For the IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) group, if strength is measured in numbers, then last year was the group’s strongest ever. More than 1500 people joined, the largest annual growth in its history, bringing the total number of WIE members to about 12 000. Last year also saw the formation of 43 WIE Affinity Groups and Student Affinity Groups, the most ever established in one year, for total of 103. While affinity groups (AG) are affiliated with a geographic IEEE section and is comprised of practicing technologists, a WIE student branch centers around a university and, as its name says, is comprised of students. But both groups plan activities targeted for female engineers and engineering students.

Most of the new members are in Regions 8 (Europe, Middle East, and Africa), Region 9 (Latin America), and Region 10 (Asia, Pacific, and Australia).

That is the outline of WIE’s extraordinary growth. What remains to be discovered is what is fueling the growth, according to Mary Ellen Randall, chair of the WIE committee that oversees all the groups’ activities. Accordingly, the IEEE Board of Directors is funding a US $40 000 member survey to learn what is behind the rise, as well as what products and services would be best to offer the members.

Anecdotal evidence shows that people aren’t paying the $25 annual dues just for access to the WIE membership directory or the electronic monthly newsletter. (Dues are waived for students.) The growth seems to be driven by a grassroots movement of IEEE section and student branch leaders to raise awareness of WIE and form WIE groups, according to Randall.

A case in point is the success of the IEEE Victorian Section, in Australia. Volunteers there established a new AG and formed a WIE student branch at the University of Melbourne. The AG has 19 members, while the student branch has 89. Both did not even exist at the beginning of last year. Apparently, WIE is meeting a need.

“The WIE student branch is the only group at the university dedicated to female engineering students, and that provides them with networking opportunities,” says Jennifer Che, chair of the University of Melbourne’s WIE student branch.

WIE provides members and students with an opportunity to network at conferences, technical meetings, and social events. The Victorian AG has so far hosted four. Its first events were held during Tencon 2005, a technical conference on a number of diverse topics organized by Region 10 last November, and held in Melbourne. Female conference attendees were invited to an informal networking lunch and later to a dinner with the conference’s keynote speaker, Radia Perlman, an engineer and expert in network and security protocols from Sun Microsystems, in Menlo Park, Calif. Since then, the AG also hosted a networking event with IEEE members of the IEEE Regional Activities and Technical Activities Boards and a dinner that coincided with International Women’s Day on 8 March.

STARTING UP  Forming a local affinity group or student branch is simple. Just six IEEE members or student members (they don’t have to be WIE members) can apply to establish an AG. These members sign a petition requesting permission to form a WIE group, which then goes to the region’s WIE executive committee for approval. Once the WIE group is formed, it must hold at least two activities a year, such as a social networking meeting or a lecture on a topic of interest to the group.

“The motivation for setting up a WIE affinity group has to come from an inspired individual who can find others who are similarly enthusiastic,” says Enn Vinnal, chair of the IEEE’s Victorian Section, who helped set up the WIE affinity group. Often it just takes an individual from the IEEE section or a university student branch that feels strongly that women should be equally represented in the engineering workforce, he says.

For more information on WIE, visit http://www.ieee.org/women.