Women's Employment - United Nations Research Institute for Social ...

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Women’s employment in the textile manufacturing sectors of Bangladesh and Morocco Table 3: Regular and casual employees Female Male % of male % of female employees employees Registered in social security 70 11 39.3 35.5 Non-registered 96 14 50.0 48.7 No response* 31 3 10.7 15.7 * The category “no response” includes all the people who did not answer the question, presumably because they did not understand what social security means. Social security status indicates that the majority of employees are casual. It is safe to assume that all heads of the teams, supervisors (contrôleurs), or heads of workshop are regular employees. II. Social and family situation of women workers Because women workers tend to belong to a disadvantaged social class, most of those who seek factory work live in precarious conditions, and their employment plays a very important role in their families’ survival strategy. This precariousness forces all the adult members of a family and sometimes even the children to seek employment. It has resulted in the feminization of the labour force in various sectors of the economy, in general, and of the textile industry in particular. 1. An historical perspective on women’s industrial employment The feminization of the labour force in the textile industry is a historical fact, both internationally and nationally. While Moroccan industry has not undergone the same evolution of industry as in the West — from industrialization to Taylorism to automatization — it too required women workers right from its emergence during the protectorate period (1912-56) (Kergoat, 1982). In fact, women’s employment started with colonization, when industrial plants were set up in Casablanca and needed women workers to supplement the male labour force. The entry of women into the urban labour market was a consequence of colonial industry as well as the women’s need to find ways of contributing to their family income. Adam’s study on Casablanca during the protectorate period indicates that the 66
Gender and employment in Moroccan textile industries disintegration of the traditional family and the frequency of repudiations forced women to look for work in the factories (Adam, 1972). These women had little education or training and were often illiterate. The lack of skills was characteristic of the first women to enter wage employment in significant numbers (a trend that has continued to the present day, as we see below). Although women were obliged to work for economic reasons, their aspirations appeared to lie elsewhere: the ideal was a position of economic and social security provided by a breadwinning husband. Even though they worked, these women would have gladly given up employment if their ideal could be met (Adam, 1972). While there have been changes in the size and composition of the female workforce, its status and its aspirations since Moroccan independence, economic necessity still drives women into the job market, and their lack of skills still determines their tasks in the industrial textile sector. The feminization of the industry, for garments (79 per cent), knitwear (71 per cent) and carpets (42 per cent) (Belghazi, 1996), has determined the choice of our sample, which is composed of 87.6 per cent women. Because of the overwhelming presence of women in this industry, a straight comparison between men and women in the production process is difficult, as men and women do not always occupy the same jobs. Nonetheless, it is worth exploring gender differences apparent in management practices and authority structures as well as in attitudes about women and work. 2. Family livelihood strategies The industrial zone of Rabat-Salé, where most of this survey was carried out, is near the poorer districts that receive constant inflows of rural migrants. Even though most of the men and women workers were born in Salé, more than a quarter of them originate from the rural areas. This zone began its urban expansion in the 1980s when it increasingly attracted the region’s rural population, who came Table 4: Place of birth by gender Women Men Total Number % Number % Number % Town 143 73 19 68 162 72 Rural area 54 27 9 32 63 28 Total 197 100 28 100 225 100 67
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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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Becoming a garment worker 5Becoming
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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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260 Annex Table 2:Level of wages an
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