IWF British Columbia
The International Women’s Forum (IWF) was founded in the U.S. in 1982 by two prominent leaders – Elinor Guggenheimer, a well-known civil leader and philanthropist and Eleanor Norton, a member of the US House of Representatives. These two women had a vision of creating a networking vehicle that would provide support, professional opportunities and camaraderie for female leaders.
IWF has grown to include more than 7,000 of the world’s top women leaders.
IWF Vancouver was created in 1998 and became an independent forum in 2007, expanding to Victoria in 2009 to become IWF BC. Today IWF across Canada has a membership of over 600 women leaders representing the highest levels of the public service, the arts, social justice, business, technology, professional services, entrepreneurship and academia. In 2020, the move to more virtual communications enabled the Canadian forums to offer even more peer-to-peer support, and visiting members are always encouraged to contact the local forum and continue the Pan Canadian networking which only makes us stronger.