Women and girls’ rights in North America

An overview of women’s rights in North America

North America has made significant progress in advancing gender equality, yet legal gaps and systemic barriers continue to undermine the rights of women and girls. While Canada’s Constitution includes explicit gender equality protections under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the United States Constitution does not explicitly prohibit sex-based discrimination​​. Although the ERA has met all procedural requirements under the US Constitution, its legal status remains contested, and advocates continue to push for its universal recognition and implementation.

Issues such as gender-based violence, reproductive rights, female genital mutilation, economic inequality, child marriage, and online exploitation persist across the region. However, international human rights law provides a clear framework for legal best practices, offering guidance on how States in North America can better uphold their gender equality commitments.

Gender-based violence and international human rights standards

Despite laws criminalizing domestic violence, sexual assault, rape, and harassment, gender-based violence (GBV) remains a widespread issue in both Canada and the United States.

• Canada: Survivors face barriers to justice, including inconsistent implementation of sexual violence laws and limited access to survivor-centred protections​.
• United States: The civil remedy provision of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was struck down in United States v. Morrison (2000), limiting survivors’ ability to seek justice at the federal level​.

International human rights law & legal commitments

• The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), ratified by the US and Canada, obligates states to ensure that everyone enjoys equal protection under the law, including from GBV​.
• The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), ratified by Canada, requires states to take all appropriate measures to eliminate gender-based violence. The US remains one of the few countries that has not ratified CEDAW​.
• The Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence Against Women (Belém do Pará Convention), signed by Canada but not the US, calls for stronger protections against GBV, including legal reforms and survivor support services.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) in North America

Though FGM is illegal in both the US and Canada at the federal level, the practice continues due to legal loopholes and a lack of enforcement.

FGM in Canada

Canada has significant populations of diaspora communities from countries where FGM has traditionally been performed. According to the Canadian Government, between 95,000 – 161,000 women and girls from these communities have been subjected to or are at risk of FGM in Canada.

Under the Canadian Criminal Code section 268(3), any person conducting FGM/C for non-medical reasons faces up to 14 years imprisonment. However, there has not been a single criminal prosecution or conviction for FGM in Canada since the legislation was enacted.

> Learn more about FGM in Canada in our factsheet produced in collaboration with the End FGM Canada Network

FGM in the United States 

In the US, approximately 513,000 women and girls have undergone or are at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM). Women and girls who were born in the US may be subjected to FGM in the US or during vacations to their families’ countries of origin — a practice known as “vacation cutting.”

To eliminate FGM in the US, we’re calling for a comprehensive strategy that unites government agencies, survivors, and local organizations; provides FGM prevention education as well as support services for survivors at the federal, state, and local levels; and provides for continued funding. Currently, FGM is criminalized under federal law, the STOP FGM Act of 2020, as well as in 41 states, and Washington, D.C.. We’re advocating for the remaining 9 to follow suit.

> Explore the laws on FGM state by state in the US in our interactive map and accompanying table.

Reproductive rights and legal protections

The legal landscape for reproductive rights varies significantly between Canada and the US.

• Canada: Abortion is fully decriminalized and protected under universal healthcare.
• United States: The 2022 Supreme Court decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturned Roe v. Wade, which had previously guaranteed access to abortion as a fundamental right under the US Constitution, leading to abortion bans in over 20 states​. 

By rightfully framing access to reproductive healthcare, including access to legal abortion, as fundamental to ensuring gender equality and preventing sex discrimination, the Equal Rights Amendment would directly impact the way the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decides abortion-related and other reproductive rights cases, based on equality rather than privacy, and what federal laws Congress is encouraged to, and discouraged from, passing.

Reproductive rights and international human rights commitments

•  CEDAW recognizes reproductive rights as essential to gender equality, obligating states to ensure access to healthcare, including family planning services.
• The UN Human Rights Committee affirms that the denial of reproductive rights can constitute a violation of the right to privacy and bodily autonomy under the ICCPR.
• The UN Human Rights Committee has stated that restrictive abortion laws violate human rights, including the right to life, health, and freedom from cruel treatment.

> Explore our factsheet, I need the ERA because reproductive rights are human rights 

Child marriage: A persistent legal loophole

Child marriage remains a legal reality across both the US and Canada, with exceptions allowing children under 18 to marry.

In Canada, marriage under 16 is banned, but 16- and 17-year-olds can marry with parental consent​.

In the United States, 35 states still allow child marriage under certain conditions. Child marriage has affected over 300,000 children between 2000 and 2018​ according to our partners, Unchained At Last.

International human rights law & child marriage 

• The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) explicitly prohibits child marriage, calling on states to set the minimum legal age for marriage at 18 years.
• CEDAW and the Belém do Pará Convention call for eliminating child marriage as a form of gender-based discrimination​.
• The Human Rights Committee affirms that States are obligated to address child marriage under the ICCPR.
• The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs Goal 5.3) aim to eliminate child marriage by 2030, recognizing it as a barrier to gender equality and girls’ rights.

> Learn more about child marriage in the United States 

Equality Now in North America

Equality Now works with partners in the United States to call for the universal recognition and implementation of the Equal Rights Amendment, and in the US and Canada to address harmful practices like FGM and child marriage, eliminate online sexual abuse and exploitation, and improve access to justice for survivors.

We are a co-founder of the National Coalition to End Child Marriage in the United States, a prominent member of the ERA Coalition, and work closely with Unchained At Last, the US End FGM Network and the End FGM Canada Network.