[1] In 1985, McPhedran became the youngest lawyer to be named a Member of the Order of Canada in recognition of her co-leadership of the Ad Hoc Committee of Canadian Women on the Constitution.
The Ad Hoc Committee was a grass roots movement for strengthening equality rights during the drafting of the Constitution of Canada.
McPhedran's work has focused on the promotion of human rights through systemic reform in law, medicine, education and governance in Canada and internationally.
She has co-founded several widely recognized non-profit systemic change organizations, including the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF),[3] which has conducted constitutional equality test cases and interventions for over 25 years; the Metropolitan Action Committee on Violence Against Women and Children (METRAC); the "always open" Gerstein Crisis Centre for homeless discharged psychiatric patients in Toronto; and the International Women's Rights Project, which is based on two of her intergenerational models: "evidence based advocacy" and "lived rights."
McPhedran has held positions as a part-time member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, and as a consultant providing legal and strategic counsel on ethical conduct and systemic change to public and private sector clients.
Between 2001 and 2003 McPhedran held the position of Co-Director and Co-Investigator for the Centres of Excellence for Health's National Study of Rural, Remote and Northern Women in Canada.