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Women’s employment in the textile manufacturing sectors of Bangladesh and Morocco month. If I could make that I would not ask for a rise. (Weaver in a carpet factory) The fact that the carpet factory wages are low detracts from the reputation of the craft and creates a lack of confidence among the weavers about their know-how. The maintenance of a traditional structure means that the weavers do not consider it to be a field in which they would like to develop their skills. Sometimes they aspire to work in the garment sector, which is seen as offering better wages. In the garment and knitwear sectors the method of payment of the workers varies. Their work is usually calculated by the hour and the wages paid each week, fortnight or month. The wages of women workers who are paid monthly vary between Dh 300 and 4,000, but most of them range between Dh 300 and 1,400. Those who are paid weekly or fortnightly often receive their pay irregularly, especially in the factories which have financial difficulties. In the knitwear sector, certain small firms farm out the work to be done at home and it is paid by the piece. The statutory minimum wage is only given to the woman worker after a period of at least one year. The mandatory increase is 5 per cent every two years and 10 per cent every five years but it is applied very rarely because of the constant turnover in the labour force. The overall impact of low wages on women’s labour turnover and commitment to their work is negative. The single woman worker enters the job market seeing her work as temporary, while she waits to get married. The low wages and lack of professional mobility reinforce this attitude and do little to foster a more positive attitude among women to factory work. Many women state that if their wages reached Dh 2,000 they would not leave their work. I’d like to leave this work which I don’t enjoy any more. From what I hear the statutory minimum wage is 7.50 dirham an hour but we are not paid at that rate. If we were, we would work harder. The ideal salary for me would be 2,000 dirham. If I could earn that I would never think of leaving work, even if I got married. (Woman worker in a garment factory) The implication here is that the wage level is an important factor determining the stability of the women workers. Their income aspirations, especially in the garment and knitwear factories, are fixed around the minimum wage, or a little higher. For the women workers, wages are the most important criterion for a good job and a great majority of those in our survey felt that the wages determine the status of a worker. They claim to be prepared to accept rigorous discipline in the factory when their work is well paid. 90
Gender and employment in Moroccan textile industries The women workers see their work from the viewpoint of society’s attitude to employment, which usually corresponds to the level of remuneration. Thus work in a factory is seen as being better than that of a domestic servant. Work in the garment factories was generally perceived to be of a greater value than that of the carpet factories, and not just for the higher salaries earned in the former. The young women workers distinguish between the work inside a carpet firm (maamal) and that of a garment or knitwear factory (sharika). Work in the garment and knitwear sectors is based on modern know-how in dress-making and knitting, whereas work in a carpet factory is based on traditional knowledge, on weaving, which is looked down on in society. Low wages are not the only disincentive for women’s work. In many cases, the wages of women workers are central for family survival strategies and this means that the women workers have very little control of how their earnings are spent. This may lead to even greater ambivalence about employment as their income fails to increase the independence of women workers in ways that have been documented in other regions (see Kibria, 1998). At Salé, three quarters of the women workers live with their parents and are under their control. Their social conditions are very bad. Whatever the factory conditions are, their work environment is wonderful compared with the poverty of their home life. In spite of this, the labour force is not motivated because most of them do not receive their money. Many of their parents come to demand the wages of their daughters and ask how much they earn. The girls are under their authority and they are obliged to give the parents their pay. As a result the girls are not motivated to work. (Head of a garment factory) I share my wages with the family. I don’t earn much so I can’t buy things like jewelry or plan to buy a house or a plot of land. Those things are far away. My situation and my wages don’t allow me to aspire to them. I would like to dress well and take care of my appearance, but God is All-Powerful (Allah Ghaleb). (Woman worker in a garment factory) Earning a wage certainly raises the status of a woman worker within the family, insofar as she becomes the provider of income and covers certain family expenses. But she is frustrated because her wages are low and she is not able to meet her own needs, especially for clothes. This is especially a problem for the young girls who are going through the phase of trying to emulate their peers through their dress. Interestingly, certain factory heads are aware of this problem and have 91
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Women’s Employment in the Textile
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This United Nations Research Instit
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Acknowledgements Many people have b
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notwithstanding the inertia of the
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Carol Miller is a policy analyst on
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xii VII. Contribution of different
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Introduction 1 Introduction 1 Shahr
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Introduction Table 1: Basic indicat
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Introduction women have been tradit
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Introduction The chapters on Bangla
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Introduction occurs, on average, at
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Introduction women workers related
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Introduction in low-income countrie
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Introduction by repaying their “d
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Introduction participate in labour
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Introduction their bargaining power
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Introduction processing zones hypot
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Introduction IV. The case studies T
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Introduction experience in garment
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Introduction V. Conclusion Although
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Introduction improved technology. T
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Introduction References Afsar, R. (
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Introduction Household Power Relati
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Wage discrimination by gender in Mo
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Wage discrimination by gender in Mo
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Gender dimensions of labour migrati
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Becoming a garment worker 5Becoming
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Becoming a garment worker garment w
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Becoming a garment worker Table 1:
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Becoming a garment worker view of t
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Becoming a garment worker that time
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Becoming a garment worker 2. “I e
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Becoming a garment worker out that
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Becoming a garment worker being. Th
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Becoming a garment worker support t
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Becoming a garment worker they firs
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Becoming a garment worker V. Conclu
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Becoming a garment worker is a job
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Becoming a garment worker Endnotes
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Becoming a garment worker Cole P. D
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Women’s employment in the textile
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258 Women’s employment in the tex
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260 Annex Table 2:Level of wages an
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