Supporting women to create solutions for themselves is the key to happier, safer and more fulfilling lives.

As a business that sources products globally, the John Lewis Partnership has a fundamental impact on the happiness and wellbeing of the women who work in our supply chains. The cultural and societal challenges workers face in different countries vary, but it is a common theme that wherever they work, women are disproportionately affected.

That’s why, in 2021, we released our first Women in John Lewis Partnership supply chains 2021 report, which identified the areas most in need of change and the best strategies to give women the information, skills and confidence to create that change for themselves. Our Women in and around John Lewis Partnership Supply Chains 2022 report provides an update on the experience of women working in global supply chains, including how existing challenges have been exacerbated by Covid-19.?

We work directly with our suppliers, local charities and communities to implement the projects funded by The Waitrose & Partners Foundation and John Lewis Foundation . The women we’ve worked with so far have been able to increase their financial independence, find strategies for managing their mental health, improve their employment prospects and create the work-family-life balance they want. They have developed the confidence and skills to negotiate pay raises, successfully campaign for women-only spaces at work and develop business plans to support new income streams.

Women like Sadhana. A garment factory worker in Chennai, India who enrolled in a workshop designed to empower women to negotiate better working conditions and pay.? Through our workshops with ActionAid Sadhana was able to negotiate safer working conditions for her and all the other women in her factory working overnight.?

Or the 66 women in Vietnam who were required to live at their place of work, separating them from their families, because of the government's Covid-19 policy. Working with The Centre for Child Rights & Business, we supported these parents with training to help them to adapt to the situation. One mother who took part in our workshops said the Covid-19 situation had put financial pressure on her, causing significant stress. After the training she’d been able to apply stress relief methods such as playing with her son and had also learned how to explain the situation regarding Covid-19 so he could better understand the risks.?

And while the situation in Vietnam has been created by the pandemic, other existing issues, like the unequal reliance on women for unpaid care have been made worse by COVID-19.

If affordable childcare is not available, many women are forced to make the difficult choice between keeping their job and taking care of their children. By providing women with access to free childcare, we are offering them freedom of choice and access to greater financial independence. As one farm worker told us: “Now you can enjoy your work, because you know that your child is safe at the (ECD) centre. You know that there is a professionally skilled teacher, who can assist your child with homework, after school… Years ago, the children would be in the orchard with the parents, while we were working. Children had to leave school at an early age as there was no one to take care of them”.

“The programme allowed me to get to know different people... We all were able to play with our imagination, work on our self confidence, believe in ourselves and our ideas. All of this empowered us to overcome our fears and successfully finish our business plan.” - Mileidy, Programme Participant, 2020.

We can feel some pride in these successes because they are catalysts for longer-term change. But, we know we’re only at the start of what we can achieve and that together we can do more. Providing opportunities for women to find the right solutions for themselves, and helping them access the tools they need to affect those solutions is the key to a safer, more equal and happier future for women. I look forward to continuing this positive work and seeing what the next year of working with inspiring women around the world brings.?

By Marija Rompani, Partner & Director of Sustainability & Ethics at the John Lewis Partnership.