Women's Law Fund

The Women's Law Fund, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to eradicating gender discrimination through litigation and education, was incorporated in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1972. The fund was co-founded by attorneys Jane M. Picker and Lizabeth A. Moody, then colleagues at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University. Primarily funded by the Ford Foundation, the Women's Law Fund first supported precedent-setting litigation regarding gender discrimination in employment, education, government benefits, and housing. The Women's Law Fund was not a law firm; rather, it was an organization securing attorneys and providing funding for litigation in its area of expertise. In fact, the Women's Law Fund was the first non-profit organization in the United States to address gender discrimination cases. Although located in Cleveland, the fund was a national organization.

Notably, the first case supported by the fund, LaFleur, et al. v. Cleveland Board of Education, et al., reached the United States Supreme Court to result in a landmark ruling. In 1974, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Board's policy of mandatory maternity leave penalized female teachers for deciding to bear children, thus violating the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

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