National Partnership for Women & Families

The National Partnership for Women & Families is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)3 organization based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1971, the National Partnership works on public policies, education and outreach that focus on women and families.

The National Partnership for Women & Families was known as the Women's Legal Defense Fund (WLDF) until 1998.

Judith L. Lichtman was hired as the National Partnership's first paid staff member in 1974. Lichtman became president in 1988 and served in the role for 16 years. Lichtman is currently the organization's senior advisor.

The current president, Debra L. Ness, joined the National Partnership as executive vice president in 1991 and assumed the role of president in 2004.

The organization is best known for its work to build support for, pass, protect and expand the Family and Medical Leave Act – the first and only national law guaranteeing eligible workers job-protected, unpaid leave to care for a newborn or newly adopted child, seriously ill family member, or to recover from their own serious health conditions.

The National Partnership works on four main issues:

Current projects include a national paid sick days campaign, the Campaign for Better Care, and the Americans for Quality Health Care initiative. The National Partnership provides technical support to Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q), a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

"We believe that actions speak louder than words, and for more than four decades we have fought for every major policy advance that has helped women and families.

Today, we promote fairness in the workplace, reproductive health and rights, access to quality affordable health care, and policies that help women and men meet the dual demands of work and family."

In 1977, the National Partnership litigated and achieved a significant victory in Barnes v. Costle, a U.S. Court of Appeals decision that held that any retaliation by a boss against an employee for rejecting sexual advances violates Title VII's prohibition against sex discrimination.

Laws the National Partnership helped enact include: the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, as well as national child support reforms in 1988.

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