Do No Harm v. American Association of University Women

Do No Harm secured a major victory after the American Association of University Women (AAUW) ended its discriminatory policy that illegally excluded fellowship applicants based on their race.

Women pursuing an education in one of AAUW’s designated degree programs were offered $20,000 and networking opportunities. Fellowships awarded for medicine, law, and business were “restricted to women of color” and were “open only to women from ethnic minority groups … Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino/a, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.”

When choosing recipients for its “Selected Professions Fellowships,” AAUW will no longer consider applicants’ race or ethnicity, and will no longer require applicants to belong to “historically underrepresented” ethnic minority groups. AAUW changed its policy after Do No Harm sued AAUW on June 20, 2024 for violating federal civil rights law.

AAUW’s “Selected Professions Fellowships” program violated the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42 U.S.C. §1981, which requires racial equality in “to mak[ing] and enforce[ing] contracts.”

Do No Harm filed this lawsuit on behalf of its medical student members who met all criteria laid out by AAUW but were ineligible to apply to the fellowship because of their race.