The AAUW Eleanor Roosevelt Fund was launched in 1988 and is the funding vehicle for AAUW’s 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 the schools and on college campuses, and the under-representation of women in science and engineering. AAUW research serves as a catalyst for action.

The Eleanor Roosevelt Fund programs have changed over the years, but the ideals remain the same. AAUW leaders recognize that we must continue our “ongoing support of greater participation by women and girls in actively shaping their future.” In addition to the research conducted, the Eleanor Roosevelt Fund also provides an annual Eleanor Roosevelt Fund Award. The 2017 Award Recipient was SurvJustice, Inc., a national nonprofit that increases the prospect of justice for all survivors through effective legal assistance. I was given the great honor of presenting the Award to Laura L. Dunn, SurvJustice’s founder, during the AAUW 2017 Convention. We were all very impressed with the work of SurvJustice and inspired by Dunn’s life story that led her to start SurvJustice.

There is a critical need for AAUW members to annually contribute to The Eleanor Roosevelt Fund. This Fund is not stipend-producing and relies on “new monies” each year to fund our phenomenal research. I encourage all AAUW Sacramento members to annually contribute to The Eleanor Roosevelt Fund. If each member would make a commitment to give an annual gift specifically to this fund, just think about how those additional contributions will enhance our groundbreaking research. I give my additional gift to The ER Fund every Mother’s Day to honor a woman in my life. I hope you’ll join me by gifting what you can afford to further the work of The Eleanor Roosevelt Fund.

The leaders who created the fund and award were inspired by the words of Eleanor Roosevelt:

It is today that we must create the world of the future. Never have we needed as acutely as now – in a world of ferment, shifting and changing its course, often without direction – the full use of all the brain power we have. We need every single mind. We cannot afford to have any potential talent or ability dulled to apathy.