The Program for Women in Science and Engineering at Iowa State University operates under the Office of the Provost, and was founded in 1987. Based on an earlier Iowa State Committee, the Program focuses on recruiting and retaining girls and women in the fields of science and engineering.

The goals of the Program are to encourage female students to pursue careers in science and engineering; informing parents and educators about supportive behavior; and offering support and guidance to young women in these fields. The Program offers a wide variety of activities, including internships, career conferences and role models for pre-college students, workshops for educators, and internships and scholarships for college women.

This collection contains newspaper clippings, brochures, correspondence, grant applications and proposals, minutes, career conference files, speeches, programs, press releases, intern reports, biographies, photographs, negatives, color slides, contact sheets, color transparencies, and audiotapes.

This collection of records provides an excellent overview of the work of the Program for Women in Science and Engineering. The Printed Materials series includes newspaper clippings, newsletters, and brochures pertaining to the work of the Program. The Administrative files and Director's files series contains correspondence, applications for the Carver Trust scholarships, grant proposals and applications, minutes of the Executive Committee and Advisory Board, and a statement of purpose.

The Conference files series is the largest and documents the Conferences sponsored by the Program. The Outreach and Education series contains the records of the intern program and the Visual Materials series contains a large number of images that document the Career Conferences, role model visits, workshops, interns, and publicity. The series Audiotapes, has recorded meetings, speeches, and presentations

This collection is arranged into 12 series:

• RS 3/10/0/0, News Clippings
• RS 3/10/0/1, Annual Reports
• RS 3/10/0/2, Newsletters
• RS 3/10/0/4, Printed Materials
• RS 3/10/3, Administrative Files
• RS 3/10/4, Conference Files
• RS 3/10/5, Outreach and Education Records
• RS 3/10/6, Visual Materials
• RS 3/10/7, Audio Tapes
• RS 3/10/8, Director's Records
• RS 3/10/9, Reference Files
• RS 3/10/10, International Women in Science and Engineering Records