Antiracism Advocacy: Past and Present
Evidence-based advocacy and how you can get involved
Since our founding in 1971, AWIS has had roots in STEM social justice advocacy. Inspired by the Women’s Rights and Civil Rights Movements and frustrated by injustice in their own careers, thirty-five women established AWIS to create equitable careers for all women in science.
AWIS History in Advocacy
AWIS took on radical risk in the 1960s and 1970s to stand up for gender and racial equity in an era of political and social upheaval as part of a numeric minority who changed the landscape.
In 1975, AWIS partnered with the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) to win a lawsuit against the Office of Civil Rights for discrimination in higher education on the basis of sex and race.
Throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s, AWIS centered its policy work on equal pay, affirmative action, employment and educational discrimination, and civil rights and included support for the passage of the Civil Rights Restoration Act (1982) and the Civil Rights Act (1990). During this period, AWIS also paved the way for the creation of the committee on equal opportunities in science and technology at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the NSF Visiting Professorships for Women.
In the current social and political context, we again are at a pivotal moment of change.
Recent Examples of AWIS Advocacy
- ICE Ruling Letters (a, b)
- Statement on Systemic Racism
- Call for NASEM study on the influence of systemic racism in academia
- Letter in response to 9/22 Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping
- Invent Together to increase diversity of innovators in the American economy
- UN International Day of Women and Girls in Stem (2019, 2018, 2017)
- USCCR Public Briefing: Federal Me Too
How you can get involved
- Watch: Kimberlé Crenshaw’s Ted Talk (18:41)
- Read: Intersectionality: A Critical Framework for STEM Equity