March 8th marks the 48th International Women’s Day — a day to celebrate the achievements of some of the inspirational women who are forging ahead and changing the game for all of us. A few weeks ago, we compiled an overview of some of the events being hosted around Perth this International Women’s Day.
In the last couple of years, we’ve partnered with a charity — Dress For Success Perth — to help them raise funds for their International Women’s Day campaign. They’re a local, grassroots organisation that’s on a mission to empower women to obtain economic independence.
We recently caught up with Lauren Evans from Dress For Success Perth to talk about this year’s International Women’s Day, their Empower Hour campaign, and some of the other programmes they run to help close the gap.
“It’s all about paying it forward. So this year, our mission is to empower an additional 700 women across Australia and support them with the professional clothing, career tools, and confidence they need to reach employment and financial independence.” Evans told So Perth.
Empower Hour
Every year for International Women’s Day, the Dress For Success charities across Australia run a campaign called Empower Hour to raise funds to continue the organisation’s work nationally to reduce inequality.
Things to do in Perth
So, what is Empower Hour, and why is it important?
Dress For Success is a global movement for change with a mission to empower women to obtain economic independence and empowerment. The organisation takes a ‘think global, act local’ approach and philosophy. So Perth was first introduced to Dress For Success Perth almost two years ago, and we supported its Empower Hour campaign last year after hearing first-hand the impact they have on our community and being inspired by all they do.
Empower Hour is a fundraising campaign that asks the community to donate just one hour of their pay to the organisation. This year’s goal is to raise enough to impact 700 women across Australia. In order to achieve this, Dress For Success wants to raise $250,000. That sounds like a lot, but when you break it down, it really isn’t that much. It works out to roughly 6,000 people making a donation across Australia.
We’re pretty sure, with your help, we can achieve that just here in Perth.
Last week, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) released its most recent report on the gender pay gap. This report highlighted a national pay gap of 13.3% and 22.1% in WA. This is down from the previous year but still the widest gap in Australia. Before we get into the discourse of “the gender pay gap doesn’t account for XYZ” — we acknowledge everyone’s thoughts and opinions, but that’s a deeper conversation for another day. Any way you look at it, the gap highlights that there is potentially a lot of work still to be done to reach the equal and equitable society we should be striving towards.
Organisations like Dress For Success are working towards reducing the size and impact of this gap.
Evans said, “we feel that we’re needed more than ever at the moment… we’re still in a global ‘she-cession’. Women have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic — women were generally in the frontline roles that were the worst affected in terms of hospitality and tourism. Women were most likely to take on the childcare responsibilities in lockdown. So women really are feeling the pinch after COVID-19. And that term, ‘she-cession’, I think just demonstrates the inequality there.”
Donate one hour of your salary here and help make a difference.
How Does Dress For Success Help?
While Empower Hour helps to provide funding so that Dress For Success can continue to provide its services across the country, it also runs a number of free programmes, individual advice sessions, and workshops every month, fuelled by skilled volunteers who are passionate and aligned with the organisation’s vision.
Some of the free career workshops running in March are:
How To Network For Success – Networking Skills For Everyone
Networking is one of the most important skills we can learn. The old saying “it’s not what you know, but who you know” will always be a universal truth. Sometimes, your network can be the difference between having a career opportunity and never being in contention.
Learn the benefits of building your network along with tips and tricks for being ‘network savvy’ to have the best chance for success. This free, online event will be held on Thursday, March 2nd, facilitated by Rhiannon Compton from the recruitment and HR advisory firm Globe 24-7.
How To Write Winning Applications
Writing a job application can be quite daunting, especially if it’s been a while since you’ve been in the job market. Join Mandy Murray on Thursday, March 9th, as she guides you through the steps to writing a winning job application.
Achieve More – Implementing Mindfulness Skills
On Thursday, March 16th, Vida Carlino from Inspiration Source will guide you through a mindfulness workshop, arming you with techniques to calm the mind, and reduce stress and anxiety.
Resume Revival
One of the first steps to getting back into the workforce, finding your ‘dream job’, or just moving towards economic independence is crafting your resume so that it gets you noticed. This workshop on Thursday, 23rd March, facilitated by the Right Management recruitment team, will teach you how to put your resume together and highlight your best skills and attributes.
The free workshops hosted by Dress For Success can be found and booked here.
