By Amelia Lawrence | Head of Philanthropy and Partnerships
Many women looking for work face bias.They create opportunities where they can. But discrimination, stereotyping, and exclusion can leave them feeling discouraged and without confidence. Gender equality is an urgent issue, and your support for disadvantaged women is something we are grateful for every single day.
At Dress for Success, we believe that a woman’s disadvantage should not mean her unemployment. When we talk about disadvantaged women, we think of women like Anita*, who when we met her had been out of the workforce for 13 years, had gone through a relationship breakdown, and was struggling to find her feet in a job market that had changed dramatically in her absence.
Anita had once been a strong independent woman, working in an administrative role for a large company. However, when on maternity leave she was made redundant, and so it was decided that Anita would focus on raising the family and keeping a home.
Thirteen years later, Anita was ready to get back to work but... didn't know where to start. Over the course of her marriage, she had found herself increasingly shut out of decisions about the family’s finances. With her husband as the breadwinner, her bank accounts slowly dried up and ultimately were closed. She was given smaller and smaller “allowances” to pay for the family’s expenses, while her husband was vague about where the rest of their money was spent.
Anita could see that her family’s finances were changing for the worse, but her husband denied it. Anita and her husband began fighting about money. It was when he threatened Anita and their daughter that she knew she had to leave.
Anita left with her daughter, and soon discovered that there was no money for them to live on. They were drowning in debt, and the few things they owned would not cover their commitments.
Anita needed to find a job to support her new life as a single parent however, she had been out of the job market for so long, that she had no idea how to start. She was positive that, with a bit of support, she could turn her situation around. Her drive to show her daughter a better life was fierce. She simply needed a community like Dress for Success to support and guide her.
Anita was referred to our Styling Service, where our volunteer stylist gave her the confidence to see herself as she is – a woman willing to move the world to keep her daughter safe and housed.
Anita then learned about our Career Support Program, and took advantage of as many workshops as she could. Job hunting had changed so much while she had been a full-time carer, so workshops around core job hunting skills (like LinkedIn and resume writing skills) changed the way she approached her job search.
After taking advantage of Dress for Success’ resume review and interview one-on-ones, Anita was able to secure a new job - that she loves - that supports her and her daughter in their new home.
“I am so grateful to everyone at Dress for Success. Your service moved me to tears. I hadn’t counted myself as worthy of support.
My experience with Dress for Success has been life-changing.”
Thank you for being a part of this journey with us, to change the lives of even more women like Anita. We couldn't do it without you.
*Names and images have been changed to protect the identities of the women we support
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
