Image- The Beautiful Bunch

There will be many headlines this International Women’s Day about how organisations are empowering their female workforce.

We believe businesses can go a step further by embedding social enterprises into their supply chain.

Social procurement is one of the best levers for businesses to empower women – simply by switching everyday business spending to certified social enterprises that support women.

Social Traders business members have spent $9.4 million in FY24 with certified social enterprises supporting marginalised women compared to only $778,000 in FY23. That’s twelve times more in spend! The $9.4 million has supported 52,000 hours of employment, 788 hours of employment training for marginalised women, as well as $135k of services/funds donated to supporting marginalised women.

Social enterprise may be the best kept secret in the world of business today. They are businesses like any other, but purpose is at the heart of what they do. Instead of maximising dividends for shareholders – they invest into their purpose, so that community benefit outweighs private benefit.

There are over 12,000 social enterprises in Australia, contributing $21 billion to the economy every year. There are social enterprise suppliers across all categories of spend from cleaning services, waste management, IT services or even the daily office fruit box.

Globally, according to the World Economic Forum, one in two social enterprises are led by women and align their missions with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Social enterprises create social or environmental impact in various ways, including training and employment opportunities for people who would otherwise be locked out of the workforce such as women fleeing domestic violence, migrant women and refugee women to name a few.

Social procurement is an opportunity for businesses to build social and environmental outcomes into everyday purchasing. By switching to social enterprise suppliers, a business gets quality goods and services as well as community impact in the same transaction. It’s a way to deliver sustainable business practices and social performance the “S” in ESG without additional investment.

The number of businesses joining Social Traders is growing year on year. Some of our members have been with us since we started our work in social procurement seven years ago. Our members range from large ASX listed companies to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). And we’re seeing an increasing number of members joining to deliver on their values and ESG goals through social enterprises.

Championing inclusive workforces

Over the past four years Cafe Stepping Stone has employed and trained more than 60 women. Vanessa Brettell and Hannah Costello started this certified social enterprise to help migrant and refugee women find meaningful employment.

"We employ and train CALD (culturally and linguistically diverse) women from migrant and refugee backgrounds for whom the workplace participation rate is less than 50 per cent as they face multiple barriers to employment," Ms Brettell said.

"After working with us, they've increased financial security, but also confidence, skills, the ability to speak English and make connections out of the home. They now have autonomy over their path forward," Ms Costello said. Ms Brettell and Ms Costello were jointly named Australia's Local Heroes for 2025 at the Australian of the Year Awards in Canberra. Learn more about their story.

Beautiful flowers to build a beautiful life

The Beautiful Bunch is a certified social enterprise that employs women from migrant and refugee backgrounds to create beautiful floral arrangements to support these women to fulfil their dreams. The women they work with face significant challenges to securing a job in Australia. The Beautiful Bunch support these women to build the confidence, skills, and social networks needed to find meaningful employment. Six new trainees are taken on every six months. They're guaranteed paid work until they find another job.

Founder Jane Marx says about 70% of the trainees weren't born in Australia and all face hurdles to finding their first job. Her goal is to build a warm, welcoming workplace where they could feel safe, be able to make mistakes and be supported. Working with flowers is a beautiful way to find the confidence to work and can lead to other skills and opportunities. "Meaningful work empowers women," she says. "It's crucial for building financial independence and autonomy." Watch what they do

Bridging the gap in construction

Sheforce is the first female-led recruitment and labour hire social enterprise that is focused on recruiting women and minorities (CALD, disadvantaged youth) to the construction industry. Sally Caruana, Founder of Sheforce envisage a world with equal, inclusive workplaces where everyone is valued and supported.

Sheforce is forging a pathway for women, diversity and inclusion within the construction sector. They are now a certified group training organisation, which will see them supporting the next generation of trainees and apprentices into large construction projects to build a sustainable career in this industry. Read more about their work.

​These are just some of the many certified social enterprises supporting marginalised women and championing diversity, equity and inclusion in Australia’s workforce. To get a broader view, visit the Social Enterprise Finder, our national directory of certified social enterprises with over 200,000 views a year.

March forward together

Three decades ago, the world committed to a bold vision for gender equality through the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Yet, despite significant progress made by women breaking barriers and igniting global movements, the promises made remain largely unfulfilled for millions of women worldwide. There is still much work to be done.

Businesses can step up to do more, and we can’t afford to step back. Social procurement is a lever to create positive impact at scale through supply chains. Simply by changing from traditional for-profit suppliers to purpose-led social enterprises.

We’re already seeing a growing trend of businesses embedding social procurement in their operations to deliver on their social performance. It’s only a matter of time before social procurement becomes business as usual.

So, the next time someone asks what your business did this International Women’s Day, you could talk about the women you empowered just by buying your goods and services from a social enterprise. It really is that simple.