AAUW now has over 100,000 members in every part of the United States. The Beaver Valley Branch was organized in 1930. Membership is open to all women who hold an associate degree or higher from qualified institutions. This includes RN diploma.
MISSION STATEMENT: AAUW advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research.
VISION STATEMENT: AAUW will be a powerful advocate and visible leader in equity and education through research, philanthropy, and measurable change in critical areas impacting the lives of women and girls.
DIVERSITY STATEMENT: In principle and in practice, AAUW values and seeks a diverse membership. There shall be no barriers to full participation in this organization on the basis of gender, race, creed, age, sexual orientation, national origin, disability or class.
In 2006, AAUW celebrated its 125th anniversary. It was on November 26, 1881 when Marion Talbot and Ellen Richards invited 15 alumnae of eight colleges to meet. They envisioned an organization in which women college graduates could band together to open doors of higher education to other women and to find wider opportunities to use their training.
The first research study they conducted was to prove that higher education does not adversely affect the health of women college graduates. By the early 1900s, AAUW was advocating child labor laws, compulsory education, juvenile courts, abolition of child labor, and funding for public schools and libraries. In 1920, they presented to Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie funds to purchase one gram of radium.
In 1955, AAUW supported the first legislative proposal for pay equity in a year when women working full-time made .65 to every dollar earned by a man. Pay equity is an issue we are still fighting.