How does ClassBento celebrate International Women’s Day? With a workshop, of course! But not just any workshop. We’re talking women-owned, women-led, and attended by women. With a focus on not only crafts, but also honouring this year’s theme from UN Women: ‘Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls.’ For us, it meant gathering our community to explore what rights, justice and action look like in real, everyday business life.
In partnership with Studio Inner West, we spent an evening in creativity and conversation with women founders, leaders and business owners. Because when women come together, wonderful things happen.
Lucy Dujmovich of Studio Inner West kindly opened her space to us, where we gathered to discuss all things leadership, fairness and the barriers that still exist for women in business, while also pouring resin and decorating with dried flowers.
But this wasn’t just a night to make resin trinket trays. Crafts and fun aside, real change isn’t a campaign. It’s a continuous process of listening, questioning and taking action. Through guided and lively conversations, some core themes emerged.
“At the end of the day, it [the modern workforce] was a system designed for men. Then women joined the workforce, and they just slotted into the workplace, but it wasn’t designed for them” - Raji
That sentiment resonated deeply across the room. Many shared experiences of navigating workplaces that still operate on structures built around outdated assumptions.
Childcare, for example, continues to be a significant pressure point. Much of the responsibility still falls on women, many of whom are balancing full-time roles alongside return-to-work mandates and limited flexibility.
Another theme that surfaced was the importance of recognising that everyone’s journey looks different. Equality isn’t achieved by ticking boxes or meeting quotas without understanding the lived experiences behind them. Real progress requires noticing our differences, making space for them and building systems that genuinely support a diverse range of needs.
“A lot of international organisations have started to implement x% of female senior leadership positions filled within a certain time frame… It was 30%, and they received a lot of feedback from male colleagues saying ‘oh, she only got hired because they’re meeting quota’ and the feeling that all jobs were going to women, but 30% is not equal, and there’s not even enough of us to hit the 30%... You have kids and all that. You see a drop off, or they [women] choose roles that accommodate family life a lot more. It’s a lack of understanding, but I think it is changing. You’re seeing a lot of co-parenting coming in. It’s slowly shifting.” - Priyanka
What became clear is that justice is not abstract. It shows up in policies, in leadership decisions, in who gets heard and who gets overlooked. It lives in the everyday details of how we run businesses and build teams.
At ClassBento, we wanted to make sure these reflections translated into something tangible.
So, we didn’t just talk the talk. We also walked the walk.
We’re proud to share that ClassBento and Studio Inner West donated a portion of ticket sales to UN Women this year. This donation helps support programs that work toward safety, opportunity and fairness for women and girls around the world.
So what can you do this International Women’s Day?
We invite our community to take one simple but powerful action: support women-owned businesses. Every booking, purchase, or recommendation helps create more opportunities, more independence and more success stories.
We’re incredibly grateful to everyone who joined us, shared their stories and continues to champion equality in their own way. Celebrations like this remind us that progress is not only necessary, it’s possible. It’s happening in studios, in community spaces and in conversations like these.
And it’s something we can all be part of, not just on International Women’s Day, but every day.
