New women's group provides support and camaraderie

Women of the Flathead have been gathering in growing numbers as word spreads of a local group dedicated to the empowerment, encouragement and unity among women across the valley.

PowerHouse: Flathead meets once a month at different locations to discuss topics and issues they find relevant and informative.

A branch of PowerHouse Montana, the Flathead group was spearheaded by three local women who sought to change how women communicate with their community, with each other and with themselves.

The group’s founders, Kate Lufkin, Dorothy Meyer and Kim Morisaki of Montana West Economic Development, recognized through conversations with a number of women that many were facing the same challenges in their day-to-day lives regardless of their status or occupation.

The team recognized that though women make up half of the population, they receive disproportionate representation in government, business and other areas, and those who do achieve positions of leadership rarely get the opportunity to share the details of their stories with each other.

“The conversation came about by asking each other ‘What do you want?’ ‘What do you want to hear? What do you want to know?’” Meyer said.

They didn’t want somebody to paint a pretty picture of their lives or their success, she said, but rather to share the reality of what it took to get there.

Lufkin, Meyer and Morisaki met for coffee one day last fall to discuss what it would look like to establish a group that could have those conversations.

Meyer remembers Lufkin saying she wanted to know the “nitty gritty.”

With that simple goal in mind, the team reached out to their collective contacts with a simple invitation to meet and start a conversation.

In September, they set up shop in Brannigan’s for their first meeting, unsure of how many or if anyone would show up.

To their surprise, women poured into the restaurant, filling every available seat, and the half-hour meeting they had planned turned into a two and a half hour event.

The next month the group outgrew Brannigan’s.

“There’s definitely a need for it. People are interested in it,” Lufkin said. “If you’re a business owner or a stay at home mom or anywhere in between, the information is still as relevant to everybody.”

With no fluff, no prejudice, no fees and no real guidelines, Meyer said the group allows women of all occupations, ages, backgrounds and beliefs to gather in an environment of support and camaraderie.

“It’s hard to talk about struggles you’re going through, especially in a small community where everybody knows everybody,” Lufkin said.

However, the laid back atmosphere of the group provides a safe environment for even some of the most prominent women in the community to talk freely about the struggles they face in both their professional and personal lives.

February’s meeting, held at Mackenzie River Pizza, presented a panel of such prominent women together to address challenges they faced on their rise to success and the methods they use to overcome them.

The panel included Kalispell City Council member Kari Gabriel, former Kalispell Mayor Pam Carbonari, local attorney Kelly O’Brien, Spotted Bear Spirits owner Lauren Oscilowski, Sweet Peaks Ice Cream owner Marissa Keenan and Morisaki.

Panelists took turns addressing questions concerning topics like how to handle and discuss emotion in a professional setting as both an employee and a boss, how to handle confrontation without compromising your voice and how to overcome prejudice while maintaining confidence.

Attendees in the audience also had the chance to talk with panelists and offer examples and advice stemming from their own experiences.

“We’re definitely not a quiet group when we get together,” Lufkin said.

According to Meyer, however, topics of discussion have never included prejudices or anger against men as a whole.

“I know we’re a women’s group, [but] we’re not men haters by any means,” Meyer said.

“There is a place where that’s needed for women to be able to speak to each other about their own issues in order to carry it over with their conversations with men,” she added.

The rapid growth and popularity of the group has attracted the attention of the parent PowerHouse Montana organization. While groups in other areas average around 15 or 20 attendees, PowerHouse: Flathead has seen up to 50 attendees and is on track to keep growing.

Though the Flathead group rarely follows the guidelines and conversation topics set by the mother organization and lacks a consistent venue or funding of any kind, its founders said they see potential for the group to make a real impact in the valley.

“I think there’s such an important connection between women,” Meyer said. “I know it’s empowering. I know it is.”

The next PowerHouse: Flathead meeting will take place on Thursday, March 22, from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at Tailing Loop Winery in Kalispell.

In honor of Women’s History Month, discussions will follow a theme of “Herstory,” celebrating both local and national women of influence.

There is no fee to participate, and women are encouraged to feel free to come and go from the meeting as their schedules allow.

To sign up or for more information about PowerHouse: Flathead, visit https://www.facebook.com/powerhousemt/.

Reporter Mary Cloud Taylor can be reached at 758-4459 or mtaylor@dailyinterlake.com.