It seems that younger women are spending their “organization” time with professional societies, not with organizations like AAUW. Time is, after all, limited and this is certainly understandable.

I’m 57 and have spent my professional life with few women colleagues, so I appreciate the networking I get from AAUW — with women from all different fields.

But pondering how AAUW is different from my professional societies, I fell back on my experience on the PDC. The volunteers had very little to say about the content of the convention. [Yes, we were nominally reviewing proposal submissions, but it was clear the decisions were made outside the committee with enormous staff involvement.] In meetings of professional societies, of course, it is the members (not the staff) who drive the content.

Perhaps the PDC is changing. But we need to change in our recruiting and a number of other areas (member development?) if we are to be the voice for education and equity across the country.