National Women's Law Center
nonprofit organization
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, LGBTQ equity and inclusion through litigation, policy, and culture-change initiatives.
The NWLC created 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 National Women's Law Center originated after administrative staff and law students employed with the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) asked for higher pay, an increase in the number of women being employed as lawyers, the formation of a formal women's program, and an end to the assumption that they'd serve coffee every morning.
CLASP subsequently established the Women's Rights Project in 1972 hiring attorney Marcia Greenberger to formalize the new program. She was joined by Nancy Duff Campbell in 1978, and the two of them chose to go to battle against a standard policy among American businesses: depriving pregnant women access to disability coverage. Their efforts fighting this flawed procedure led to federal passage in 1978 of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act that amended Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In 1981, the co-directors decided to rename the program the National Women's Law Center and set its direction toward equity and inclusion. They stepped down as co-presidents July 1, 2017, and NWLC named Fatima Goss Graves to succeed them as the new President and CEO.
Campaigns
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.
Today, the NWLC focuses on child care, early learning, education and Title IX, health care, reproductive rights, courts and judges, LGBTQ equality, military, poverty, economic security, racial and ethnic justice, taxation, budgets and workplace justice.
The public source identifies “National Women's Law Center” as nonprofit organization. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around National, Women's and Center.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6979439. VIAF identifies the subject as 153308197. The Library of Congress control number is n83190712. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1972, 1978, 1964 and 1981.
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This entry incorporates text from “National Women's Law Center” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.