What Membership Categories and Benefits Does AWS Offer?

The Association of Women Surgeons (AWS) offers membership across several career stages, from medical school through retirement, and describes its programs around three themes: engage, empower, and excel. The site lists membership categories, member benefits, institutional members, and gift membership, but it does not publish dues or a fee schedule in the available page evidence, so cost cannot be confirmed from this source. If price matters to your decision, treat it as unknown and verify directly with AWS before joining.

Membership categories

Based on the site's navigation and program structure, AWS organizes membership and participation around these groups:

• General membership — the main "Join" and "Membership Categories" paths, open to surgeons and others who support the mission. AWS states it has roughly 3,700 members of all genders.
• Medical students — a dedicated section with resources such as a journal club and the AWS Surgical Mentorship Program.
• Residents and fellows — a separate section with a Clinical Practice Coaching Program and other trainee-oriented resources.
• Institutional members — a category for organizations rather than individuals.
• Gift membership — a way to give a membership to someone else.
• Medical schools — a listed category, suggesting schools can participate or partner.

AWS was founded in 1981, is a not-for-profit educational and professional organization, and reports members in more than 40 countries, so membership is not limited to U.S. surgeons.

Member benefits

The site's benefit structure maps to its stated mission — to inspire, encourage, and enable women surgeons to realize their professional and personal goals. Documented benefits and resources include:

For students and trainees specifically, the value concentrates in mentorship, the journal club, coaching, and awards. For practicing surgeons, the heavier benefits are networking events, the speaker directory, toolkits, and leadership or visiting professorship opportunities.

How to join

The site provides a "Join Now" and "Join" path plus a member login for existing members. The available evidence does not describe the application steps, eligibility rules, or payment process, so the practical sequence is:

1. Go to the AWS site and open the Join or Membership Categories page.
2. Identify the category that matches your stage — student, resident/fellow, surgeon, or institution.
3. Review the benefits listed for that category.
4. Complete the join process through the site's member login/join system.

Expected result: access to member programs and the member area. Common sticking point: because dues and eligibility details aren't shown in the source material, confirm both with AWS before assuming a category fits.

Is membership worth it for career development?

AWS is explicit that it supports women surgeons "from medical school through retirement" and that its programs exist to help members engage, empower themselves, and excel through mentorship, education, and a networking community. That makes membership most useful if you want structured mentorship, a professional network, and visibility through awards, speaking, or leadership roles. It is less clearly defined as a benefit if you are only looking for a single resource, since several items (webinars, toolkits, publications) are listed as member resources without public detail on access limits.

If your goal is networking and mentorship at a specific career stage, check whether the student, resident/fellow, or general category matches your situation and what that category includes before joining.