The American Association of University Women (AAUW) is a nonprofit founded in 1881 to advocate for a larger role of women in academia. Since the 1960s, the group has expanded its scope to support numerous left-of-center policies to eliminate alleged disparities between men and women, including the gender pay gap. The AAUW played a key role in passing Title IX and has helped enforce it by funding dozens of lawsuits against universities. ¹

In the 21st century, the AAUW has become involved in voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts, including by forming a partnership with the left-of-center League of Women Voters. ²

History

The American Association of University Women was co-founded in 1881 by Marion Talbot, the future dean of the College of Women at the University of Chicago, and by Ellen Swallow Richards, the first American woman to earn a chemistry degree. In 1882, they joined 50 female university alumnae to form the American College Association, which was later renamed to the AAUW. In the mid-1880s, the AAUW established chapters in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington, D.C. The AAUW conducted research and issued fellowships to women in academia. ³

In 1913, the Washington, D.C. chapter of the AAUW produced an influential research report on women in civil service jobs which found that women were paid 78 percent as much as men. ³

By 1931, the AAUW had 521 branches and 36,800 members. The AAUW later worked with then-First Lady Elanor Roosevelt to launch the World Center for Women’s Archives. During World War II, the AAUW advocated for the integration of women into the U.S. military. In 1946, the United Nations granted the AAUW permanent observer status. ³

In the 1960s and 1970s, the AAUW was involved in the political feminist movement and advocated for equal-pay laws. In 1970, an AAUW research report was instrumental in the passage of Title IX, which prohibited gender discrimination in federally funded education. ³ In the mid-1980s, the AAUW formed the Capitol Hill Lobby Corps, which consisted of volunteers working in Washington, D.C. to lobby the U.S. Congress. ⁴

In the 1990s, the AAUW focused on education and international outreach. In 2008, the United Nations granted the AAUW special consultative status, which gives the AAUW input on groups such as the Commission on the Status of Women. ³

In 2009, the American Association of University Women Action Fund to support the AAUW’s political goals through political activism and voter mobilization. ⁵

In 2016, the AAUW participated in the Obama administration’s United State of Women Summit and White House Equal Pay Pledge. In 2017, the AAUW participated in the Trump administration’s White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault. ³

The AAUW claims to have helped pass numerous left-of-center women’s rights laws, including the Equal Pay Act, the Title IX amendment, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and the Paycheck Fairness Act, which was passed by the U.S. Congress in 2019 but is awaiting action in the Senate. ³

Famous AAUW members have included Progressive Era activist Jane Addams, Nobel Winner Marie Curie, First Ladies Elanor Roosevelt and Lady Bird Johnson, suffragist pioneers Carrie Chapman Catt and May Wright Sewall, geneticist Nettie Stevens, scientist Gertrude Rand, former U.S. Rep. Jeannette Raskin (R-MT), former U.S. Rep. Florence Prag Kahn (R-CA), U.S. Rep. and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and former Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor. ^{3 6}

Policy Advocacy

Education

The American Association of University Women advocates for education policies designed to reduce alleged gaps between women and men. For instance, the AAUW opposes efforts to cut federal support for university education, such as Pell Grants, because women and particularly Black women hold a disproportionate amount of college debt. The AAUW supports regulations to promote the hiring of racial minorities in university faculty and administrative positions, as well as subsidies for childcare for students, and support for increasing women in STEM. ⁷

The AAUW opposes proposals to end or restrict Title IX, particularly policy proposals from the second Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Education. ⁷

The AAUW supports what it calls “historically accurate, inclusive curriculum.” ⁷

Economics

The AAUW supports economic policies designed to narrow the alleged gender pay gap, which the group claims has been reduced by only three cents since the mid-2000s. The AAUW claims that gender pay gap is a result of discrimination against women, including racial discrimination against Black women. ^{8 9}

To close the gender pay gap, the AAUW supports government policies including “pay equity, paid family, medical, and sick leave, quality and affordable dependent care,” as well as special provisions in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid designed to support women. ^{8 9}

Civil Rights

The AAUW claims that it fights “to end white supremacy and address structural and systemic racism.” ¹⁰

The AAUW supports an Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment of the United States to constitutionally guarantee equal legal rights for men and women. ¹⁰

The AAUW supports the Violence Against Women Act, which provides federal funding for law enforcement initiatives to combat violence targeting women, such as domestic abuse and sexual assault. The bill was originally enacted in 1994 and is periodically reauthorized. ¹⁰

The AAUW has opposed the second Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies in government administration, universities, and private companies. ¹¹

Elections

The AAUW runs the “It’s My Vote!” program, which provides resources to other organizations to support voter education and get-out-the-vote projects. ¹²

In November 2025, the League of Women Voters announced the launch of its Grassroots Power Partners initiative, a program that supports “inclusive democracy” initiatives at the state and local level through nonprofit groups. The AAUW Action Fund is a partner in the program. ²

American Association of University Women Legal Advocacy Fund

The American Association of University Women Legal Advocacy Fund (AAUW LAF) pursues legal cases on behalf of the American Association of University Women primarily regarding alleged violations of Title IX, as well as cases concerning equal pay and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The AAUW LAF was established in 1981. ¹³

Most of the defendants in cases supported by the AAUW LAF have been universities, including the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, Berkely; Columbia University; Princeton University; Stanford University; University of Notre Dame; and Yale University. ¹

Controversies

Do No Harm Lawsuit

In June 2024, the American Association of University Women was sued by Do No Harm, a medical and political advocacy organization that aims to keep identity politics separate from medical education, research, and clinical practice. The suit claimed that the AAUW’s Selected Professions Fellowship, which awards grants of $20,000 to women pursuing master’s or professional degrees “in fields with historically low female participation,” violated the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against non-white and non-Asian women, who are ineligible to receive the fellowship. The suit was filed on behalf of a group of female medical students. ^{14 15}

Speech Cancelation

In September 2017, the American University chapter of the American Association of University Women successfully campaigned for American University to shut down an on-campus panel hosted by Young Americans for Liberty on feminism, free speech, and Title IX. The presenters included Reason magazine editor Elizabeth Nolan Brown and a former president of the American Civil Liberties Union. In its campaign, the AAUW described the event as “revising and undoing decades of work by activists around campuses across the country to make campuses safer for victims of sexual violence” and “forcing marginalized students to [experience] hate speech and other forms of violence and trauma.” ¹⁶

Leadership

As of 2025, Gloria Blackwell was the chief executive officer of the American Association of University Women, a position she had held since 2021. Blackwell has worked in numerous other AAUW roles since 2004, including as representative to the United Nations. Throughout her time at the AAUW, Blackwell oversaw the disbursement of $70 million in grants. Blackwell was a director and assistant director of the Institute for International Education from 1993 to 2004. Earlier, Blackwell worked at the U.S. Peace Corps. ^{17 18}

1. “Past Cases.” American Association of University Women. Accessed November 9, 2025. https://www.aauw.org/resources/legal/laf/past-cases/.
2. “Women-Led Organizations Team Up to Strengthen Democracy in Communities Nationwide.” Leage of Women Voters. November 6, 2025. Accessed November 9, 2025. https://www.lwv.org/newsroom/press-releases/women-led-organizations-team-strengthen-democracy-communities-nationwide.
3. “Our History.” American Association of University Women. Accessed November 9, 2025. https://www.aauw.org/about/history/.
4. “Lobby Corps.” AAUW Action Fund. Accessed November 15, 2025. https://www.aauwaction.org/lobby-corps/.
5. “About.” AAUW Action Fund. Accessed November 15, 2025. https://www.aauwaction.org/about/.
6. “Faces of AAUW.” American Association of University Women. Accessed November 9, 2025. https://www.aauw.org/about/faces/.
7. “Education.” American Association of University Women. Accessed November 9, 2025. https://www.aauw.org/issues/education/.
8. “Economic Security.” American Association of University Women. Accessed November 9, 2025. https://www.aauw.org/issues/economic-security/.
9. “The Simple Truth About the Gender Pay Gap.” American Association of University Women. Accessed November 9, 2025. https://www.aauw.org/resources/research/simple-truth/.
10. “Social Justice & Civil Rights.” American Association of University Women. Accessed November 9, 2025. https://www.aauw.org/issues/civil-rights/.
11. Hudson, Walter. “AAUW Speaks Out Forcefully Against the Attacks on DEI.” The EDU Ledger. October 24, 2024. Accessed November 9, 2025. https://www.theeduledger.com/leadership-policy/article/15706744/aauw-speaks-out-forcefully-against-the-attacks-on-dei.
12. “It’s My Vote!.” AAUW Action Fund. Accessed November 9, 2025. https://www.aauwaction.org/my-vote/.
13. “Legal Advocacy Fund.” American Association of University Women. Accessed November 9, 2025. https://www.aauw.org/resources/legal/laf/.
14. “Do No Harm Sues American Association of University Women for Racial Discrimination.” Do No Harm. June 20, 2024. Accessed November 9, 2025. https://donoharmmedicine.org/2024/06/20/do-no-harm-sues-american-association-of-university-women-for-racial-discrimination/.
15. “Selected Professions Fellowship Program.” American Association of University Women. Accessed November 9, 2025. https://www.aauw.org/resources/programs/selected-professions-fellowship-program/.
16. Brown, Brown, Elizabeth. “My Alma Mater American University Cancelled My Title IX ‘Hate Speech’ Panel.” Reason. September 29, 2017. Accessed November 9, 2025. https://reason.com/2017/09/29/au-campus-safe-from-title-ix-hate-speech/.
17. “Gloria L. Blackwell.” LinkedIn. Accessed November 9, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/gloria-l-blackwell-/.
18. “Gloria L. Blackwell.” American Association of University Women. Accessed November 9, 2025. https://www.aauw.org/about/leadership/gloria-l-blackwell/.