Associated Women Students

Brief history of the AWS.

Official handbook for women students.

Group portrait from spring 1957.

The AWS Fashion Board scrapbook with articles on KU's best dressed female and other group records.

AWS Fashion Board members modeling around campus in 1968.

Official handbook for women students.

1956-57 AWS Regulations for University Women.

The official handbook of the AWS for women students at the University of Kansas.

The official handbook of the AWS for women students at the University of Kansas.

At KU, the Associated Women Students (AWS) governed residence halls and sororities, overseeing women’s student life on campus. The AWS implemented numerous rules for all women’s living groups, most of which set specific hours for curfew, quiet time, and men's visiting time. At an AWS rules convention in March 1966, the debate centered on whether or not to end curfew hours for women. In the end, only seniors and juniors were granted permission while freshman and sophomores would have to wait until 1969.

Although women were starting to challenge the authority of AWS, EmilyTaylor, Dean of Women, saw the group as a venue for her agenda of pushing for equality and education for women. Taylor believed the AWS should focus on “devising ways through…programming to help women understand more about the world and be more independent and learn more leadership skills.”

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), originally a committee within the AWs, examined women's place in society and conducted research on women's lives in relation to higher education. In the Spring of 1970, the Associated Women Students officially changed their name to the Commission on the Status of Women.