AAUW Dallas History – 100+ Years of Purpose
From 1908
In 2008, the American Association of University Women of Dallas, Texas celebrated its 100th year as an organization providing inspiration and opportunity to women and girls of the North Texas area. In April 2008, AAUW branches across Texas were in Dallas for the AAUW Texas State Convention. The convention was a celebration of the founding of both the Dallas and San Antonio Branches in 1908.
In 1908, a small group of college educated women living in Dallas, came together to share their interests in reading, education and the issues of their day. Recognizing their good fortune in having a college education, and understanding that attending college had enriched their lives and given them opportunities many women in Dallas could only envy, they determined to assist other women in attending college. They recognized that it was important that they not only provide promising young women with information and moral support but that they must also provide money to make it possible for other women to afford the cost of higher education.
Those first members of what was to become the Dallas Branch of the American Association of University Women, who called their group “The College Club”, agreed to raise money to provide scholarships for college-bound woman. The College Club awarded its first scholarship in 1912.
Since then, many grateful women have received financial assistance in obtaining a college or university degree as a result of the generosity and hard work of the members of AAUW Dallas Branch, which is still helping girls and women by awarding scholarships and grants 100 years later.
In 1920 a second group of women formed an organization in Dallas which they named the University Women’s Club. The two groups were independent until 1929, when they combined their membership and, simultaneously, joined the American Association of University Women as the Dallas, Texas Branch.
In the 100+ years since that first small group of Dallas women came together in the common goal of encouraging North Texas women to complete college, many hundreds of women have joined in the purpose of improving the lives of women and girls through education and positive societal change, as members of AAUW of Dallas, Texas.