From a small group of international women in Amsterdam to the diverse, connected community we are today - our story has always been about women coming together to help each other thrive.
Forty years is a long time.
Workplaces have changed. Technology has transformed how we connect. International mobility has become part of everyday life. The way we think about leadership, diversity and gender balance has evolved.
And yet, one thing has remained remarkably consistent: the value of women having a community where they can connect, learn, share experiences and support one another.
This year, we celebrate 40 years of our community in the Netherlands.
It started with two dozen women
Our story began in Amsterdam in 1986, when the organisation was founded as the Women’s International Network (W.I.N.).
At the time, there were around two dozen members. Most were English-speaking, with roughly a third Dutch, a third American and a third from other English-speaking countries.
It was a small community, but the idea behind it was already powerful: create a space where internationally minded women could meet, build relationships and support each other professionally.
Forty years later, that basic need hasn't disappeared.
In fact, as our careers and lives have become more complex, perhaps it has become even more important.
A community that keeps moving
One of the most striking things about our history is just how much the community has changed.
In 2003, we had 94 members.
By 2009, that had grown to more than 300.
And in 2026, we currently have 97 members across our different membership types.
What we've always seen is that membership is remarkably mobile. Of those 300+ members in 2009, only 20 had also been members in 2003. And 15 years on, only 1 or 2 of those members are still involved in some form or another.
That tells us something important about the Netherlands - and particularly Amsterdam. For a long time, and still now, it's an attractive choice for people to come here from around the world to work, build businesses, study, start families and create new lives.
Our community has always reflected that international movement.
More than one career story
Our diversity wasn't only geographical.
A survey in 2009 showed that members worked across 38 different sectors, with financial services, education, management consulting, IT, marketing, healthcare and business management among the larger represented groups.
There was no such thing as an “average” member.
And that remains true today.
Our members have different careers, ambitions, backgrounds, industries, nationalities and life experiences. Some work for global corporations. Others run their own businesses. Some are building their careers, while others are changing direction, taking on leadership roles, becoming board members or creating entirely new chapters.
That diversity is one of our greatest strengths.
You never quite know who you are going to meet - or what perspective they might bring to a conversation.
From networking to something more
Our events have always been at the heart of the community.
From social gatherings, workshops, special interest groups, and larger events with guest speakers, our events calendar has always been full of opportunities for members (and often non-members) to connect online and in-person.
We've experimented with different formats, venues and locations. We've organised events beyond Amsterdam, including in The Hague and Utrecht. Members have even travelled together for international celebrations, including the recent PWN Global Summit in Lisbon.
The formats have changed over the years.
The purpose hasn't.
Bring interesting people together. Give them something worth talking about. Create space for connection.
That remains at the heart of what we do today.
A bigger movement
Our local story is also part of something much bigger.
Across Europe, women's networks began recognising the power of joining forces.
In 1996, a similar conversation was taking place elsewhere in Europe. While on maternity leave after having her third child, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox met with colleagues to talk about their experiences at work.
They identified a need for a safe place where women could draw strength and support from one another.
That conversation led to the start of Professional Women's Network Paris and later PWN Global, with Avivah as the founder.
Over time, more regional networks came together, and our Amsterdam community became part of this growing international movement.
What started as individual communities became a much broader collective voice which now sees 30 PWN City Networks in place around the world from Sao Paolo to Kuala Lumpur.
From supporting women to changing workplaces
The ambition of the wider network has also evolved.
Early on, much of the focus was on supporting women to navigate workplaces where they were often underrepresented or excluded from decision-making.
But support alone isn't enough.
The data was increasingly clear: diverse organisations perform better, yet that knowledge wasn't consistently translating into action.
So the mission evolved.
The question became not only “How can we support women in the workplace?”, but also:
“How can we change the workplace and remove the systemic barriers that stand in the way of balanced leadership?”
That shift matters.
It means creating opportunities for women to develop their careers and businesses, while also challenging the systems, behaviours and assumptions that can hold people back.
It means engaging allies.
It means talking about equality, pay, access to finance, leadership, entrepreneurship, bias and representation.
And it means turning conversations into action.
We do this through our programmes, partnerships, and other initiatives.
40 years later...
Today, our community looks very different from those two dozen women who first came together in Amsterdam.
As PWN Netherlands, we have grown, changed and adapted alongside the world around us.
We've navigated international expansion, changing workplaces, new technologies and a global pandemic that temporarily moved our community almost entirely online.
And then we came back together.
Because digital connection is valuable. But there is something special about sitting around a table, walking into a room where you know someone, meeting a new person over a drink, or discovering that the woman standing beside you has exactly the experience you needed to hear.
Today, our programmes and events continue to create those opportunities.
Through our core pillars of Emotional Intelligence, Financial Intelligence, and Tech & Data Intelligence, we create spaces to learn, grow and navigate an increasingly complex professional world.
Through mentoring, entrepreneurship, leadership, career development and networking, we help our members build both the skills and relationships they need for what comes next.
And through our international community, we continue to connect people across borders, industries and generations.
Celebrate 40 years. Spark the next 10.
Forty years gives us plenty to reflect on and celebrate.
But it also gives us a chance to look forward.
What will our community need in another five, ten or forty years?
What will work look like? What will leadership require? Which barriers will we have removed - and which new ones will we need to challenge?
We don't have all the answers.
But we know something about how to find them.
Together.
So this year, as we celebrate 40 years of PWN Netherlands, we're not only looking back at where we've come from.
We're celebrating the women who built this community, the volunteers who continue to make it happen, the members who bring it to life, and the relationships that have made it what it is.
And we're looking forward to everything still to come.
40 years of connection.
40 years of learning.
40 years of women supporting women.
And a future still waiting to be written.
Save the Date - we'll be celebrating this milestone together on 18 November 2026 at our 40th Anniversary event. More info coming soon...
