American Association of University Women Inc.

Our mission is bold―to advance gender equity for women and girls through research, education, and advocacy. We are not satisfied to simply document and discuss the inequities women and girls face. AAUW aims to achieve equity through practical solutions in education, workplaces, and communities. AAUW has established a legacy over 138 years as a catalyst for positive change, from boosting women’s access to higher education to shaping public policy, to producing groundbreaking research on gender equity. Through a multi-pronged strategy of educational programming, innovative research, and transformative advocacy, AAUW is committed to affecting systemic change for women.

AAUW is committed to creating a sustainable economic future for women in the U.S. and has set a goal to end the gender pay gap by 2030. AAUW also is intent on closing the leadership gap for women that prevents millions of women from attaining their full earnings potential.

In keeping with our mission to advance gender equity for all women and girls, AAUW's strategic plan is focused on four macro areas of work: Education & Training, Economic Security, Leadership, and Governance & Sustainability. Three of these focal areas are mission-based, and on— Governance and Sustainability—is foundational in our ability to run the organization with best practices, innovation, and strengthened fiscal sustainability. Keeping our mission forefront will ensure we have properly addressed the policy and advocacy work, the programs to develop and scale, and the operating model needed to ensure real impact. For example, for the Economic Security area, AAUW has set a goal to achieve pay equity by 2030. We will accomplish this by working with partners in three essential areas: training 10 million women across the nation in salary negotiation, working with employers to improve workplace practices, and working at the municipal, state and national levels to champion pay equity legislation.

AAUW has the network, the skills, and the people―more than 170,000 members and supporters, as well our AAUW Fellows alumni―to achieve our mission. With 1,000 branches doing advocacy and programmatic work across the country, AAUW is a force for advancing equity for women and girls. Every strategy and every tactic reflects the direction, leadership, and participation of our members―dedicated women and men who are determined to fight for gender equity.

AAUW has launched 10 major city and state equal-pay initiatives in New York City, Boston, Tempe, Long Beach, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Massachusetts, Kansas/Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Montana, with more to come.

We have 800 college and university partners across the country—and at 150 Start Smart college campuses (including HBCU’s and STEM universities), AAUW Start Smart Workshops offer college women approaching the job market the competitive edge they need to negotiate salaries and benefits for their first job. Women come away from the workshops knowing how to determine their market worth based on their skills, experience, performance, qualifications and responsibilities on the job and having the tools and business strategies they need to successfully negotiate for fair pay for the rest of their careers.

• Empowering economic equity for women by launching our free, salary negotiation training e-tool, Work Smart Online—salary.aauw.org—that can be taken in an hour by anyone, anywhere. This tool is instrumental in our efforts to train 10 million women in salary negotiation by 2022 and close the pay gap by 2030. The e-tool has been recognized with a Gold award in Human Capital Management Citizenship from the Brandon Hall Group for being "on the forefront of social change and...positively impacting our world."
• In 2019, AAUW trained 102,700 people in salary negotiation via Work Smart Online and our in-person Work Smart, Start Smart, and Empower negotiation training and leadership development workshops.
• 72% of participants completing Work Smart Online report higher levels of confidence in salary negotiation upon completing the course. 98% of Work Smart, Start Smart, and Empower in-person workshop participants report finding the information useful and relevant, with 60% putting the skills they learned into practice.
• 11 states passed fair-pay laws in 2019 thanks to the advocacy of AAUW members across the US. This is a significant uptick from 2015-2018, when 6 states passed laws each year.
• AAUW has produced ground-breaking research on gender equity issues in education and the workplace. Our research matters in the lives of women and girls—elevating public discourse on topics such as the pay gap between women and men, the experience of women in higher ed, and the lack of women in STEM fields. Our nationally recognized research products like Solving the Equation: The Variables for Women’s Success in Engineering and Computing, The Simple Truth About the Gender Pay Gap and Deeper in Debt: Women and Student Loans, are catalysts for action that provide real-world recommendations to move society forward on these critical issues.
• With AAUW leading the Equal Pay Coalition and advocacy efforts, 20 states and Puerto Rico have updated equal pay laws in the past 5 years and the Paycheck Fairness Act passed the U.S. House in 2019. A further 43 states introduced new pay equity bills, with AL passing their first ever equal pay law. AAUW has also worked with city and state leaders to ban the use of salary history in hiring, a practice that puts women at a significant financial disadvantage due to prior discrimination. Governors signed executive orders prohibiting the practice in PA and NJ, and legislators enacted laws in Louisville, Kansas City, Salt Lake City, and more. AAUW advocacy remains focused on fighting threats to Title IX protections, as well.
• AAUW reached an audience of 14 million in over 1,200 media articles in 2019, including NPR, The New York Times, Good Morning America, Time, and more.
• 2019’s National Conference for College Women Student Leaders was the 4th largest in the conference’s 34-year history with 800 attendees.
• In the '19–'20 academic year, AAUW is awarding $4 mil in fellowships and grants to 259 women and community projects.