Who are we?
Teach About Women is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating young people to champion gender equity in their personal lives, communities and workplaces. We believe that education is the key to closing gender gaps in wages, achievement, and leadership. We envision a world where everyone has the same opportunities to learn, thrive and lead. To that end, we provide K-12 schools with curriculum, training and certification to make equity, especially gender equity, part of every aspect of school life.
What do we do?
We provide K-12 educators with curriculum, training and certification to make gender equity part of every aspect of school life. Right now, we offer K-12 schools customized professional development and workshops designed by our team of 20 educators. We are currently developing a radically-new gender-inclusive history program for high schools and developing our 40-hour program to certify k-12 teachers, staff and administrators as Educators for Gender Equity.
Why do we do it?
Our work ensures that every student graduates high school with skills and knowledge to champion gender equity in their lives, communities, and workplaces. Right now, there is an urgent problem in American schools. Most students graduate high school having heard the names of fewer than 10 women in all four years of history class. More than 60% of girls self-select out of higher level math and science classes before the age of 14. In my home state of New York, students are required to take courses on civics and economics that make no mention of wage gaps, parental leave policies, or gender discrimination of any kind. Grade school is a vital period for building self-esteem, empathy, and resilience: students learn the written and unwritten rules of influence and power. If Americans don’t have context for understanding how gender shapes our lives, how can we begin to imagine an equitable future?
Diversity and inclusion are central to our mission.
At Teach About Women, we believe our work is strongest when our team reflects the tremendous diversity of the students, families, and educators we serve. In our community, we value a wide range of identities and experiences. We define ‘women’ broadly, welcoming those who identify as femme, trans, non-binary, and gender expansive. Following the lead of Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw, we also acknowledge that many women face multiple and intersecting forms of oppression. We actively seek to address the ways that gender intersects with systems of oppression such as racism, classism, ableism, heterosexism, colonialism, and xenophobia. We recruit BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ educators and seek to partner with organizations from communities that have been historically underserved by America’s schools.