This year, let's support women-owned businesses.
Women-owned businesses are our favorite types of businesses (after all, Career Contessa is a woman-owned business.)
This year has been a tough year for working women, especially working mothers. As billionaires have become...even bigger billionaires this year, working mothers have been forced to make impossible decisions in order to take care of their careers and their families. A small gesture we can make is to support some of our favorite women-owned businesses by putting our money towards them.
Let's shop women-owned and women-run businesses. Every suggestion in this guide is going to support a woman-owned business.
Before you dive in, make sure to check out all of our gift guides:
- The Ultimate Gift Guide for Your Favorite Coworkers
- The Ultimate Gift Guide for Your Mom, Mentor, or Role Model
- The Ultimate Gift Guide for Your Best Friend
- The Ultimate Gift Guide for Yourself
- The Ultimate Gift Guide for Your Eco-Conscious Friend
- The Ultimate Gift Guide for Self-Care
- The Ultimate Gift Guide to Shop Black Women-Owned Businesses
*If you buy something through our links, Career Contessa may earn an affiliate commission.
Gifts to Stay Cozy + Safe
This will likely be a winter where many of us stay safely home to keep ourselves, our families, and our fellow humans safe. We may as well make everyone's time at home as cozy as possible, right?
These gifts are meant to make the home (and the home office) cozy, comfortable, and all things Hygge.
For The Lover of Candles And Blankets
Huff all you want about a gift that just happens to be a candle, a robe, or coffee-related. These are the best gifts in the world. Here are some of our favorite cozy gifts from women-owned businesses.
- The little market's soy candles
- Parachute's Cloud Cotton Robe
- Canyon Coffee's ceramic mugs (These sell out early + often, so we'd suggest getting on their waitlist!)
- The Sill's Rubber Tree Plant (technically not "cozy" but perfect for the person on your list who is "okay" at keeping plants alive)
For The At-Home Cook
We love Cooking Up Trouble by Leela Cyd and Anne Parker. This cookbook is also a composite of dozens of women of all ages and backgrounds coming together to share recipes and break bread in times of trouble. Each recipe has a unique story, right down to the simplest salad dressing. 100% (100%!) of the proceeds go to Planned Parenthood so it's a do good, feel good, eat good kind of present.
Other cookbooks by women (that we love):
- Cravings: Recipes for All the Food You Want to Eat + Cravings: Hungry For More by Chrissy Teigen
- Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Childs (Are you up for the Julie and Julia cooking challenge?)
- Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat (The book came before the show, in case you were wondering!)
- We Are La Cocina: Recipes in Pursuit of the American Dream
Fashion Gifts
Did you know that both the fashion industry is still dominated by men? While women provide the bulk of the labor, creative energy, and make up the majority of the buying power, this entire industry is still run largely by men.
That's why it's important to support women-owned fashion. We have the buying power, so shouldn't we have...all of the power?
WFH "But Make It Fashion" + More
Even if your "look" for 2020 consisted of elastic waistbands, drawstrings, and hoodies, you can still "make it fashion". We don't normally dive into fashion and beauty here at Career Contessa, but we have a few favorites we wanted to share—for the fashionista in your life who's itching to get to a runway show or for the person who has "quarantine-chic" fully figured out.
- Osei-Duro's Snakebite jumpsuit
- Cuyana's Slim Turtleneck
- Lively's Ribbed Lounge Pant + Tee
- Dusen Dusen's entire sweatsuit collection (patterns!)
Stylish Sweats for a Cause
Make your holiday purchase count doubly, by purchasing this Clare Vivier x Every Monther Counts sweatshirt. It's not 10 percent or even 20 percent of proceeds that go to mothers in need. 100 percent of the profit from this item goes to help prevent pregnancy- and childbirth-related complications.
Gifts for Their Career + Future
This year, we're leaning into digital gifts, as well. As a women-owned business ourselves (ahem!) we have a few suggestions to help power careers forward.
For The "Sort Of Unmotivated"
Create a DIY career boot camp—and do it together! This might be the year of your giftee's biggest career moves—and it might be yours, too! Consider partnering up for some accountability and gamification of your Career Moves 2021 goals. Best part? This gift could cost nothing (except the cost of wine you share over Zoom—priorities.)
Here's how to build your own boot camp—and share it with your favorite career mover on your gift list.
- Create your goals together.
- Schedule weekly (or bi-weekly) chats.
- Create helpful TED Talk playlists and share helpful career articles.
- Set your own career visions.
- Start a career book club (you can start with Power Moves and this discussion guide)
- Schedule quarterly celebrations of your milestones—together.
For The Ambivalent Budgeter
You have the (close) friend who always laments living paycheck to paycheck—and you're super sympathetic. It's been a tough year for many, especially when it comes to finances. Let this be the year your good friend takes control of their finances. We've got just the trick—You Need a Budget is the no-shame budgeting app that we love—especially when it comes to their four rules for budgeting!
For The Career Bouncer
We all have that person in our life who seems to have a new career every year—but they're never quite happy with it. Here are a few gifts to help them make 2021 the year they unlock the potential of their own career.
- Career Contessa's Job Search Academy
- Career Contessa's Career Transition Road Map Course so you can chart your own career course, because it belongs to you and only you.
- Blessing Manifesting's Self-Care Planner
- Power Moves: How Women Can Pivot, Reboot, and Build a Career of Purpose by Lauren McGoodwin
Happy gifting!
*We want to let you know that some of these links are affiliate links. That means when you purchase some of the items we listed, Career Contessa could earn a small commission at no cost to you. We only recommend items we know and love. Thank you for supporting the brands that help support Career Contessa.
