This year’s theme for Women’s History Month is ‘celebrating women who tell stories.’ The National Women’s History Alliance encourages the recognition of women, both past and present, who have made major strides toward gender equity through media and storytelling. To honor the incredible, hardworking women in our industry, we want to share our five favorite Women’s History Month campaigns throughout the past couple of years.
Ugg #Poweredbyher:
Since 2020, Ugg has continued its #PoweredByHer campaign each year for Women’s History Month. The 2022 series featured actress and writer Tommy Dorfman, Indigenous TwoSpirit activist Sherenté Mishitashin Harris, “Dash & Lily” star Midori Francis, transgender activist Corey Rae and writer Raquel Willis. The campaign highlights each of the women’s stories of resilience, and the Ugg Fluff Yeah slides in the color “Purple Sky.”
As a part of last year’s campaign, $25 of every slide sold in that same color “Purple Sky” was donated to Planned Parenthood Southeast. Planned Parenthood is a nonprofit organization that provides reproductive health care and sex education. The Southeast chapter, which covers Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, is of special importance to Dorfman.
Mattel Barbie X Inspiring Girls International:
In 2018, a Barbie ad premiered featuring young women listing off statistics about women in the workforce…or, in many cases, the lack thereof. One ad, prefaced by a statistic that said only 21.4% of head chefs are women, asked, “Can you believe that most head chefs are men?” The message was that girls need more female role models, especially in industries where women are so underrepresented. Girls need to believe that they can do more than what society says by seeing that they can do more than what society says. We love that this campaign showcases young women and is centered around encouraging the next generation. Barbie established the “Barbie Dream Gap Project,” a multi-year global initiative that is created to raise awareness for limiting factors that prevent girls from reaching their full potential.
This campaign included a partnership with Inspiring Girls International, whose mission is to inspire girls worldwide by connecting them with female role models from every walk of life.
Under Armour’s #I’mPretty Campaign:
In 2017, Under Armour launched a Women’s History Month campaign, called “I’m Pretty.” The campaign was user-generated on social media, with individuals following the hashtag #impretty to showcase their personality traits and accomplishments rather than their looks. For example, “I’m pretty brave” or “I’m pretty smart.” The campaign celebrates the positive traits and uniqueness that each woman presents outside of her appearance. On Under Armour’s landing page, there was a graphic for women to share on social media so that each woman could have her own “I’m pretty” post. We love that this campaign encouraged individual women to share what makes them pretty special.
Vera Bradley X New Hope Girls:
From 2019 to 2022, Vera Bradley celebrated Women’s History Month by launching a limited edition handbag collection in collaboration with the nonprofit organization New Hope for Girls. A grand 75% of profits from the collection will go directly into the organization’s mission of providing refuge and restoration for young women and girls in the Dominican Republic.
New Hope for Girls has a large focus on creating jobs for vulnerable women and girls. The organization implemented the New Hope for Girls Workshop– a place for mothers to work and sew bags where the profits go directly into the New Hope for Girls Safe House. In its partnership with New Hope, Vera Bradley brought in all new sewing equipment and created a welcoming environment in the front room. Vera Bradley also continuously offers business mentoring to New Hope for Girls by assisting in training women with the proper sewing skills to improve their designs in the workshop.
Gymboree X Dress For Success:
In addition to the continued partnership with Many Moore, Gymboree, a women-led clothing company, has teamed up with Dress For Success, a global non-profit. Dress For Success empowers women to achieve economic independence through support, professional attire and development tools. In alignment with the organization’s mission, Gymboree will donate clothing and money to the cause as well as host a month-long clothing drive in which they will match all donations made by associates. This campaign is a perfect reminder of all of the amazing things we can accomplish when women come together.