International Women’s Day and What Balance For Better Means to Us

#BalanceforBetter

March 8 is International Women’s Day — a day to celebrate and honor all women. With this year’s theme being Balance For Better, Williams Sonoma is focusing on women as leaders, from the executives in our global supply chains to the chefs and restaurateurs we admire in the food world. #BalanceforBetter is about building a gender-balanced world, where everyone has a part to play. To that end, Williams Sonoma’s part in this year-long campaign is the belief that balance drives a better working world for all workers.

Williams Sonoma Highlighting Female Leaders

This year, Williams Sonoma is nearing its goal to empower and educate 100,000 workers in our supply chain by 2020 through BSR’s HERproject and other worker wellbeing initiatives. We’re also proud to be one of the few female-led Fortune 1000 companies at both the executive and board levels, not to mention throughout our family brands. Learn more about the campaign here.

On March 7, in New York, a panel of women leaders spoke on their vision for women’s leadership as part of the “This Is A Leader” campaign. Mandy Seidel, Vice President of Sourcing, represented Williams Sonoma at the event. In addition, there were supply chain leaders from The Estee Lauder Companies and UGG.

Women in Food

Last spring, we gathered a collective of six women in the food industry to talk about the kinds of leadership opportunities available to women. Julia Momose, owner of Kumiko, a new Japanese-inspired bar in Chicago, talked about the opportunities for women to start businesses of their own.

There’s a great opportunity now for more women-run businesses. More so than before, we’re being recognized for our work and being given the opportunities that we haven’t had in the past.”

Callie Speer, Chef and Owner of Holy Roller in Austin, Texas, talked about another opportunity that women have, which is supporting each other:

The biggest opportunity for women in the industry right now is having the ability to step up and be teachers and mentors to one another.”

Check out the full conversation here, and comment below about the women leaders who inspire you. #BalanceforBetter