#ChangeAGirlsLife for International Women’s Day!

To mark International Women's Day, Furniturebox will be donating 1% from every order to the Prince’s Trust #ChangeAGirlsLife campaign!

International Women’s Day falls on the 8^th March. It's a day to celebrate and uplift women everywhere and challenge stereotypes. The #ChangeAGirlsLife campaign will harness the power of International Women’s Day to help young women who are struggling. We're long-time supporters of The Prince’s Trust, and have agreed to donate 1% from every single website sale between 7^th – 13^th March. We're the South-West's fastest-growing online firm so that's going to add up!

Why International Women's Day Matters

International Women’s Day is a day of global celebration and gender equality. The official IWD website states that "International Women’s Day is all about unity, celebration, reflection, advocacy and action – whatever that looks like globally at a local level. But one thing is for sure, International Women’s Day has been occurring for well over a century – and continues to grow from strength to strength."

So much has been achieved for gender equality but there's still a long way to go! And we are here - for - it, ladies!

Within the workplace, higher sales and profits are seen in gender-diverse workplaces. Employees of all genders also report greater job satisfaction for all employees. It benefits everyone to have women and girls better supported to find jobs, especially jobs that value them. Because of this, Furniturebox has a culture of support, flexibility and encouragement in all areas. It's something that the women who work here are keenly aware isn’t always the case elsewhere.  

“The Prince’s Trust do great work, and we’ve supported them before,” says Dan Beckles, one of our founders. “We’re lucky to have some amazing women working for us across all departments at Furniturebox but we know that not every girl has the same access to opportunities. Supporting women and ensuring every girl has the best possible chance to overcome challenges is hugely important to us.” 

Why the #ChangeAGirlsLife Campaign Matters

Furniturebox is regular donators to The Prince’s Trust because they try to offer opportunities to young people. Our founders Monty and Dan were 17 when they started their own company, so understand the need to support young people. People, especially women, from more disadvantaged backgrounds can find it really hard to get support and improve their skills.

Furniturebox is just one of more than 60 brilliant and much-loved brands that the Prince’s Trust has united. We're all committed to #ChangeAGirlsLife this International Women’s Day. Their aim is to help thousands of young women facing disadvantage and adversity to build a better future for themselves. 

The 1% of sales donated between 7th and 13th March will go towards offering courses to build confidence and skills for women in need. This will help them find a path to employment that can help lead to more stable lives.

Charlotte Wilkins, one of the spokespeople for the campaign that has directly benefitted from the Trust’s help, says: “I applied for The Prince’s Trust and Generation Amazon Web Services (AWS) Re/start Course because I didn’t know what skills were required for a tech job. The course covered such a wide range of skills and covered lots like multiple programming languages – often courses just cover one. I got a laptop from The Prince’s Trust to learn from too. We also did a lot of employability sessions [...] confidence, practice interviews and how to set up a LinkedIn account. Those were just as valuable as the tech skills. I am pleased to now have started my future career in tech and hope to continue to learn and gain more certifications in the future.”

The Women At Furniturebox

Furniturebox currently employs 44 staff, with 18 (41%) women holding positions at all levels across the business. Within that, there are 3 (21%) women in the 14-strong warehouse team. That's much higher than the national average of 13% for these sort of jobs! Across the rest of the business, the other 30 members of staff comprise 50% women. This is also above the national average for office work across all levels. We value and support our female employees at all levels of the company. Giving back to a charity dedicated to doing the same is close to our hearts.

Here are some of the stories from our fabulous team of ladies here. These show what an impact having supportive and flexible jobs can have!