Django Test Case Error 'WSGIRequest' object has no attribute 'session'

I'm trying to write some tests for my django app and it's throwing up an error:

File "/Users/croberts/.virtualenvs/litem/lib/python3.4/site-packages/django/contrib/auth/__init__.py", line 101, in login
    if SESSION_KEY in request.session:
AttributeError: 'WSGIRequest' object has no attribute 'session'

Here's my code that I am trying to run:

class SimpleTest(TestCase):
    def setUp(self):
        self.request_factory = RequestFactory()

    def test_signup(self):
        request = self.request_factory.post("/signup/", {
            "email": "email@email.com", 
            "password": "password", 
            "password-confirm": "password", 
            "firm": "big law firm"})
        response = signup_user(request)
        user = User.objects.get(email="email@email.com")
        self.assertEqual(user.username, "email@email.com")
        self.assertEqual(user.firm, "big law firm")
        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 302) #if it's successful it redirects.

Here's my middleware's:

MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = [
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.SessionAuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
]

and my installed apps:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    'patents',
]

Try using the test client instead of the request factory. This has the advantage of testing your URL config as well.

class SimpleTest(TestCase):
    def test_signup(self):
        response = self.client.post("/signup/", {
            "email": "email@email.com", 
            "password": "password", 
            "password-confirm": "password", 
            "firm": "big law firm"})
        user = User.objects.get(email="email@email.com")
        self.assertEqual(user.username, "email@email.com")
        self.assertEqual(user.firm, "big law firm")
        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 302) #if it's successful it redirects.