Supporting Women Through Your Supply Chain Starts With Procurement
Supporting women has become a common message. You see it in March, in social captions, and in curated collections tied to International Women’s Day. But when you look closer, many efforts stop at visibility. They celebrate women without changing the systems, decisions, and purchasing practices that actually shape women’s economic outcomes. If you want Women’s History Month to mean something beyond awareness, the most practical place to start is procurement. UN Women describes gender-responsive procurement as selecting services, goods, and works in a way that considers impact on gender equality, going beyond cost management. That simple shift, spending intentionally and verifying what you claim, is where support becomes tangible.
Women’s History Month is a spotlight, your procurement process is the system
Campaigns are stories. Procurement is structure. If you want real impact, you need both. A Women’s History Month message can set intent, but the behind-the-scenes mechanics are what make it credible: who gets invited to quote, how your vendor list is built, how contracts are awarded, how you track supplier diversity, and how you talk about results after March. UN Women’s framing is helpful because it makes room for a reality most teams live in: you can maintain a quality bar, timelines, and budget discipline, and still make choices that improve outcomes for women.
A plain-language definition you can actually use
When we talk about supporting women through your supply chain, we mean three things.
1. Who gets the spend: Increasing access to procurement opportunities for women-owned and women-led businesses through intentional sourcing and supplier diversity.
2. Who does the work: Ensuring the people making, packing, and shipping what you buy are protected through clear supplier expectations.
3. How you prove it: Using documentation, verification, and progress reporting that keeps you out of the “we meant well” zone.
This matters whether you’re in Procurement, People Ops, Marketing, or ESG, because branded merchandise shows up everywhere: employee onboarding, recognition, events, internal culture moments, client engagement, and community programs.
What counts as support, and what does not
If you want to avoid performative messaging, it helps to get specific about what does and does not count.
What does not count (on its own):
- A single item labeled “women-owned” without a broader sourcing approach
- A one-time donation tied to a purchase, with no procurement commitment behind it
- A vendor page full of promises, with no documentation, standards, or tracking
What does count:
- Consistent, verified spend with women-owned suppliers across the categories you control
- A supplier outreach and quoting process that actually expands access
- Clear expectations for partners, and a plan for what happens when something goes wrong
The Women’s Empowerment Principles, created through collaboration between UN Women and the UN Global Compact, are a practical anchor because they translate broad intent into business action. Principle 5 focuses on implementing enterprise development, supply chain, and marketing practices that empower women. Principle 7 calls on companies to measure and publicly report progress. If you are going to say you support women, your audience should be able to see what you measure.
The supplier diversity piece most teams under-build: access
A lot of companies want to increase women-owned spend, but the process behind that spend stays unchanged. The same vendors get the same requests, and diversity goals become impossible to reach because access never changes. The U.S. National Women’s Business Council has pointed out that corporate supplier diversity programs can be a pathway to corporate market access for women-owned firms, supporting stable revenue streams and growth. In practice, that means your quoting and vendor onboarding process matters as much as your intentions.
A practical approach to increasing women-owned spend without creating procurement chaos
You do not need to overhaul everything in a quarter. You do need a repeatable process you can maintain. Here’s a playbook that works for real teams with real deadlines.
Step 1: Set a procurement commitment you can measure
Examples that are measurable and credible:
- “We will increase verified spend with women-owned suppliers in our employee experience and merchandise programs this year.”
- “We will ensure at least X percent of bids in our branded merchandise category include women-owned suppliers.”
- “We will add X new women-owned suppliers into our approved vendor pool by the end of Q2.”
If you do not have baseline data yet, start with an access commitment (inviting suppliers to quote) while you build tracking.
Step 2: Decide what “women-owned” means in your organization
This is where teams get stuck because definitions vary by region and certification body. The important thing is clarity and consistency. Document what counts for your company, then use it the same way across departments.
Common approaches include third-party certifications or documentation standards. WEConnect International certification is a globally recognized verification that a business is at least 51% owned, managed, and controlled by one or more women.
If you operate in Canada, WBE Canada certifies businesses that are at least 51% owned, managed, and controlled by women, and connects them with corporate and government member opportunities.
Step 3: Build women-owned sourcing into the earliest step, the shortlist
If women-owned suppliers are only considered at the end, they will always lose to incumbents. Make women-owned inclusion a default at the top of the funnel:
- Require at least one women-owned supplier in every shortlist (when feasible)
- Rotate in new suppliers each quarter so your list does not stagnate
- Avoid “last-minute sourcing” that forces you back to whoever can rush
Step 4: Track spend in a way you can stand behind
A simple tracking system beats a perfect one you never maintain. Start with:
- Total spend in the category (e.g., branded merchandise, onboarding kits, event kits)
- Verified spend with women-owned suppliers
- Number of bids requested from women-owned suppliers
- Number of women-owned suppliers onboarded into your vendor pool
- This gives you both outcome metrics (spend) and leading indicators (access).
Step 5: Write the message after you build the mechanism
This is the credibility move. Instead of “We support women,” lead with what you are doing. Your audience can feel the difference between values language and operational language.
Less credible: “We support women-owned businesses.”
More credible: “We are increasing verified spend with women-owned suppliers and tracking progress quarterly.”
The questions that change outcomes (copy, paste, and use)
You do not need all of these on day one. Pick what you can operationalize this quarter and build from there.
Vendor access and quoting:
- Who are we inviting to quote, and is our vendor pool expanding or recycling?
- Do we have a sourcing plan that avoids last-minute timelines that shut new suppliers out?
- Verification and documentation
- What documentation do we accept to verify women-owned status?
- Are we consistent in how we apply verification across departments and budgets?
- Spend and reporting
- Can we report a number (or at least a method) without over-claiming?
- Do we have quarterly checkpoints, not just a March moment?
How this shows up in employee onboarding, events, and branded merchandise programs
Merchandise is often treated as “lightweight,” but it’s a meaningful spend category with real supply chain implications. It shows up in the exact moments where companies want their values to feel real: welcoming new hires, recognizing teams, marking milestones, and showing appreciation to clients and partners. If you want women-owned spend to be more than a one-off campaign, build it into the program itself:
- Create an approved supplier pool that includes verified women-owned partners
- Set a minimum women-owned inclusion rule for shortlists
- Plan ahead so timelines do not force you into the same rushed options
- Where Ethical Swag fits
Our work sits right in the middle of brand experience and supply chain reality. We help teams source products people actually want to use, and we take sourcing seriously because the story behind the product matters as much as the logo on it. Ethical Swag is a certified Women Business Enterprise through WBE Canada, which supports procurement teams working toward supplier diversity commitments. We are also a Certified B Corp, which reflects verified standards for social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. This is not about claiming perfection. It is about making values-aligned choices easier to execute, especially when you’re balancing speed, budget, and brand.
FAQ
What does it mean to support women through your supply chain?
It means using procurement to expand access to spend and opportunity for women-owned businesses, backed by verification, tracking, and progress reporting that you can stand behind. It also means ensuring your process changes, not just your messaging.
What is gender-responsive procurement?
UN Women describes gender-responsive procurement as the sustainable selection of services, goods, and works that considers impact on gender equality and goes beyond cost management.
How do we verify women-owned status?
Many organizations rely on third-party certifications or documentation standards. WEConnect International certification verifies that a business is at least 51% owned, managed, and controlled by one or more women. In Canada, WBE Canada certifies businesses that are at least 51% owned, managed, and controlled by women.
Is inviting women-owned suppliers to quote enough?
It’s a strong start because it changes access, but it is not the finish line. Credibility comes from tracking outcomes (like verified spend), maintaining the process beyond March, and reporting progress over time.
What can we do during Women’s History Month that is real, not performative?
Make a measurable procurement commitment, explain how you verify women-owned sourcing, show how your vendor selection process changes access, and report back after March. The Women’s Empowerment Principles explicitly emphasize supply chain practices and progress reporting for a reason.
Summary
Women’s History Month is a spotlight, but procurement is the system. If you want to support women through your supply chain in a way that holds up, start with gender-responsive procurement, increase verified spend with women-owned suppliers, and build a process that expands access to opportunities. Use clear definitions, verification methods, and tracking you can report on without overclaiming.
If you want your Women’s History Month message to be backed by real procurement choices, we can help you build a merchandise program that increases verified women-owned spend without adding friction to your team. Reach out at info@ethicalswag.com or book a Free Swag Project Intro Call.