In 2023, International Women’s Day is on Wednesday 8 March. You can make a positive impact by supporting Dress for Success’ Empower Hour. Support their mission to transition more than 700 women from welfare to the workforce. Donate one hour of your pay to empower a woman to change her future.
Dress for Success’ Empower Hour is a high impact ‘pay it forward’ campaign, and simple for you to support.
Simply donate an hour of your pay to help a woman overcome the distress of unemployment and financial difficulty, supporting her journey to economic independence for herself and her family.
This International Women’s Day, 8 March, Dress for Success is on a mission to raise $250,000 to transition more than 700 women to face their job search with the confidence, clothing, and tools to get hired.
How can you calculate your ‘hour’ donation?
Simply take your annual salary and divide by 2,000. For example, a $80,000 salary is $40/hour.
YES! I WANT TO DONATE ONE HOUR’S PAY
The impact of your Empower Hour donation
- $1000 Transform a woman’s future with six months of one-on-one career coaching, resume drafting support, interview preparation, access to digital career support workshops and webinars, connections to prospective employers and her new interview outfit. Plus, a full week’s wardrobe when she gets the job.
- $350 Provides the support a woman needs to move from welfare to the workforce – professional clothing and access to digital workshops, resume and mock interview support.
- $200 Provides a woman a styling session with a fashion stylist and clothing and accessories for that all-important interview.
- $150 Provides access to three professional development workshops, facilitated by experts in their field.
- $50 Provides a woman resume drafting and mock interview support to help her secure and nail that interview.
- $25 Provides a woman one-on-one resume drafting support with an HR / Recruitment Specialist.
YES! I WANT TO DONATE ONE HOUR’S PAY
What’s International Women’s Day all about?
International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.
What does Dress for Success do in Australia?
Powered by volunteers, every year Dress for Success Australian Affiliates support more than 5,000 women into employment across the country.
Collective annual impact
- 2,070 styling sessions
- 3,140 workshop attendees
- 989 outreach parcels delivered
- 26,013 clothing items gifted
- 436 career support workshops
- 26,501 volunteer hours
Find out more about Dress for Success here.
Why is Empower Hour is so important?
Dress for Success services are more important than ever.
Dress for Success’s COVID client impact survey showed that during the height of the pandemic:
- 66% were not receiving an income
- 72% were facing financial difficulties due to income/job loss
- 51% were finding it difficult to afford groceries
- 29% were at risk of losing their housing due to income/job loss
The gender gap
The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on the gender gap in Australia. Women have been disproportionately impacted, magnifying the barriers they already face in getting a job and staying in the workforce.
- Women make up 47% of the workforce but are more likely to be in casual and insecure work, more likely to be employed part-time, and typically earn less per hour
- Women are more likely to be employed in the industries hit the hardest and with the longest road to recovery; hospitality, arts & recreation, higher education, and tourism
- Remote learning, the loss of childcare and household support services led to a big rise in unpaid work during the lockdowns, disproportionally borne by women.
- Time out of the workforce is magnified for women, especially mothers. Six months out of work can add another $100,000 to the $2 million average lifetime earnings gap between men and women. Women in Australia retire with an average 35% less retirement savings than men.
The ongoing issue of equality
In 2023, whilst there is dialogue and movement, we are still far from achieving equality, whether in terms of age, disability, ethnicity, race, gender identity, sexuality, and socioeconomic status. For women, it’s the intersection of these factors with gender bias that intensifies the experience of discrimination. At Dress for Success, achieving this equality for women isn’t just a talking point, it’s a movement.
YES! I WANT TO DONATE ONE HOUR’S PAY
