WELCOME
to the website for the Poway/Penasquitos branch of the
American Association of University Women
We are a vibrant group who are committed to the AAUW mission of promoting educational and career opportunities for girls and women. We meet monthly to explore and discuss topics related to our mission. We offer scholarships to women returning to education, run math & science camp for girls and also hold a public speaking contest for high school students.
We also like to have fun. Members have formed interest groups that share our enjoyment for hiking, books, wine tasting, travel, and current events. If you’d like to know more, please read on. To Join Us, scroll to the bottom of this page for membership information, or click on the blue Join Us button in the heading.
HAPPY Holidays!
We would like to wish everyone a Happy and a Joyful Holiday Season; and a reminder that there will not be a General Meeting in January. Our next public General Meetings will be held on February 11th.
Location: Rancho Bernardo Eastview Community Center, 17520 Drayton Hall Way, San Diego, CA, 92128. Email any questions to aauwboard@gmail.com.
January’s IBC Luncheon
The Poway-Peñasquitos and Del Mar-Leucadia branches will be hosting the Inter Branch Council (IBC) Luncheon on January 24, 2026. Listen and learn as CSUSM President, Dr Ellen Neufeldt discusses Partnerships in Higher Education. Share a delicious lunch with members from our sister branches, renew old friendships, create new ones, and bid on lovely auction and raffle items. Since our branch is hosting this year, let’s make an impressive turnout! See the attached flyer for more information. RSVP’s required by Jan 12th!!
Our new MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY 2025-2026 is available, let us know if you have not already received yours.
Speech Trek 2026
Our branch is hosting a speech contest for all California high school students on Saturday, February 28, 2026, at Pacific Highlands Ranch Library. The contest will start at 10 a.m. https://www.sandiego.gov/public-library/locations/pacific-highlands-ranch-library
The topic is Artificial Intelligence – What does the Future look like? Cash prizes will be awarded to the top three contestants. The contest is open to the first 10 contestants.
Do you know a high schooler who may be interested? Contact us at aauwboard@gmail.com for more information.
Another Woman Erased by History
With the holidays upon us and the game Monopoly still around in
many versions, did you know that the original prototype of the game was created by Lizzie Magie who came up with the idea to warn people of the dangers of land monopolies and to spread the principles of Georgism, a single-tax economic theory?
Who was Lizzie Magie? Lizzie was born in 1866 in Macomb, Illinois. Her father, James Magie, was a supporter of Georgism, and a great proponent of equality, traits that were certainly passed down to his daughter. Magie and her family moved to Washington DC, where she would first find work as a stenographer and typist at the Dead Letter Office.
Magie also wrote poetry and short stories and was a stage actress and comedic performer. She clearly had an aptitude for invention, for in 1893 she was granted US patent no. 498,129 for an improvement she designed for Hammond class typewriters that reduced the size of the margins on the page, thus allowing for more typed words per page. At this time less than 1% of all US patents were being granted to women.
Magie was also a proud feminist and wrote and spoke on the subject throughout her life. She had no desire to lose her independence by marrying. She worked hard and saved money to buy her own home.
To bring the struggles of women in the US to the public’s attention, particularly regarding low wages, she placed an advertisement in which she offered herself as a ‘young woman American slave’ for sale to the highest bidder. The stunt brought the press to her door, which allowed her to expand on her point further.
Magie would eventually start teaching Georgism in the evenings. Magie eagerly sought a way to spread her views more widely, and soon settled on a board game as the ideal solution. Since board games had started to become more commonplace in middle class homes, she felt this option would be a successful method to spread the theory. By the end of 1903 she had created a board game titled ‘The Landlord’s Game’, to which US patent no. 748,626 was granted on January 5, 1904. Lizzie’s game was one of the first games where you continued to go around the board, whereas most games at the time had a start and finish. Also, the game included railroads as well as a park which was later called “Free Parking.”
Charles Darrow later created his own version of the game during the Great Depression, which Parker Brothers purchased and adapted into the Monopoly we know today, largely erasing Magie’s role in its history. Learn more about Lizzie Magie through Mary Pilon’s book The Monopolists | San Diego Public Library | BiblioCommons which details the true story behind the world’s favorite board game.
Photo courtesy of U.S. National Archives – Brian0918, Image: BoardGamePatentMagie.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=286628
Happy Healthy Hikers exploring Annie’s Canyon
Our Interest Groups have exciting new plans scheduled for this upcoming year. Visit the Members Only section or your monthly Adelante! for full details.
Happy Healthy Hiker’s will do an easy hike at Kit Carson Park on Jan 10th. Travel Group will gather to share some travel technolgy tips on Jan 16th, but don’t miss Grape Expectations trip to Koi Zen Cellars later that same day! Or join one of our Book Clubs to discuss Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver, An Unfinished Love Story by Doris Kearns Goodwin, or Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci.
Great Decisions, a world affairs policy discussion group assisted by reading material from the Foreign Policy Association, will meet again in February.
We welcome potential new members to participate in a few of these activities. Please contact us if you are interested. You may reach us via email at aauwboard@gmail.com.
MEMBERSHIP MATTERS – Contact us to get involved!
“Our mission is to advance equity of women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy, and research”
Chartered in 1971, our branch has over 120 members residing in the Poway, Penasquitos and Inland North County communities.
Need to renew your membership? Most memberships expire each year on June 30. You have until then to go to the AAUW website to renew by credit card. Currently the membership dues are $117: $74 for National; $20 for CA; and $23 for our affiliate.
The first step is to log into the AAUW website. You may be asked to reset your password so you’ll have to enter your email address, then request to reset your password, which will be sent through your email account. Once you log in with your new password (remember to write it down and keep it for future use), click membership, and then renew national membership. Locating our affiliate is a bit tricky because they are listed by state, so look for the code CA0159 for Poway-Penasquitos. Once you check the branch, make sure you scroll down to the bottom and click submit. From there it will prompt you to the state, choose CA again, and scroll down to the bottom to submit. Then the process will take you to the payment page where you will enter your credit card info. Bingo, you are renewed for another year!
If you run into any problems, let us know. If you can’t pay on-line, you can send a check to our affiliate’s treasurer. Thank you to those that have already renewed!
Anyone interested to Join Us, please follow the link or contact us at aauwboard@gmail.com. We are happy to invite you to a few meetings and/or activities so you may see why you should Join Us.
Updated: 21 Oct 2025.