About

Officers/Board

  • Co-President – Debbie Phillips-Donaldson
  • Co-President – TBD
  • Programs VP – Rachel Wright
  • Membership VP – TBD
  • Finance Officer – Jolie Grace Wareham
  • Communications Officer – Emily Kelley
  • Public Policy Chair – TBD
  • Parliamentarian – Sherry Elrod

AAUW

Our national association, over 170,000 members, is a powerful voice on women’s issues in Washington, DC, and provides nationally-recognized research and programming on work and education for women and girls.  Our aim is to shape the public dialogue in a meaningful way on issues that affect women’s ability to be treated equally with men in their access to education, fair wages, and health care.

AAUW-TN

AAUW of Tennessee is a diverse & dynamic organization of college-educated individuals who share a common purpose—to make Tennessee a better place for women and girls to work and learn.  Women today are still vastly underrepresented in corporate and government leadership, as well as in cutting edge fields like technology, math, engineering, and science.  Women still experience a significant wage gap, earning only 54 to 87 cents on the dollar compared to men’s earnings.  This especially impacts Tennessee families, because 70% of Tennessee women are employed in the workforce.  The AAUW state organization unifies  AAUW’s presence in Tennessee and facilitates the work of the 9 branches here.

Membership is open to college students and anyone with either a two-year or four-year college degree.

Nashville Branch

We focus our programming to support the mission, vision, and values of the national organization.

  • Mission:  To advance gender equity for women and girls through research, education, and advocacy.
  • Vision:  Equality for all
  • Values:  Nonpartisan.  Fact-based.  Integrity. Inclusion and Intersectionality.

We provide an opportunity to come together here in Nashville to learn with our monthly program meetings, our outside social events to theater productions, museums, community organizations that work to provide better opportunities for women, and other “outside-the-box” experiences that help us experience new ideas or skills

We provide a place where we can discuss issues freely without judgment of another’s position if it is not the same as our own.  For those of us that have been members for several years, it is also a place to develop lasting friendships.

The branch offers a place to develop leadership skills in a non-threatening atmosphere, or to share and refine leadership skills you already possess by working on branch committees or holding an office.

This year we want to expand our visibility in the community and choose a volunteer project to participate in with a local organization that aligns with our mission and values.

Branch History

AAUW of Tennessee was founded in 1926 to further AAUW purposes and policies and to promote, encourage and coordinate the work of the branches with the state.

About AAUW Activities

AAUW has been empowering women as individuals and as a community since 1881. For more than 130 years, we have worked together as a national grassroots organization to improve the lives of millions of women and their families.

Here is some of what AAUW does:

  • Research: AAUW conducts groundbreaking research on issues related to gender equity in education and the workplace. Our work influences the national discussion on topics like the pay gap between women and men, sexual harassment in schools and on college campuses, and the underrepresentation of women in science and engineering. Through new and traditional media, targeted outreach to policymakers, and member efforts, AAUW research serves as a catalyst for action.
  • Campus Initiatives: Each year, AAUW’s campus leadership programs shape the lives of thousands of college women to be the next generation of leaders. Students who belong to the AAUW college/university partners members program will receive priority application preference.
  • STEM Education: Our society tells girls and women that they don’t belong in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. As early as first grade, children have already developed a sense of gender identity, and most have developed unconscious bias associating boys with math. Toys still reinforce rigid, highly gendered stereotypes that encourage only boys to build or engineer. And even kids’ clothing still proclaims that girls are bad at math.  AAUW is committed to encouraging women and girls to pursue STEM, and we have a multipronged approach to make it happen. Here’s a look at our STEM strategy.
  • Public Policy: Since AAUW’s founding our members and supporters have spoken out about policies important to women and girls. Without their voices, invaluable legislation would have never been passed. In recent years, such legislation included the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.  AAUW’s policy work connects and rallies advocates at the local, state, national, and global levels to advance our work to empower women and girls. With the member-endorsed Public Policy Priorities as our guide, AAUW uses lobbying and grassroots efforts to push forward policies that break through educational and economic barriers for women.
  • Case Support: The Legal Advocacy Fund (LAF) works to challenge sex discrimination in higher education and the workplace. Our resources range from community outreach programs to backing of major cases. Sex discrimination today takes a variety of forms: unfair pay, pregnancy discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual assault, and violations of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 can affect both women and men. LAF addresses these barriers by informing people of their rights and using the legal system to seek justice and change.
  • Educational Funding: AAUW has a long and distinguished history of advancing educational and professional opportunities for women in the United States and around the globe. One of the world’s largest sources of funding for graduate women, AAUW is providing more than $3.7 million in funding for fellowships and grants to 250 outstanding women and nonprofit organizations in the 2017–18 academic year. Due to the longstanding, generous contributions of AAUW members, a broader community of women continues to gain access to educational and economic opportunities — breaking through barriers so that all women have a fair chance. Fellowship and grant recipients perform research in a wide range of disciplines and work to improve their schools and communities. Their intellect, dedication, imagination, and effort promise to forge new paths in scholarship, improve the quality of life for all, and tackle the educational and social barriers facing women worldwide.
  • Global Connections: When a woman is educated and empowered, she starts a ripple effect in her community. This is true all over the world. But women still face barriers that keep education and security out of reach. Only through community support and access to resources like education, health care, and career opportunities will women have the chance to succeed. That’s why AAUW has awarded fellowships to more than 3,500 women in more than 140 countries and why we speak out on behalf of women and girls at the United Nations and in critical global coalitions. Check out AAUW’s global connections.
  • Salary Negotiation Workshops: AAUW Start Smart and AAUW Work Smart are programs of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) that take an important step toward closing the pay gap. Informed by reliable research, both workshops are designed to empower women with the skills and confidence they need to successfully negotiate their salary and benefits. The workshop curricula employ the latest in research and negotiation strategies to help women navigate the complexities of job offers and promotion opportunities. 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 and more

See more about the AAUW National Organization here.