The Women’s Education and Research Foundation (WERF) is a registered charitable organization that supports feminist projects in education and research that improve the status of women and girls in Canada. All donations to WERF receive a charitable receipt for tax purposes. We welcome donations, legacies, partnerships, and ideas for future projects that focus on improving the health, wellbeing, and equality of women in Canada.

Current Activities

The Directors of WERF are Lorraine Greaves, Diana Majury, and Nancy Poole. WERF is actively seeking donors and project ideas in the areas of women’s health and women’s equality. To learn more, to donate, or to suggest project ideas, please contact: Lorraine Greaves via email at bccewh@gmail.com

WERF Projects

WERF was founded in 1982 by four feminists from London, Ontario (Constance Backhouse, Lorraine Greaves, Gail Hutchinson, Diana Majury) to acquire funds and administer feminist projects, and has since supported, seeded, or funded over 15 projects such as:

  • The Battered Women’s Advocacy Clinic (now the London Abused Women’s Centre) to offer advocacy services for survivors of violence, established in 1983
  • Support for the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF) in 1984
  • London Women’s Monument to memorialize the deaths of women engineering students at l’Ecole Polytechnique built in Victoria Park, London ON in 1994
  • The Miss G___ Project to introduce women’s studies into high schools in Ontario, 2007
  • The Feminist History Society Project, creating 17 books managed and edited by Beth Acheson, Constance Backhouse, Lorraine Greaves and Diana Majury, and published by Margie Wolfe at Second Story Press, 2012-2022.

The Feminist History Society (FHS) was a 10 year project that created a lasting written record of the women’s movement in Canada and Quebec of the period between 1960 and 2010. The FHS objective was to celebrate 50 years of feminist activity and accomplishments by creating a written legacy for communities, students and future scholars.  Between 2012-2022 FHS supported a range of authors on a wide variety of topics, all celebrating feminist actions in Canada. FHS developed, edited and managed 17 books under the auspices of WERF.

Through the FHS, and with the generous donations of many Canadians, notably former Senator Nancy Ruth, and the late Shirley Greenberg, WERF launched 17 books under the Feminist History Society imprint, many of which were published by Second Story Press.  They include: