is the title of an article written by Hillary Gyuras, a UT Senior double majoring in women & gender studies and law & social thought, for the Dec. 5, 2012, edition of the Independent Collegian. I quote her because her title reflects not only February’s Valentine Day theme, but also the mission of AAUW!

Ms. Gyuras notes how privileged we are to pursue higher education when many individuals “….are prevented from accessing even the most basic levels of education due to their gender, impoverishment, or ethnicity.”

She points to Malala Yousufzai of Pakistan who was shot by the Taliban for promoting girls’ education.  She also writes that the UN’s “Girls Education Initiative” has reported that over 3 million children in China—mostly girls and minorities—have no access to education because of poverty. Columbia’s girls and boys have less than four years of schooling.  Roma children are often excluded from education programs. In India, some young girls are pulled from school and forced into sex work or child marriages.

Quoting the World Bank, Ms. Gyuras writes that over 60 million (!) girls were not in school in the mid-2000’s; two-thirds of them belonged to ethnic minority populations.

In the U.S., women’s and minorities’ education has been “tumultuous.” And even today, college departments are often divided by gender, and elementary and high school students of color too often find their schools under-funded.

Hillary Gyuras is “invested in the empowerment of all people,” as are we! I encourage Toledo Branch AAUW members and friends really to dedicate themselves to pursuing our mission of  “equity through advocacy, education, philanthropy, and research” in this new year! –Ed.