AAUW Grants: 125th Anniversary

This year marks the 125th anniversary of the fellowships and grants program of the American Association for University Women. The AAUW was founded, first as the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, after a call by Marion Talbot and Ellen Swallow Richards in 1881 to women college graduates. From the beginning, it was designed to open more doors for women in higher education, and as such was part of the lobbying effort for Title IX.

In addition to grassroots and advocacy efforts, and a legal advocacy arm, the AAUW sponsors a large number of grants for women who have graduated from college. The AAUW, for instance, helped raise money so that scientist Marie Curie, later a Nobel Prize winner, could purchase a gram of radium for her research work. Funds were also raised in the 1940s to help displaced European women to find positions at American universities, and support for their immigration was given by members of the AAUW, so that careers and in some cases lives could be saved. In the 1960s, a special fund was launched, named for Coretta Scott King, for the study of African American history and culture.

Others connected with the AAUW have included Susan Sontag, Mary Church Terrell and Judith Resnik. A special AAUW memorial fund was raised in the memory of Resnik after she was among the astronauts killed in the Challenger space shuttle explosion in 1986.

The 2013 class of fellowships and grants recipients includes 245 recipients receiving a combined total of more than $3.7 million.

Learn more:

• Timeline: AAUW Fellowships and Grants Since 1882
• Video: AAUW Fellowships and Grants 125th Anniversary
• Famous Women Scientists