With a network of more than 170,000 supporters and activists, AAUW is the nation's leading organization that promotes equality and education for women and girls while dispelling the myth that women are somehow responsible for the discrimination they face . AAUW has a comprehensive strategy to achieve these goals. Every year AAUW publishes gender-based research, advocates for laws and policies that are fair to women, provides hundreds of fellowships to women, delivers effective leadership trainings for women and protects the legal rights of those facing discrimination. AAUW is the only organization that uses all these channels ? at the local, state, national, and international levels ? to advance equality and empower women and girls.

AAUW has been empowering women for more than 130 years in communities and on college campuses across the country. We monitor all our programs to ensure that they meet our rigorous standards for effectiveness, sustainability, and replicability. Our commitment to innovation helps us leverage new technologies to meet changing demand and demonstrate impact. For example, AAUW informs and mobilizes voters whenever key legislation for women and their families makes its way to federal and state dockets. AAUW funds significant, gender-based lawsuits to challenge sex-discrimination. Additionally we aim to increase women’s representation in STEM, by expanding two of our highly successful programs for girls: our week long Tech Trek science camp and our one-day Tech Savvy conference for girls and their parents.

AAUW has the network, the skills, and the people to achieve our mission. AAUW always has been a member-governed organization made up of well-educated, goal-driven individuals. Our staff is small ? fewer than 100 people ? so our members across the country do much of the work. Every strategy, every tactic reflects the direction, leadership, and participation of our members ? dedicated women and men who are determined to fight for gender equality. With 1,000 branches doing advocacy work and providing direct services in communities across the country, working in coordination with the national office doing the same, AAUW helps people in need, while creating change so that fewer people need help.

As one of the world’s largest sources of funding for graduate women, AAUW annually provides millions of dollars in fellowships and grants to women in nearly every state and dozens of countries around the world. In addition, we annually teach more than a thousand women to negotiate their salaries, train nearly a thousand women to run for student government and public office, engage tens of thousands of people with their legislators and AAUW advocates for laws and policies that benefit millions of people. To maintain our focus and efficiency, our member-elected board of directors establishes and tracks specific metrics for all our programs and activities and benchmarks accomplishment through rigorous quarterly evaluations. Also, AAUW consistently receives the top marks from the leading independent charity-rating organizations.

During our 132-year history, AAUW has amassed an impressive collection of accomplishments. Some highlights include leading the effort to pass major anti-discrimination legislation, such as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009 and Title IX back in 1972, as well as the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993. We are particularly well known for our research on the gender pay gap and on women’s participation in STEM fields. And our fellowships and grants have supported women scholars from Marie Curie and Rachel Carson to Melissa Harris-Perry and Christina Gamba, who made a major breakthrough in the fight against cancer. There’s a perception that women are somehow to blame for the discrimination they face. This myth isn’t new, and it isn’t true — and we’ve been doing the research to prove it since 1885. In our 1890s pay gap research, survey respondents said that women should be paid less because they “choose” to take care of children. All along, our research has directly addressed that kind of gender bias — from proving that education wouldn’t ruin women’s reproductive capabilities to showing that the pay gap starts right out of college. Today, we continue to fight myths and stereotypes with facts and determination to achieve equality.