As a female-founded company, TO THE MARKET is so thrilled to celebrate Women's History Month! While we’ve spent a lot of time this month reflecting on great women from the past, we’re also looking forward as we work toward a future where every woman has the safety, equality, and dignity she deserves.

There Is More Work To Be Done
While we have made great strides toward gender equality in recent history, we still live in a world in which women do not have equal access to opportunity globally. Almost 60% of women work in the informal economy, which puts them at higher risk of poverty and creates financial insecurity. Only 13% of the world’s agricultural land is owned by women. Worldwide, only 39% of girls in rural communities and 59% of girls in urban communities go to secondary school.

Women Are Central To What We Do
TO THE MARKET aims to lift up women through our work and our impact. Among our suppliers, around 45% are women owned and/or operated, and in 2021, we added 20 additional women owned and/or operated makers to our network. It’s important to us that every part of the TTM value chain impacts women’s lives for the better. In the garment industry, the majority of workers, makers, and consumers are women - yet the majority of factory owners and decision-makers are men. We want to ensure female garment workers who keep the industry moving have better access to fair pay, safe working conditions, and opportunities to call their own shots.

One way we focus on this is by aiming to support the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of Gender Equality. This means working with suppliers whose values and processes align with this goal, and by connecting female makers in overlooked communities with large-scale opportunities.

Striving For Global Equality
Economic independence and opportunity is a key factor in building better and safer lives for women on a global scale. We’re not alone in our goal of a more equal world: in a Pew Research Center survey of 34 countries, a median of 94% of participants responded that they believe it's important for their women to have the same rights as men.

We believe that all women deserve the opportunity for education, financial independence, and safe, dignified work. And we will keep working every day to get closer to that goal.

Happy Women’s History Month, from TTM to you!