The most useful women in engineering resources for students are a professional society with a chapter on your campus, a scholarship list you check every term, a conference you can attend, and a mentor outside your school. Start with the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE), both of which run student chapters. Add the SWE scholarship program and the AAUW Selected Professions Fellowships for funding, and MentorNet for one-to-one mentoring. Each one is listed below with what it offers and a link to its official site.
| What it is | Who it serves | What students can use | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Society of Women Engineers (SWE) | Professional society | Engineering, engineering technology and computer science students and professionals | Collegiate sections, collegiate membership, scholarships, the annual WE conference, the Collegiate Leadership Institute |
| IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) | Affinity group of IEEE | IEEE members, with local groups in sections and student branches | Student branch affinity groups, events, mentoring and officer roles |
| WEPAN (Women in Engineering ProActive Network) | Nonprofit network founded in 1990 | Individuals and institutions working to advance women in engineering | Individual membership, a career center, the Women in STEM Knowledge Center, events such as the Women of Color Summit |
| Association for Women in Science (AWIS) | Membership association founded in 1971 | Women at every stage of a STEM career | Complimentary membership for students at participating institutions, local chapters, webinars |
| Women in Aviation International (WAI) | Nonprofit for aviation and aerospace | People pursuing aviation and aerospace careers | Scholarships, local chapters and an annual conference |
| AAUW Selected Professions Fellowships | Graduate fellowship | Women starting a first full-time master’s degree in fields including engineering | Funding for a full-time master’s program |
| MentorNet (Great Minds in STEM) | Virtual mentoring program | STEM students in the United States | Matching with a working STEM professional in four-month cycles |
A student chapter is the easiest way in, because it puts events, study groups, company visits and leadership roles on your own campus. Check your engineering student organization list first; many campuses have more than one of these groups.
The Society of Women Engineers focuses on engineering, engineering technology and computer science. Its site describes more than 400 professional and collegiate sections in the United States and Puerto Rico and offers a collegiate membership. SWE also runs a Collegiate Leadership Institute and collegiate competitions, which are worth knowing about if you plan to run for a section officer role.
IEEE Women in Engineering is an affinity group inside IEEE, and its site counts more than 1,100 WIE affinity groups worldwide. Groups exist at the section level and inside student branches. If your school has an IEEE student branch but no WIE group, the official process to start one is to recruit six other IEEE members, name a person responsible until the first meeting, get approval from the section or student branch executive committee and submit a petition. That is a realistic project for a motivated sophomore.
The Association for Women in Science covers all of STEM rather than engineering alone. Its site offers complimentary membership to qualified undergraduate and graduate students at participating institutions, and local chapters for in-person networking and mentoring. If you are in aerospace, Women in Aviation International has local chapters, scholarships and an annual conference.
WEPAN, the Women in Engineering ProActive Network, is mostly an organization for the people and institutions who run women in engineering programs. Students benefit indirectly, through campus programs that WEPAN members run, and directly through its career center and Women in STEM Knowledge Center.
The SWE scholarship program is the first list to check. It covers engineering, engineering technology and computer science. Its collegiate and graduate scholarships are open to undergraduates entering their sophomore, junior or senior year and to new or continuing graduate students, and a separate Emerging First Year program is for students entering their first undergraduate year. For the 2027 cycle, SWE lists the collegiate and graduate application as opening December 1, 2026 and closing February 1, 2027. Dates change every year, so check the official page before you plan around them.
For graduate school, the AAUW Selected Professions Fellowships fund women pursuing a first full-time master’s or professional degree in fields that include engineering. The official page lists eligibility rules on citizenship or permanent residency, full-time enrollment and program type, and for the current cycle it lists applications opening January 5, 2027 and closing February 18, 2027.
Two more places are often overlooked:
A conference compresses a year of networking into a few days: career fairs, technical talks, résumé reviews and people from your field who are a few years ahead of you. SWE’s annual conference, WE26, is listed for November 5–7, 2026 in Boston, Massachusetts, and SWE notes it is open to all genders. Women in Aviation International holds an annual conference, and WEPAN runs events including Women in Engineering Program Day and the Women of Color Summit.
Conferences cost money for registration, travel and lodging. Ask your section and your department about travel funding early, because those budgets often run out well before the event.
A mentor outside your school can tell you what a job actually looks like, which courses mattered and how to handle a difficult team. MentorNet, a division of Great Minds in STEM, runs virtual mentoring that matches STEM students with working STEM professionals, in four-month cycles. It is open to STEM students generally, not only women, which also means a wide pool of mentors.
Closer to home, the student chapters above often pair newer members with upperclassmen, and IEEE WIE lists mentoring among the activities of its affinity groups. Ask a chapter officer what exists at your school before signing up for something new.
All of this competes with problem sets and labs, so put it on the same calendar. Scholarship deadlines, conference registration and chapter meetings belong on your semester-at-a-glance next to exams; how to plan an engineering semester shows how to build one, and the free engineering study planner has a semester page for those dates.
Keep your coursework strong at the same time. Scholarship applications usually ask for grades, and a solid base in the Learn lessons such as free body diagrams pays off in every later course. How to study for engineering exams covers the study side, and the unit converter and engineering calculators help you check homework.
Example: Example: a fictional sophomore’s plan for one academic year
Result: Every deadline is on the same calendar as exams and labs, so none of them arrives as a surprise during midterms.
Check each organization’s membership page for its current rules. SWE notes that its annual conference is open to all genders. Local chapters can have their own rules, so ask a chapter officer.
The SWE scholarships page did not state a membership requirement when we checked. Read the eligibility rules for the current cycle on the official page before you apply.
You can start one. IEEE WIE publishes the steps for a student branch affinity group, and your engineering college’s student organization office can explain how to register a new group.
Start with the SWE scholarship program, your engineering department’s scholarship list and your section. For a master’s degree, look at the AAUW Selected Professions Fellowships.
It gives you access to professionals beyond your campus and city. MentorNet runs four-month mentoring cycles, which is a manageable commitment during a semester.
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