Women finding inspiration through She&Her: Sudbury group empowering women through mentorship.

• Date: 01 February 2019
• Author: Kelly, Lindsay

A new Sudbury organization is aiming to equip women with the tools and resources to guide them into leadership roles in the community.

Founded in fall, 2017, She&Her is the brainchild of Hailey Short, Kate Lafantaisie and Samantha Davidson, who were struck by numbers that tell a story of disproportionate leadership by women in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

According to the organization, only five per cent of tech companies are founded by women, while just eight per cent of tech companies have women sitting on their boards of directors. Seventy-three per cent of boards have no female representation at all.

The three Sudbury women, all early in their careers and with aspirations to become leaders of their own one day, wanted to do something locally to change that.

"Our goal to begin with was to create an environment of likeminded women and men, and create a community, and identify the right resources to be able to succeed professionally, become a leader within your industry, regardless of whatever industry you're in," Short said.

"So our focus was on leadership and giving women...