The Vancouver Women’s Network was established in October 1979 as part of the Women in Management and Career Development Programme at the UBC Centre for Continuing Education. It was founded by program director Eileen Hendry as an opportunity for women professionals, often isolated in their places of work, to plug into a support system to promote information and idea exchange, feedback, referrals, guidance, role models and mentors. At its monthly meetings, the Network held discussions and invited speakers on such issues as sexual harassment and discrimination, wrongful dismissal, affirmative action, and inequity of wages in the workplace. The organization was re-organized as a separate non-profit society in 1983 and re-named the Westcoast Women’s Network. The Network has evolved to become more focused on the issues particular to career-oriented women, but it retains its original purpose to promote “women helping women.”