Why does the AAUW care about bullying?

Our mission—promoting education and equity for women and girls—allows nothing less.  As the research, resources and information from the Greater Pittsburgh YWCA Y-Teens show us, bullying is a big problem for girls in our schools. Girls are bullied, sometimes by boys, often by other girls, distracting them from their education, alienating them from their peers, and, most importantly, severely damaging their self-esteem.

The data indicate that both the bully victims and the bullies themselves can suffer life-altering consequences—emotional scars, poor academic achievement, destructive anger,  even criminal behavior, as the violence in our schools testifies.

Moreover, bullied children and child-bullies grow up to be damaged adults, continuing to suffer and inflicting suffering in their homes, workplaces and communities, including in their relationships with the next generation of children.  It’s an unending cycle.

Unless we stop it.

AAUW North Hills-McKnight Branch hopes to add its voice and its power of networking and education to the chorus of community educators and leaders who are working to break this cycle of violence.

We offer the following resources in these pages:

• Anti-bullying Resources—links to other information articles and sites, as well as some local sources of counseling, training and professional development.

We hope these pages inform and inspire you, too, to help in some way.