The Tucson branch of AAUW celebrated it’s 100th birthday in 2009. The original Tucson Collegiate Club established in 1909 in the historic Ferrin residence now a part of the downtown Tucson Art Museum Historic Block. The Collegiate Club was organized by a small group of women college graduates.  One of them was Clara Fish Roberts, the first person to register at the new University of Arizona in September 1891 and the first woman to be elected to the Tucson School Board in 1917.

During the first week in March in 1912, only weeks after Arizona was admitted to the Union, a news item appeared in the Phoenix Paper, “All College women are invited to a meeting at the home of Mrs. A. W. Morrill. ” A week later 25 to 30 women came together to organize and elect officers for the College Club of Phoenix. These women are considered the founders of AAUW Phoenix Branch.

In April of 1946 through the efforts of the Phoenix Branch, the State Division of Arizona AAUW was born. Winona Montgomery from Phoenix Branch was the first state president. Today there are fourteen active AAUW branches throughout the state from Flagstaff to Green Valley.

The AAUW corporation is comprised of two collaborative efforts:
The primary membership organization (a section 501(c)(3) public charity) and
the AAUW Action Fund (a smaller section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization that may engage in limited activities related to member activism and voter education).