Not a certification, and the easiest of our filters to stretch. Which is exactly why the definition has to be tight.
Women-led is the filter people are most enthusiastic about and the one most vulnerable to being fudged. There is no certifying body, no assessment, no fee and no logo. It is a claim, and claims without a standard behind them drift.
So here is what we mean by it, what we check, and what we do when the answer is complicated.
What we mean
Founded, run, or majority-owned by women. Not "has women on the team", which is nearly every business. Not "designed by a woman" on a product made by a company with no women anywhere near a decision.
The test is control: who founded it, who runs it, who owns it. If a brand does not meet one of those, the filter does not apply to them and they simply appear under the things that are true.
Why it is not a marketing category
It is a correction, and the figures are the argument.
Women lead just 20 per cent of small and medium businesses in the UK, according to the Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship. All-female founder teams received 2p of every £1 of equity investment in 2021, according to the British Business Bank. And ONS figures put the average earnings gap at around 15 per cent.
So independent making has always been disproportionately women, and independent funding has disproportionately not been. Making that visible as a way to shop costs us nothing and changes, in a very small way, where money goes.
What we check
We ask, and we ask specifically. Who founded this? Who owns it now? Who makes the decisions?
Where a brand cannot evidence it, the filter does not apply. That is not a judgement on the brand, it is simply how a filter has to work if it is going to mean anything. The moment a filter becomes a thing brands want to be seen under rather than a description of what they are, it starts stretching, and a stretched filter is decoration.
Woven London, who have just joined us, are a good example: a shop with a door you can walk through, and a straightforward answer to all three questions.
The complicated cases
Two come up often and are worth being straight about.
Co-founded businesses. A brand founded by a woman and a man, run jointly, is not women-led by our definition, however good it is. We would rather be strict and be trusted than generous and be meaningless.
Businesses that changed hands. Founded by a woman, now owned by someone else, or the reverse. We go on the current position, because that is what the filter is describing.
What it does not tell you
Nothing about materials, supply chain, wages or environmental practice. A women-led business can be doing all of that well or none of it, and the filter says nothing either way.
Which is why it sits alongside the others rather than above them. If you care about how something was made, that is ethical or upcycled. How the company is run is B Corp. How many exist is small batch. How long it has been in the same hands is family-owned. This one is about who owns it.
The filters are more useful in combination than alone, which is rather the point of having several.
Browse every women-led brand we carry, or see the other ways to shop by purpose.
