For Women’s History Month
Meet Benjamin Stockwell. He’s my darling husband. I often get asked if Stockwell Homes is his company, or if we are co-owners. It’s not. He is an amazing software engineer and support system, but he is not in the business of home building.
To those local to the Twin Cities, there is another well-known fellow by the same last name that may be familiar to you. He is a very successful real estate agent, so you’ve probably seen his name on signs around town, or even worked with him. I often get asked if I’m his wife and if Stockwell Homes is his company.
I’m not. It’s not.
Now let me introduce you to the owner of Stockwell Homes. Hi, I’m Jen Stockwell.
As we enter into Women’s History Month, I’m taking a moment to introduce myself and share a little of my origin story with you. And throughout the month we will also shine a light on the many skilled, qualified, and tenacious women who have chosen careers in the trades and so many other male-dominated fields.
If it surprises you that a woman owns a remodeling company, I would ask you to question the instinct that tells you there should be a man behind the wheel. Our society is not comfortable with this; it catches us by surprise.
I’ve built a career of disrupting people’s expectations, often in an effort to lift the ceiling a little higher for women (and myself) by defying traditional male-female stereotyping. Some days this is energizing, but most days I long for the time it will be unnecessary.
My first high school job was at Ace Hardware. It’s where I learned to love the smells of sawdust, construction adhesive, drywall mud, and paint. I was surrounded by tools, fasteners, plumbing and electrical components, and regularly interfacing with tradespeople. I also learned color theory in practice- mixing paint and analyzing the formula of each color. Jobs in college included working as a security guard and as a sound technician at the campus club. It’s a place I leveraged my musical ability and amplified it through technology, sculpting sound - mixing music like paint colors.
After college, I was the only female on a B2B technology sales team. I endured harassment and disrespect from customers who would only accept technology recommendations from a man, and male associates who couldn’t relate to me in a professional manner because of my gender. (I’ll spare you the details…) I also endured (until I eventually quit because of) corporate leadership that abused their position to prop up and defend a male-dominated culture.
At the time I left, I had been working with a group of amazing women creating a magazine highlighting the voices, real stories, and talents of young women. It’s where I learned graphic design, leadership skills, and the editorial process - central threads that now drive our design process and marketing strategies.
During that time I also worked for a nonprofit packing and distributing meals for families in poverty. My favorite part of the job was staging pallets in the warehouse for truck loading with a forklift. I loved how it felt to do something so physical - it felt like play, problem-solving by organizing, logistics, and process engineering.
I went on to work in fundraising for several other nonprofits before I recognized my true calling as a builder. It was in my role as the development director for a national nonprofit that I learned high-level business finance, accounting, operations, and leadership-level collaboration — skills that I am grateful for every day now.
It’s certainly been an unconventional journey, but the truth is, there are many paths to starting a business of any kind, and a person’s gender doesn’t really have anything to do with it.
I didn’t start this business to bust down the walls of the patriarchy. Stockwell Homes felt like it grew out of nowhere, really. It was the overflow of creative energy that was pent up in my life when I worked in [my last] professional role that didn’t allow space for it to be expressed. At the time, I spent all my free time planning and designing projects on my house and for friends and family, because it scratched the same happy itch as playing Tetris with pallets of rice meals in the warehouse in my 20’s. Instead of loading a semi-truck, I was turning someplace unlovely or neglected into someplace loved, revived.
Friends and industry professionals who had seen my work encouraged me that there was a demand for the skills I took so for granted. With their urging (and a lot of uncertainty), I took the leap to quit my job and form Stockwell Homes.
I believe remodeling is fundamentally an act of optimism. It asks a person to see the potential of a space despite its current condition, and to trust in the power of a vision and process to carry it through - from the first inkling to the finished space without neglecting any detail.
Five years later, Stockwell Homes is now powered by four incredible women and an extensive team of suppliers, subcontractors, engineers, and tradespeople. Together, we share in the joy of true collaboration and skilled execution that results in a truly magical transformation.
Ben does occasionally get called upon for tech support for our team, but otherwise, he is quite possibly our biggest supporter. And while he does delight in the occasional home project (and is skilled far beyond the average homeowner to do things himself), he’s relieved to let most of the projects happen on someone else’s turf.
