Public Policy Priorities 2025-2027

Updated

AAUW’s mission is to advance equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. AAUW California’s Public Policy Priorities are consistent with AAUW National. AAUW California principles are updated every two years with input from membership. Scroll down to explore key focus areas that shape our legislative efforts, advocacy, and official positions. You’ll also find a breakdown of our stance on various issues (Where We Stand) and examples of legislation and programs influenced by these priorities (What We Do). 

What are Public Policy Priorities?

Priority areas that guide our legislative and other forms of activism.

AAUW California’s Public Policy Priorities, which are member-driven and approved, inform our legislative and other forms of activism. Consistent with our organizational value of achieving fair and equitable opportunities for all in our diverse society, and our mission to advance equity for women and girls specifically, we advocate for policies that promote, enhance, and ensure security, justice, access, and representation in four specific priority areas: economic security for all women; equal access to quality public education for all students; social and racial justice for all members of society; and increased representation of women in leadership roles. 

You can find a slightly shortened version of our Public Policy Priorities displayed in the card below, which is available to download. For full elaboration of the Public Policy Priorities, please see the drop down menus below.

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What We Believe

  • Equity in the workplace
  • Enforcement of workplace anti-discrimination statutes
  • Security in retirement
  • Access to job training for career development
  • Work-life balance, including access to quality affordable childcare and paid sick and caregiving leave
  • Vigorous enforcement of Title IX provisions which protect against discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational programs or activities
  • Adequate and equitable funding at all educational levels, including pre-school and post-secondary
  • Increased support for and protection of STEM programs for girls and women
  • Civics instruction in all California high schools
  • Access to diverse staff and to curriculum that represents historically accurate information
  • Funding adequate to support a strong infrastructure, and equitable access to resources, including technology
  • Opposition to diversion of public funds to nonpublic elementary and secondary schools and charter schools that do not meet public school civil rights and accountability standards
  • Self-determination in reproductive health
  • Equal access to quality affordable housing, a healthy environment, and health care, including gender affirming care
  • Freedom from violence in all its forms and wherever it occurs, including violence against historically marginalized groups, and support for policies that reduce or prevent gun violence
  • Guarantee of civil and constitutional rights for all, including all forms of gender identity and expression, and all family structures; support for efforts to resist anti-immigrant policies which infringe on those rights, including protection of students from privacy violations and immigration raids on campus
  • Protection and expansion of voting rights
  • Support for United Nations sustainable development goals which address human rights and women’s and girls’ concerns
  • Proportional appointment to publicly held corporate boards
  • Access to leadership skills training
  • Access to programs that promote participation in public service careers

Where We Stand

Overall Clarifications & Positions

Advocacy and Taking Action. AAUW’s mission is to advance equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. While the AAUW California Public Policy Committee is primarily dedicated to legislative activism, we know that legislative activism alone is not enough. As such, we provide monthly action-items for members to engage in targeted and meaningful personal, interpersonal, and community-level activism and advocacy around issues that we care about.

State vs. Federal Issues. AAUW California focuses on state-level legislative action. However, California leaders can and do challenge actions taken by the federal government. While many federal challenges take place in the courts, when federal programs and/or regulations are eliminated, California also works to create stopgaps and backfills critical programs. AAUW California will focus our efforts on relevant legislation that serves as a vehicle for creating stopgaps and maintaining programs.

United Nations’ Directives and Goals. AAUW California focuses on state-level legislative action. However, AAUW California also focuses efforts on relevant state legislation and programs where our priority areas align with global anti-discrimination and empowerment metrics and goals, such as the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).  

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). AAUW California is an organization whose core mission and values drive us to advance fair and equitable opportunities for all in a diverse society. Our public policy priorities are shaped by this directive. This cannot be achieved without also striving to create greater inclusion. As such, our public policy priorities align with the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion, as does all of our legislative activism. 

Challenging Project 2025 Implementation. AAUW California opposes many of the policy directives and changes put forward in Project 2025 insofar as they run counter to our mission, values, and priorities. As such, we will support state-level efforts to challenge relevant sections of Project 2025. See this webinar for additional details. 

“All Women”

All people deserve economic security. AAUW California focuses on advancing legislation that advances economic security for women. This focus-area includes the recognition that gender-based identities and experiences are intersectional. This means that gender is one of many compounding factors that must be taken into account to understand the nuances of economic insecurity and marginalization.

While LGBTQ+ rights and racial justice are explicitly mentioned in the public policy priorities, our legislative activism is not limited to only the categories and identities explicitly stated. As such, the phrase “all women” is used in this priority area to capture this nuance and to guide our legislative activism. 

“All Students”

All students deserve equal access to quality public education. The phrase “all students” is used in this priority area to point to the absence of equal access and quality public education for some students, in the past and present. We seek to advance legislation and contribute to changes in educational codes and policies that remedy these disparities. 

“Quality”

In focusing on the quality of education, we explicitly advocate for historically accurate and high-quality content and instruction. This means that we advocate for curricula that are vetted by subject matter experts and advisory boards; instructors who are experienced, diverse, and capable; and infrastructure advancement that gives all students access to the spaces and technologies that they need to succeed, such as supporting the increase of computer and broadband access, particularly in rural areas.. We not only advocate for state-level policies that advance these aims, but also the monitoring of local school boards, local school district policies, local curricula, and local anti-discrimination policy enforcement. 

“Public”

We also seek to protect and advance public education over private education. While this is our primary mission, given the current political climate and educational funding structures, we do not actively oppose charter schools that adhere to public education standards around curricula and civil rights protections, as stated above.

“All Members of Society”

All people deserve equal treatment under the law and in the application of policies.  The phrase “all members of society” is used in this priority area to point to the historical absence of, and thus the need for, the promotion of equal treatment for everyone under the law, within policies, and through institutional structures. It inherently acknowledges that some members of society have not been and are not now treated equally. 

This priority area is driven by the idea that when any member of society is treated unjustly, it is an affront to, and a danger to, all members of society. And, while the overall focus for all public policy priorities is to combat gender-based forms of marginalization, this priority area also allows us to acknowledge and take actions that recognize that feminized and gender-based forms of marginalization are intersectional, and thus compounded.

As such, in this section, we explicitly state some of the specific individuals and groups who are in need of greater protection in the current political moment given the intersection of historical marginalization and contemporary increases in socio-political and legal challenges that seek to erode rights-protections. However, as with the previous section, uses of phrases that include “all,” such as “all members of society,” indicate that our legislative activism is not limited to only the categories and identities explicitly stated.

Increased representation of women in leadership roles remains a persistent need in California, as well as nationwide and globally. While legislative solutions are not always available to address this issue in California, this pillar was added in 2023 to indicate our support for this goal and to allow us to prioritize advocacy for programs and relevant legislation, should it arise. This includes support for legislation that mandates training in gender equity and inclusivity in multiple sectors and legislation that supports the funding and/or institutionalization of relevant programs that create pipelines and support systems for emerging women leaders, including those around gender-based allyship, mentorship, and internship.

What We Do

Examples of Legislative Activism & Programs guided by PPPs

Legislative activism has deep roots in AAUW, dating back to its advocacy for women’s suffrage in 1892. Today, AAUW California advances our mission through a multi-pronged approach, setting and promoting a state-level legislative agenda, supporting member-led lobbying efforts, and engaging in public education and outreach. We also provide tools for wider activism and advocacy, such as the Take Action! Website, AAUW California on Bluesky, and the Trans Allyship Guide. Each spring, we host a statewide virtual and in-person lobby day and maintain ongoing advocacy through a petitions page via Resistbot, enabling real-time responses to legislators. When necessary, AAUW California drafts legislation and signs relevant amicus briefs. Additionally, we offer a variety of programs to further these goals. We are always adding new tools, so please don’t hesitate to reach out with ideas!

Read on to learn more about the key focus areas that support our mission. 

Focus area 1: Equity in the workplace 

  • We support and advance legislation that increases equity for women in the workplace.
  • We offer programs that educate women regarding their rights in the workplace:
    • Start Smart
    • Work Smart
  • We take additional actions to educate others on relevant issues:
    • Publish and circulate research materials on the Gender Pay Gap to raise awareness

Focus area 2: Enforcement of workplace anti-discrimination statutes

  • We support and advance legislation that eliminates workplace discrimination.
  • We support and advance legislation that increases accountability of existing workplace anti-discrimination statutes.

Focus area 3: Security in retirement

  • We support and advance legislation that provides greater security in retirement.

Focus area 4: Access to job training for career development

  • We support and advance legislation that ensures that all women have equal access.

Focus area 5: Work-life balance, including access to quality affordable childcare and paid sick and caregiving leave

Focus Area 1: Vigorous enforcement of Title IX provisions which protect against discrimination on the basis of sex in any education programs or activities.

Focus Area 2: Adequate and equitable funding at all educational levels, including pre-school and post-secondary.

  • We support and advance legislation that increases equal access.
  • We support student debt relief legislation.
  • We publish educational materials on student debt.

Focus Area 3: Increased support for and protection of STEM programs for girls and women.

  • We support and advance legislation that protects STEM programs for girls and women.
  • We offer programs for young people that create support allyship networks and bolster girls’ excitement about and engagement with STEM:

Focus Area 4: Civics instruction in all CA high schools

  • We support and advance legislation that seeks to bolster high quality civics education.

Focus Area 5: Access to diverse staff and to curriculum that represents historically accurate information. 

  • We support and advance legislation that provides access to diverse staff and curriculum that represents historically accurate information. 
  • We oppose legislation and policies that support book banning and/or curriculum censorship and support bills that protect from curriculum censorship.
  • We provide toolkits and training for local school board monitoring via the School Board Project.

Focus Area 6: Funding adequate to support a strong infrastructure, and equitable access to resources, including technology

  • We support legislation/policies that provide increased funding for all schools for this purpose.

Focus Area 7: Opposition to diversion of public funds to nonpublic elementary and secondary schools, and nonpublic charter schools that do not meet public school civil rights and accountability standards.

Focus Area 1: Self Determination in Reproductive Health.

Focus Area 2: Equal access to quality affordable health care, including gender affirming care, and housing and a healthy environment.

  • We support related legislation and oppose legislation that seeks to roll back or interfere with efforts to expand equal access. 

Focus Area 3: Freedom from violence in all its forms and wherever it occurs, including violence against historically marginalized groups, and support for policies that reduce or prevent gun violence.

  • We support legislation that prevents violence in all forms, with an emphasis on:
    • Legislation that prevents violence against historically marginalized groups; 
    • Legislation that supports domestic violence prevention and mitigation and domestic violence survivor support; and
    • Legislation that supports gun violence prevention, based on empirical evidence.
    • Legislation that supports survivors of sexual assault.

Focus Area 4: Guarantee of civil and constitutional rights for all, including all forms of gender identity and expression, and all family structures; support efforts to resist anti-immigrant policies which infringe on those rights, including protection of students from privacy violations and immigration raids on campus.

  • We support legislation that guarantees civil and constitutional rights for all with an emphasis on:
    • Supporting legislation that opposes discrimination on the basis of sex, as defined under Bostock (2020), which is built on protection from discrimination based on problematic gender stereotyping; 
    • Supporting legislation that maintains and expands LGBTQ+ and gender-based rights.
    • Opposing legislation that rolls back LGBTQ+ and gender-based rights. 
    • Supporting legislation that opposes discrimination against immigrant communities. 
    • Supporting legislation that maintains and expands protection of the civil and human rights of immigrant communities.
    • Supporting legislation that opposes federal immigration raids in schools. 

Focus Area 5: Protection and expansion of voting rights.

  • We support legislation that protects and expands voting rights in California and oppose legislation that rolls back voting rights. 
  • We are actively engaged in get out the vote activities and efforts. 

Focus Area 6: Support for United Nations sustainable development goals which address human rights and women’s and girls’ concerns.
We support legislation that advances human rights for women’s and girls concerns in line with UN SDGs and we oppose legislation that is in opposition.

Focus Area 1: Proportional appointment to publicly held corporate boards.

  • We support legislation that promotes appointments of women. 

Focus Area 2: Access to leadership skills training.

  • We support legislation that institutionalizes leadership training and mentorship programs. 
  • We support the national AAUW leadership conference, NCCWSL (National Conference for College Women Student Leaders), sending college students to the conference annually.

Focus Area 3: Access to programs that promote participation in public service careers.

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