AAUW, Citrus Heights Branch

The American Association of University Women’s (AAUW) mission is to advance equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy, and research. The AAUW mission began in 1881 when Marion Talbot and Ellen Swallow Richards invited 15 alumnae of eight colleges to meet in Boston, Massachusetts. The purpose of the meeting was to create an organization that would find greater opportunities for women college graduates to use their education and to open the doors for other women to attend college. They formed the Association of Collegiate Alumnae (ACA), the predecessor of AAUW. In 1885, joining with The Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, the ACA led a study and published the report, “Health Statistics of Female College Graduates,” dispelling the belief that a college education would harm a woman’s health and result in infertility. This was a common belief promoted by Harvard educated, Boston physician Dr. Edward H. Clarke. In 1960, 31 university graduate women formed the Citrus Heights-American River Branch (CHAR) in California, becoming the 81st branch of AAUW in California. Today there are over 1,000 AAUW branches in the United States. CHAR is proud to be part of AAUW, one of the world’s largest sources of post-graduate grants and fellowships for women. Membership in AAUW is open to all graduates holding an associate, or equivalent, or baccalaureate, or higher degree from a qualified educational institution, and to students working toward a degree who want to support equity for women. In 1987-1988 CHAR established a local scholarship program for women who are heads of households or single parents. The Scholarships are awarded yearly to qualified women students. In 2016 CHAR began an American River College (ARC) endowment fund that will allow CHAR to provide yearly scholarships for qualified ARC women students into perpetuity.