the removal of former President Trump from office. The letter, written and published by the left-of-center Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (LCCHR) and signed by over 220 organizations, accused the former president of causing the riots at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 and alleged that he is a white supremacist. ³⁸

Sunu Chandy, legal director at NWLC, accused the first Trump administration of siding with the “powerful” and claimed that the Biden administration will be “helpful to the people.” ³⁹

As of March 2025, NWLC was listed as one of the partner organizations for Families Over Billionaires, an activist group formed in January 2025 following the reelection of President Donald Trump that opposes what it claims are “tax breaks for the rich” under the Second Trump Administration. ⁴⁰ Other listed partners include Americans for Tax Fairness, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Caring Across Generations, the Economic Security Project Action, Fair Share America, Indivisible, MomsRising, the National Education Association (NEA), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and Unrig Our Economy. ⁴¹

Judicial Affairs

In May of 2020, NWLC co-authored and co-signed, as a co-chair of the Fair Courts Task Force, a letter to then-United States Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and then-Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) demanding that the Senate stop considering the question of lifetime judicial nominees until after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. ⁴²

NWLC also participated in sending letters opposing the confirmation of Stephen Vaden to the U.S. Court of International Trade, ⁴³ Toby Crouse to the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, ⁴⁴ and Kathryn Mizelle to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. ⁴⁵ NWLC has co-signed letters in opposition to right-of-center judicial nominees, including letters in opposition to the nominations of Justin Walker to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Cory Wilson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and David Dugan to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. ⁴⁶

In 2023 NWLC endorsed President Biden’s nomination of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) general counsel and former Planned Parenthood Federation of America staff attorney Nicole Berner to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. ⁴⁷

NWLC, accompanied by over 220 other organizations, published a letter in February of 2019 condemning Neomi Rao, then-President Trump’s nominee for the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The letter, signed by then president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Vanita Gupta, claimed that Rao was biased against women’s rights and sexual assault victims, accused her of racism, and criticized her ideological affiliations. ⁴⁸

NWLC president and CEO Fatima Goss Graves and the NWLC supported President Biden’s choice for the appointment of Kristen Clarke to the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Clarke was the first African American woman to hold the position.  ⁴⁹

After the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, NWLC criticized President Trump, Sen. McConnell, and their supporters for their confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the United States Supreme Court. ⁵⁰

Organizational Support

NWLC also runs the National Women’s Law Center Fund and the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund. The National Women’s Law Center Fund is a legal defense fund with a total income in 2018 of over $7 million and total assets totaling over $15 million. The National Women’s Law Center Action Fund is the left-progressive 501(c)(4) arm of the NWLC, providing research, education, and advocacy in support of NWLC’s policy goals. ⁵¹ In 2021, it had $2,258,768 in revenues, $1,196,493 in expenses and $1,521,857 in assets. ⁵²

National Women’s Law Center has joined the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and sits on its task forces. NWLC sits as a co-chair on the Education Task Force. NWLC is also a co-chair on the Fair Courts Task Force, which advocates for left-leaning judicial appointments. ⁵³

History

NWLC was originally a program started by the Center for Law and Social Policy, a public interest law firm. In 1981, Nancy Duff Campbell and Marcia D. Greenberger established NWLC as an independent entity.  ⁵⁴ Both Campbell and Greenberger remained co-presidents until 2017, when Fatima Goss Graves took over as president and CEO. ⁵⁵

In 1990, the Center broadened its scope and began to focus more on legislative work. ⁵⁴

Financials

NWLC supports left-leaning organizations that advocate for expanded abortion access. Previous NWLC grant recipients have included Access Reproductive Care-Southeast, the DC Abortion Fund, Feminist Women’s Health Center, and New Voices for Reproductive Justice. ⁵⁶

Fatima Goss Graves received $487,786in compensation in 2021 as the president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center. ⁵⁷

In 2021, National Women’s Law Center spent $557,607on lobbying efforts and $227,336on grassroots lobbying efforts. ⁵⁷

Funders of the NWLC include labor unions like the National Education Association; ⁵⁸ liberal foundations including the Ford Foundation, ⁵⁹ the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, ⁶⁰ William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, ⁶¹ Arnold Ventures, ⁶² Atlantic Philanthropies, ⁶³ and the MacArthur Foundation; ⁶⁴ and advocacy groups including TSNE MissionWorks (formerly Third Sector New England) ⁶⁵ and National Academy of Social Insurance. ⁶⁶ In 2006, the Ford Foundation provided a $10 million matching grant to create an endowment for the NWLC. ⁶⁷

In 2020, NWLC was one of the 384 organizations chosen by MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, to receive a combined $4.158 billion in grants. ^{68 69}