WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO BE A MEMBER OF AAUW?

KEY TALKING POINTS FROM NATIONAL AAUW

FOR DROPPING THE DEGREE REQUIREMENT FOR MEMBERSHIP

 The reasons we should drop the education requirement are simply:

• • Because it is the right thing to do

  • Because it is in keeping with our mission to advance gender equity

  • AAUW needs to include members with diverse backgrounds and perspectives to meet our mission of advancing gender equity and society’s needs today.

  • Simply put, this is about inclusion. AAUW’s vision is Equity for All. Our membership practices should align with this vision.

  • The educational requirement is counterproductive to recruiting diverse members as well as younger members.

  • There are many paths to education beyond colleges and universities. As important as the P12 and four-year college system is, education comes in many forms, including Career Technical Education, on-the-job training, and similar education routes.

  • Those who do not have degrees can be strong advocates for our mission.

  • We are an organization that promotes equity, yet we do not treat non-degree individuals as equal. This is simply unacceptable.

  • Times have changed. Younger feminists care about our mission but don’t join us because they see us as an exclusionary or elitist organization, one that hasn’t evolved into modern thinking about equity and inclusion.

  • Corporations and foundations prefer to work with and/or fund organizations that adhere to their diversity, inclusion, and equity policies and practices. We lose out on dollars that could help us move forward with our mission and vision which puts a bigger burden on our members to contribute to AAUW.

COMMENTS FROM GWA – AAUW MEMBERS ON THE QUESTION OF REMOVING THE DEGREE REQUIREMENT FOR MEMBERSHIP IN AAUW

The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the member!  They are unedited. 

From Kay Clark

I wanted to write a slightly different way of looking at accepting members who haven’t achieved an Associates or higher degree. It’s a personal one. My mother was raised in southern Missouri during the 20’s and 30’s. Her father didn’t believe education was needed for girls and only one of her brothers got to go to college. She obtained a scholarship to a nursing school in Chicago and set off to enroll. However, the school closed down and so did her education chances. She ended up staying in the Chicago area, marrying my Dad and raising 4 children. My mother considered education to be very important and worked hard at a job outside the home (when it wasn’t normal). After her youngest started school, she began her career as a keypunch operator and by the time she retired, was a systems analyst at Fermi Lab (an accelerator laboratory outside Chicago). She encouraged all 4 of her children to go to college and earn a degree and made sure we did so. Even though my mother never got a degree herself, she would have been a great asset to AAUW in promoting education for women and girls. This change in bylaws would benefit AAUW to have such dedicated members

From Kathy Arriola
I think membership should stay as is. As a minority, I struggled to earn first my AA then my BA. My parents could not help me with college expenses, so I worked all my college years to pay for fees and books. What should’ve taken 4 years to complete both,  took me 6 years to complete then added an extra year to earn my teaching credential. In addition, once I had a teaching job, I was told I needed an additional certificate in bilingual education. Back to school I went as a somewhat newlywed and a nursing mother. It was a struggle, but I am proud to say, I was the only one in a generation of 22 cousins to earn a college degree. What made it possible? I credit “ganas”, the determination to do it. I consider it an honor to sit with women that perhaps made it through the same struggle I lived. I honor those that worked to complete a higher education, some financially, others with their own concerns. Being an AAUW member is a privilege I earned and am proud to be a part of this organization. It may sound a bit elitist, which is not my intention. I hope it clarifies my point which is that being a part of AAUW is something well earned.

From Margot Eiser

In order to preserve the integrity of AAUW, there should be NO change to the by-laws to remove the requirement of a college or associate degree for membership. Instead, the organization  should emphasize its commitment to encouraging and actually helping girls and women pursue and obtain a comprehensive education on all levels in all fields, starting with PRE-school. It should be well publicized how AAUW helps female students via Tech Trek, numerous scholarship funds, various outreach programs and student support endeavors etc.  An additional enticement can be that when recipients and participants earn their degrees, their efforts will be rewarded by automatically becoming, at least for the first year, members of AAUW!

From Pauline Rogers

The most obvious reason is the title of our organization, American Association of University Women! The title doesn’t mention anyone, or everyone can be included! Such a change could eventually lead to some, maybe many, branches being led by non- college trained persons. Where then is our identification? My personal feeling is that this change is being proposed only for financial reasons. Baahumbug! If you want more college trained ladies in our organization research ways to reach out to the younger ladies at the colleges. They have different approaches than we did back in the day. Then promote those new approaches just don’t go the slippery route of including everyone just to get funds! This organization has always been one that enjoys the company and hard work of women who believe in advanced education. Let’s not succumb to silly propaganda for the almighty dollar!

From Ginny Ball

I think this eliminates the goal of AAUW.

When we added trade schools—how many new members did we get?

When I was in college, my biology professor was the National President—she encouraged the women to join when we graduated.

I think the intent was educational study beyond high school.

From Susan Halliday

I am definitely against national’s proposal to eliminate the degree requirement for membership. AAUW is already quite inclusive, and was founded on, and by, educated women supporting other women in reaching higher levels of education in their field. It was founded during the late 1800s when it was rare for girls to even graduate from high school, much less attend college. It was founded to celebrate education and to help/support/encourage other women/girls in also achieving higher educational goals.

• It is NOT the right thing to do

• It has nothing to do with our mission to advance gender equity.

• It has nothing to do with greater adversity by eliminating the purpose for which our founding women strived.

• Yes, times have changed and so have some of our requirements. We now accept an AA degree or equivalent, an RN degree or the equivalent in addition to a four year accredited college/university degree.

• The breadth of programming, research, policy and advocacy, fellowships and grants, and grassroots network have nothing to do with whether one has a degree or not. There are plenty of other women’s groups who were not founded on & do not require a degree of any kind. Non educated women and educated women can join the other women’s support groups. The name of AAUW would have to be disregarded and changed to American Association of Women! I totally disagree with every point made by our national AAUW to eliminate the degree requirement for membership

From Carol Shupek

I am in favor of a change to the membership requirement, allowing members who support our goals of equity and equality for women and girls to join, with or without a college degree.  I really thought it was ridiculous when we allowed community college graduates to join that we just did not open it to all women who share our goals.  This would allow us to be all-inclusive, and certainly should increase our membership.  Perhaps our name should be changed also.

From Barbara Gile

I feel very definitely AAUW membership needs to be for women that have a college degree.
When we let men into the group there was no big increase in membership.
When we let women with only an Associate Degree there was no real increase in membership.
If we let every person join AAUW we will not increase our membership that much.
We will just be another women’s organization.

From Iris Harris

 I am completely opposed to eliminating the requirement of a college degree to join the American Association of University Women.  For one thing, the Association would have to change its name.  The reason I joined was to belong to a group of like-minded women, with whom I could feel comfortable.   If this requirement is voted out, I will resign my membership.  Thank you for asking for my opinion.

From Janice Cecola

My vote : you need to have a degree.  The AAUW stands for university women.
Changing the requirements is not going to increase membership.

From Mary Ann Gilmour (sent to Cindy Birt)

Dear Cindy, so do you all want to change the name of the AAUW to American Association of Women??  How desperate really for members are you all?  Opening up the doors to anyone is opening the doors to nuts of all kinds, or worse, who will use your website.  God only knows we have enough incitement to violence just among our political divisions.

Dear Cindy,  are you aware that one radical Whittier City Council member went to Jan 6 riot on our dime?  So, even elected officials really need to be screened which may actually be impossible with all the media outlets.  So, anyone who wants to admit any woman into AAUW should be asked how they would plan to screen prospective members.

From Earlyne Clemons

The name could be changed to American Association of United Women (AAUW)

From Marie Hegwer-DiVita

I fully support the proposed changes to the AAUW bylaws eliminating any degree requirement for membership. I first heard of AAUW as a high school senior in 1966 when I applied for the Alhambra chapter’s first Jean Brown Memorial Scholarship for a graduating young woman planning to pursue a degree in mathematics. I was very fortunate to receive that scholarship and it made all the difference. I was the first college graduate in my family (and it took another 20 years before there was another). How nice and helpful it would have been to have been able to join AAUW then. What better way to encourage, nurture, and befriend women trying to gain a university education than to unabashedly and wholeheartedly receive them as full members and colleagues working in all of AAUW’s programs and in achieving all goals? I have no doubt voting “YES” is the right thing to do.

From Ann Topjon

I just want to say that I definitely oppose this proposition that AAUW membership be open to any woman.  AAUW was originally started in order to support, inspire, and help women obtain a college or university degree, and I think that mission is still very important and central to our organization.  Opening it up to anyone is a distinct weakening and dilution of that original intention.  I will definitely be voting against this.

From Paula Ocampo

At its core, the change in membership would allow more women to join who share our values and mission statement.  Those goals would not change: AAUW Mission Statement – ” To Advance Equity for Women and Girls Through Research, Education and Advocacy.”   It seems that we would welcome any woman who wants to work to support those goals, which would eventually result in more opportunities for women in education. I recently attended a National AAUW ZOOM town hall webinar to hear the pros and cons of changing the degree requirement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yipxfxVUR0. They make a very good case for eliminating the degree.

From Gwen Woirhaye

Though I am normally inclusive I feel that AAUW is an exception. There is at least one other international organization that promotes and supports education for women, P.E.O., and many AAUW members belong to it as well. There is no degree requirement for that organization. I feel that AAUW is very special and honors the work and determination that we have put into obtaining our college degrees. Therefore, I am opposed to changing the requirement.

From Patricia Cuocco

It makes no sense to me to change the degree requirement.  It seems a contradiction in terms of our name, our history and the intent to encourage women to pursue higher education for all of the reasons that education is considered both a personal and a public good. Maybe there are funders who preclude us for our requirements, but I don’t see how or why, since a college degree makes sense for an organization of university women. So many of us struggled to finish our degrees – attending college while employed, raising children, caring for elder parents or all of the above.  That says something and the struggle should be honored.  We are women who have worked to achieve something special.  Keep the degree requirement.