Women Empowering Women (WEW) was founded in 2013 by Laura Mattson and Michell Stockmann. Both experienced businesswomen that had been part of many networking groups but saw a gap of women who were unable to attend events due to financial constraints or time requirements.
They created a vision to develop a cohesive networking group where members would know each other well enough to provide authentic and knowledgeable referrals and leads. But also be a safe place where women could discuss their struggles and successes with other professional business women and learn or be mentored from women of all ages and stages in their careers.
The goal was to create a forum for working women to exchange information and support one another’s businesses. But they didn’t want to exclude those knowledgeable women who were recently retired or those women fresh out of college or ready to begin their professional career.
“A woman is the full circle. Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform.” — Diane Mariechild
Their initial plan for Women Empowering Women was to create a unique platform from other networking groups and release many of the restrictions that kept many women from attending meetings or events. Some of those ideas included not having yearly or monthly membership dues.
Having a diverse membership was also their intention and they found that meetings could accommodate members within the same industry and many of the women embraced this format. Many meeting attendees have found ways to work together and grow because of this freedom. The main focus of Women Empowering Women is collaboration NOT competition!
Click on the photo to learn more about our founders
Michell Stockmann
