The History of Woman to Woman San Diego

The story of Woman to Woman San Diego began in 1973, when Pam W. and a group of women in recovery began planning a conference created by women, for women. Their work led to the first Woman to Woman San Diego Conference in 1974, beginning a tradition that has brought generations of women together for recovery, fellowship, growth, and service.

The world of recovery looked very different in those early years. Smoking in meetings was common, meeting leaders were called “hostesses,” and a salad buffet could be dinner. Yet many of the subjects women gathered to discuss sound remarkably familiar today. By 1976, topics included Living Single and Sober, Surrender and Spiritual Growth, Sex and Emotional Dependencies, dealing with ego and pride, and feelings of inadequacy.

These early records offer a glimpse into a different time while also showing that many of the experiences that brought women together then are the same ones that bring women together today.

As the years passed, Woman to Woman evolved along with the women attending it. The conference reflected changing times while maintaining the sense of recovery, fellowship, and connection at its center.

For years, Woman to Woman offered both smoking and nonsmoking meetings. As times changed, nonsmoking meetings gradually became more common until, in 1993, all Woman to Woman meetings became nonsmoking.

Technology changed the conference as well. Speaker tapes that had been part of the early conferences eventually gave way to a website, online registration, and digital programs. Woman to Woman established a website in 2000, and by 2015 the conference offered its first digital program.

In 2020, the digital age of online meetings took on an entirely new importance. When the traditional in-person conference could not take place, a makeshift, temporary Woman to Woman Conference was held online. Woman to Woman returned to an in-person conference in 2021.

Some traditions lasted, some changed, and others disappeared. Each generation of women added something of its own while carrying forward what had been entrusted to them.

The influence of Woman to Woman did not stay in San Diego. Over the years, the idea of women gathering together for recovery, fellowship, and shared experience inspired independent Woman to Woman conferences and gatherings in other parts of the United States.

Some of these conferences trace their beginnings to women who experienced Woman to Woman in California and carried the idea back to their own communities. Tennessee Woman to Woman, for example, credits its beginning in 2007 to three women who attended a Woman to Woman event in California and returned home inspired to establish the organization in Tennessee. Other independent Woman to Woman gatherings developed in Northern California, the Southeast, Texas, and elsewhere.

While these conferences developed independently and are not chapters of Woman to Woman San Diego, their histories reflect the reach of the same idea: creating a dedicated place where women in recovery could come together, share their experiences, and support one another.

The legacy of Woman to Woman San Diego can therefore be seen not only in the conference that has endured here for more than five decades, but also in the inspiration carried by women into recovery communities across the country.

In 2024, Woman to Woman San Diego celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first conference.

Across those five decades, much has changed. The way women communicate has changed. The way conferences are planned has changed. Technology, meeting formats, and traditions have changed. Generations of women have come through Woman to Woman, each becoming part of its history.

But the heart of Woman to Woman has stayed remarkably consistent.

Its history belongs to the women who have attended, volunteered, shared their stories, welcomed newcomers, served on committees, formed friendships, laughed together, supported one another, and returned year after year to help make the conference possible.

Each generation has inherited something created by the women who came before them and, through service, passed it along to the women who followed.

More than fifty years after that first conference in 1974, Woman to Woman San Diego is still doing what those first women set out to do: creating a place for women to come together in recovery.

And the story is still being written.