Indah Wahyuni is nostalgic about the outfit she wore to her first Australian job interview. Wahyuni, 44, had just immigrated to Australia from Indonesia with her ex-husband and three children when she came across, a global not-for-profit that empowers vulnerable women to enter the workforce by equipping them with interview-appropriate clothing. It symbolised a new chapter in her life.
“At that moment, I had just separated from my husband, English was my second language, I didn’t know anything about my new country and had no family or friends or support at all,” she tells SBS. “[Dress for Success] gave me a blazer, a top, a skirt, shoes, a handbag and makeup. I took workshops on job interviews and money management. Because my qualifications weren’t recognised here, this also helped me approach the job market.”
Debates about women in the workplace tend to focus on the “wage gap”, the fact that Australian women only earn 84 per cent as much as their male counterparts, according to the 2017 report, . But this often overlooks other kinds of gaps — in access, in opportunities and in knowledge of the invisible rules around etiquette and self-presentation — that can sometimes impact women who aren’t middle-class and white. Clothing, a long-time cultural signifier, has always signalled ambition and professional readiness: picture Hillary Clinton’s tailored pantsuits, for instance, or the colourful ensembles favoured by ex-Teen Vogue editor Elaine Welteroth. It also requires money and resources. For many women, this is simply out of reach.
Indah Wahyuni (left) recently graduated from Woolongong University and says Dressed for Success helped her workout her strengths. (Image: Supplied). Source: Supplied
Meg Gibson is the marketing manager at the Sydney chapter of Dress for Success, . She says that the company aims to instil confidence in women before they attend a job interview and that an outfit is often the first step towards improving their prospects long-term.
“We have 300 volunteer stylists and women who come in are styled, receive free clothing for interviews and can take career workshops,” Gibson says, adding that women can keep a week’s worth of clothing if they secure the job. “Job interviews can be so confronting, especially if you’ve been in a domestic violence situation, or if you’re a new immigrant or refugee. The impact of a fitted suit or bright dress is amazing. We’ve had women who’ve said to us, putting on that dress helped give me the confidence to be successful.”
The Fitted For Work dressing room. Source: Supplied
Donna de Zwart is the CEO of , an Australian organisation that’s helped 26,000 women over the last decade. She says that although making a good first impression with employers is important, the transformation she often witnesses has as much to do with the camaraderie that’s created between different kinds of women. It’s also about the healing nature of touch.
“We work with all kinds of women, aged from 16 to 65,” says de Zwart, who also connects employers with work-ready women through the company’s social enterprise SheWorks. “We see women whose partner might have died and have three children and mortgage. We see refugees, we see women exiting correctional facilities and women who’ve been through a divorce that’s left them broken emotionally and financially. The first port of call is often our personal outfitting service and to someone experiencing disadvantage, there’s a real feeling of isolation. Even having someone touch you in a kindly way, it can be so powerful.”
Wahyuni, who recently graduated from the University of Wollongong and has recently secured a graduate position in nursing, has experienced this power firsthand.
“I knew that having English as a second language was a weakness but [Dress for Success] helped me work out, ‘what are my strengths?’” she grins. “It’s been a long journey. I still keep the clothes they first gave me but now, I wear them to meetings and important occasions.”
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