A Conversation on Women in the Supply Chain and Tariffs: Q&A with Nest Founder and CEO, Rebecca van Bergen.

This Q&A was conducted by Emma Forsyth, Sustainability Analyst.

Interview Context.

Growing up, my mentor was my Grandma: a strong farm girl who grew up to build a small business that still serves hundreds of clients today in my hometown. The success of women in small businesses is an area close to my heart, as are the systemic challenges that make achieving success harder for them than for their male counterparts.

In today's interconnected global economy, policy change can have a profound impact on the daily lives of workers across the supply chain. The artisan sector, composed largely of women, micro-entrepreneurs, and home-based workers, illustrates how trade wars strain the workers of the world. As global trade faces unprecedented volatility, artisan workers are hit head-on with economic uncertainty, making them and their work increasingly vulnerable to geopolitical tension.

To unpack these complex issues, we interviewed Rebecca van Bergen, the CEO and Founder of Nest. Nest is a nonprofit dedicated to supporting and advancing the global artisan economy, which employs over 260 million people, primarily female workers. Van Bergen shares her unique insights as the leader of an organization embedded directly in the supply chain, offers her definition of "pink tariffs," and explains how Nest is leading the way to safeguard female workers through innovative ethical programs.

Q&A with Rebecca Van Bergen, CEO and Founder of Nest.

Emma: Rebecca, please tell us what is Nest's role in supporting women in the supply chain, specifically in vulnerable communities, as they navigate the economic uncertainty caused by tariffs? Furthermore, where do you see Nest going next? 

Rebecca: Nest is a nonprofit organization that supports artisan and maker businesses in the US and around the world. We have a global network, the Nest Guild, which brings together artisan and handicraft enterprises. The Guild includes 3,000+ craft enterprises in 125 countries and provides members with the training, peer connection, and market opportunities to grow their businesses. 

According to the WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing), over 260 million people—primarily women—are involved in home-based handwork. Craft plays a critical role in connecting women and homebound workers to their local economies while preserving important cultural traditions and fueling financial independence. 

The current tariff landscape is wreaking havoc on the global export industry writ large, yet two stakeholder groups are facing disproportionate impacts. 

The first is small businesses – the new tariffs make it extremely challenging, if not impossible, to ship small orders. This means that small and solopreneurs who have leveraged social media and direct-to-consumer models to garner international audiences are facing the loss of the US customer. 

The second is workers themselves, as even larger enterprises are feeling the economic impact of tariffs and financial risks. This will lead – now and in the future – to lower wages and, potentially, loss of employment. 

At Nest, our mission is focused on these groups. We also know that when enterprises are larger but employ an artisan workforce, the women workers are the most vulnerable, as they are often part-time or seasonal workers. Global financial insecurity often hits them first and hardest. Globally, women artisans lack social protections, and the prevalence of subcontracting in industries like fashion and home decor puts them further at risk of exploitation and unsafe conditions. 

Nest aims to bring greater awareness to the global craft economy and the barriers in achieving social and economic advancement for this predominantly female workforce. Our organization investigates relevant topics, including worker wellbeing and the effects of a changing climate on craft communities, that are timely and critical to the advancement of the sector.

Emma: What does the term "pink tariff" mean to you? 

Rebecca: The artisan sector is predominantly female, and historically, craft has been the province of women and girls, especially in times and places where women have or had fewer rights and privileges than men. While men worked, hunted, farmed, or fished, women, bound by religious and/or cultural norms, developed their own kind of work: women made crafts in the home. Eventually, women, and sometimes their husbands, too, began to realize that the objects they made had value, turning their talent into a business. Decades later, we still see the prevalence of women in the creative sectors. 

While tariffs impact all people, it is important to recognize the specific impacts that tariffs have on women. Pink tariffs allow us to do that – to not only see the global ramifications of these policies, but to also identify how women are being uniquely affected. 

At Nest, our small enterprise network is largely women-led. That means that the impacts on small businesses have unique consequences. Women make up the majority of the craft workforce, and changes in global supply chains will immediately impact women and families first and foremost. Handcraft is a fundamental source of employment globally for women and individuals in rural, low-income, and marginalized communities. Working at home allows these women to provide for their families and contribute to their communities. 

It has been well documented that women’s income directly impacts the health and well-being of families and children. It is imperative that we are concerned and monitoring the impact that these global policies are having on entire communities. Nest Guild members, in total, employ a talented artisan workforce of nearly 380,000 handworkers worldwide, which ripples out into improved social inclusion and economic mobility for 1.6 million family members and dependents. 

Emma: What is a key project or accomplishment of Nest that has had a direct lasting impact on female workers? 

Rebecca: As consumer demand for the handmade has skyrocketed in recent years, we have also fallen into a trap of equating artisan with ethical. While it is true that there are inherent benefits to products being handmade, equating artisan and ethical means that we fail to acknowledge the fact that craftwork is, in most cases, part of the informal economy. 

Craftspeople typically work from home at the bottom of a complicated and dispersed supply chain, often paid cash, and unprotected by labor laws. It follows that transparency to ensure ethics and fairness is actually more complicated than in a factory environment, where workers are under one roof and their well-being can be monitored. Factory workers are also commonly paid a salary wage, unlike artisan workers.

While the founding of most cooperatives and artisan businesses is rooted in ethical practices, when prices are determined per piece, they often do not account for minimum, let alone fair, wage rates. With women mostly working inside homes, it becomes harder to identify harassment, child labor, or unsafe practices.

Nest’s Ethical Handcraft Program revolutionized the industry by making home-based work a safe and viable option for unseen workers worldwide. Leveraging International Labor Organization (ILO) principles, Nest developed the Nest Standards, the first-ever set of

universally applicable standards and verification methodology for work that takes place outside of regulated factories in informal or cottage industries. Today, the Nest Seal of Ethical Handcraft is available on select products at West Elm, Pottery Barn, and Target, among others. 

As an example of the its impact: an astonishing 79% of the supply chains we work with at Nest were not able to demonstrate that they meet minimum wage when we first started working together, yet nearly 40% have closed the gap within a year of participating in our Ethical Handcraft Program and 65% have implemented measures to do so over the course of the next year. 

As tariffs take hold, enterprises will be under financial strain – these pressures can and will directly impact the lives of workers, from lower wages to longer hours. Transparency and third-party accountability will be more important than ever before.

Going beyond dialogue.

Our conversation with Rebecca van Bergen underscores a critical truth: tariffs are not abstract economic tools but direct threats to the livelihoods of millions. By defining and challenging the impact of "Pink Tariffs," Nest is compelling the global business community to prioritize the women and micro-entrepreneurs who drive the artisan sector.

This dialogue serves as a powerful reminder that global economic stability is connected to gender equality and fair labor. We extend our sincere gratitude to Rebecca van Bergen for sharing her profound insight on both the challenges and the indispensable role of women in the global economy.

To read more on Pink Tariffs and women in the supply chain, stay updated on our firm’s insights and virtual events via our monthly newsletter.