About the Maine Women’s Lobby

Our Work

The Maine Women’s Lobby works to build gender justice in Maine through legislative advocacy and systems change.

We do this by providing direct legislative advocacy and policy analysis, and by building and supporting a gender-responsive Legislature.

Our vision is a gender-just world: one where all people have dignity, equity ,justice, and autonomy, and where they are free from sexism, misogyny, and all oppressions.

With our partners at the MWL Education Fund, we also:

  • Connect organizations for gender equity. Our work is rooted in collaboration. We convene coalitions such as the Gender Equity Network, Courts Matter to Maine, the Maine Paid Leave Coalition, and we partner with numerous other issue-based associations and organizations to combine their knowledge and experience with our legislative expertise to meet shared policy goals.

  • Build engaged feminist leaders. We are building the knowledge, skills, and confidence for Mainers to be part of civic life through programs like Girls Day at the State House, citizen advocacy training, and civic education.

  • Create gender-responsive policy analysis for a more informed community. We publish periodic policy briefs as well as the biennial Policy Roadmpa for Gender Equity.

Our Strategies.

We work toward those goals by:

  • Providing direct legislative & administrative advocacy and lobbying. We are a nonpartisan 501C4 nonprofit, and

  • Supporting a gender-responsive legislature. We conduct feminist voter engagement through the election season, provide information and collaboration to feminist legislators throughout the Legislative session, and complete an annual Legislative Report Card.

Our Equity and Inclusion Journey.

While we have always brought a gender lens to our public policy efforts, our organizations (the Lobby and the Education Fund) have had overwhelmingly white leadership and served a white community. We have dedicated our time, resources, and actions in recent years to bein a more inclusive, anti-racist, anti-oppression organization.

Our History.

The Maine Women’s Lobby was founded in 1978, but a group of fierce feminists who vowed the gender equity would always have a voice in the Maine State House.