Ithaca Branch Historical Highlights
- May 16, 1918 - 25 women meet at Ithaca High School to form the Ithaca Branch.
Founding mothers include Juanita Bates, who became the first New York State
AAUW president, and Gertrude Martin, executive secretary of AAUW, which began
in Boston in 1881.
- 1924 - One of the first co-operative nursery schools in the country, the
East Ithaca Pre-School, was formed by the Ithaca Branch and mothers in the
Bryant Tract area.
- 1949 - Great Books study groups organized for the community.
- 1959 - Fellowship dinners for international graduate women students inaugurated.
- 1967 - Study group on population leads to establishment of Ithaca Planned
Parenthood.
- 1973-77 - The Continuing Education study group works to expand educational
opportunities for women and persuades Cornell to open courses to extra-mural
students.
- 1980 - Ithaca Branch supports the Cornell 11 and persuades national AAUW
to establish the Legal Advocacy Fund to provide legal assistance for faculty
women denied equal employment opportunities.
- 1993 - Workshops on gender bias show educators how schools often shortchange
girls and what can be done about it.
- 1998 - Ithaca Branch joins the Tompkins Girls Hockey Association to lobby
for girls hockey teams in the Empire State Games and New York public high
schools.
- 2000 - Ithaca Branch co-sponsors a Sister-2-Sister event with a coalition
of community groups to help middle school girls address issues vital to them.
- 2002 - First Transitions Workshop for women returning to school; Sister 2 Sister events in Ithaca & Lansing
- 2003 - Author's luncheon series begins
- 2001-08 Annual Sister 2 Sister events continue