AAUW appears to assume that a college education provides a person with a better, broader skill set to advocate on behalf of women. This membership requirement should be challenged. Did MLK require a college education to March in Selma? Does NOW require its volunteers in women’s health clinics to be college educated? Does a local rape crisis require its Board members to have a college degree? Any civil rights organization that restricts its membership to those with college degrees is missing a potential pool of members who can commit to the AAUW mission without needing “papers.”

Karla Atkinson, AAUW Brevard and AAUW Tar Heel (NC)
April 4, 2015