Today is International Women’s Day and in the United States we can celebrate the day because yesterday President Obama signed the Violence Against Women Act into law

When the House passed the VAWA bill, Lisa Maatz, Director of Public Policy and Government Relations,  wrote, “AAUW fought for this version of VAWA because it will create meaningful change on college campuses, which is essential in light of high-profile cases of rape and sexual assault. We celebrate that colleges and universities will now be required to create prevention programs for students and have greater transparency in reporting and better services for victims. Additionally, we should all be proud that the House and Senate acted quickly in the 113th Congress to move a bipartisan Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act. The House’s votes to reject a bad VAWA amendment and to approve the Senate-passed bill will send an inclusive VAWA reauthorization to the president’s desk.”  This law will also protect Native American and immigrant women; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals as well.