The Associated Women Students (AWS) of the University of Idaho was a student organization composed of women who attended the university. The organization, originally called The Women’s Association, was a self-governing group supervised by the Dean of Women Students.

Dean of Women Students, Permeal French, was the prime motivator behind the AWS and other organizations for women at the University of Idaho. Organized in the spring of 1915, the purpose of the AWS was to promote women’s activities and to “create a spirit of unity and cooperation among the university women.” The AWS also sought to provide a code of ethics, guidance programs, and leadership opportunities.

By the 1920s the UI had three active women’s student organizations: The Women’s Council, Inter-Sorority Council, and Associated Women’s Students. It was said that the university bragged it was the only one in the country with this many student organizations for women. Before World War II the university enrolled about 3,000 students. Men outnumbered women three to one. By 1943, enrollment had dropped to about 1,200 total, and women outnumbered men two to one. The AWS began to dwindle in the late 1960s and ceased to exist after about 1969.

The AWS regulated and enforced rules and guidelines for student behavior and covered such issues as clothing, dating, smoking, drinking and traveling off-campus. Dean of Women Students, Permeal French, initiated the rules of conduct, some of which remained in effect until the late 1960s.

The AWS was responsible for organizing and initiating many programs for women students and the campus at large. The AWS took control of Campus Day in 1917 and organized the Women’s Rally for the Pullman Washington State University football games. May Fete was another AWS program; it took place every year in the spring.

The “Big Sister” program started in 1925. Students picked from the AWS were assigned to an incoming freshman woman to aid them in preparing for life at the university. Big Sisters communicated with incoming freshmen women over the summer through letters and then assisted them once they arrived on campus.

The AWS also provided loans to student women to help continue their enrollment at the university. In 1927, loans of nearly $1,000 were made to girls who would have been unable to stay in school without aid. According to AWS meeting minutes, the Depression era was the main force behind starting the AWS student loan fund.

Sources used in gathering the above information were from Keith C. Petersen’s This Crested Hill: The Illustrated History of the University of Idaho and the 1927 "Gem of the Mountains" yearbook.