Convention 2008: Advancing Equity through Research (plenary, April 5)

Presented by Catherine Hill, Ph.D., AAUW Director of Research

"Don't believe everything you think." What we know to be true changes. Years ago, everyone knew women couldn't be doctors. Ha.

AAUW's first research report confirmed that higher education did not hurt a woman's health. This was the beginning of AAUW's tradition of examining evidence. Later research included:

• 1913 - AAUW's first study on pay equity.
• 1953 - AAUW's study on the use of media in forming public opinion. We had 140K members at the time. The report examined the new media of the day.
• 1988 - The Eleanor Roosevelt Fund was founded, producing 25 reports in 20 years.
• 1992 - "How Schools Shortchange Girls." A murmured complaint followed: that our research was hurting boys.
• 2008 - [to be released] "Where the Girls Are: the Facts about Gender Equity in Education."

Along the way, 100K people downloaded "Behind the Pay Gap," showing the power of the Web.

Our research keeps AAUW in the limelight, and people want to hear from us. AAUW has made recent headlines at cnn.com, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NPR, and other media outlets.

As AAUW members, we need to make these reports our own for our one-on-one connections with other people. It's a great way to start a conversation.

Three points the new study shows:

• When girls' scores go up, so do boys'. The report looks at high school graduation rates, SAT and ACT scores, and other sources.
• In states where girls do well, boys do well. There is no evidence that girls are hurting boys' achievement.
• A majority of low income girls are low in math proficiency in high school. Higher income girls are proficient. Therefore, family income remains important in the achievement of proficiency.

We are asked to make our general branch membership aware of new reports. Share the reports, then ask for responses from membership. The research reports have served as the basis for AAUW programming for the last 15 years.

Catherine asks us to recommend a topic to be the next AAUW research project on the AAUW blog.