Empowering Beauty Boutique

Empowering Beauty Boutique was a project that Communities Together ran in 2017 to help women from Kirklees who felt disempowered and disenfranchised, and who suffered from financial abuse. It was a space and a place to gather together, support each other and sell crafts and clothes that they made to gain financial independence. The project also trained women in beauty techniques to help them set up small beauty businesses from home. 

The Empowering Beauty Boutique project was a small step in supporting local women from Kirklees to gain financial independence, through the creation of a community boutique and beauty room. This space was designed for women to gather together, make and sell items at prices that reflect their creativity, handywork and time. The items were sold online, on established market platforms, and the funds received were given to the creator of the item, so that they were able to gain some financial independence and ultimately a voice.
 
As an organisation that is firmly committed to achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls, Communities Together set up this project to demonstrate that 50% of the world’s population refuse to be shut out and that support can be given for the right to be equal. The Empowering Beauty Boutique provided a platform for all voices to be heard, and to challenge the deeply rooted social norms and household responsibilities cited by the International Development Research Centre, which can prevent women from certain cultural backgrounds from moving around independently, causing them to become more negatively affected by environmental degradation than men. Often these cultural and social norms transfer to the communities in the UK. At Communities Together, we see our role as ensuring that people stay aware and educated so that practices such as financial abuse become a thing of the past.