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Women’s employment in the textile manufacturing sectors of Bangladesh and Morocco majority of women workers are recruited directly: they present themselves at the gates of the factory looking for a job. Only a small number of workers reported having been recruited through a family member, although a significantly larger number reported having relatives working in the same factory. This was confirmed by one of the managers: Our firm has a policy of not taking on girls from the same family. We avoid recruiting a girl if her sister works in the company as it creates problems. If one of them is unhappy she influences the other, or if the supervisor has problems with one, it has repercussions on the other. So, instead of having one problem, we could have two, and this upsets the work. (Head of factory) It is important to note that it is only in the knitwear and garment sectors that the factory heads avoid recruiting workers from the same family: the work is individualized and family solidarity is seen by some of them as impeding production. But in the carpet sector, where recruitment is carried out in two stages, family solidarity is an asset. The factory head or foreman first recruits the maalma and then, in turn, she recruits the weavers from among her family. A more detailed discussion of this sector appears below. 2. Training, apprenticeship and probation The female labour force in the sample factories had a low level of educational attainment: more than a third of the women workers had no schooling at all. Another third had only attended primary school and about one third had completed the first cycle of secondary schooling. Vocational training was rare. The majority of girls and women who have no schooling are found in the carpet sector, where 75 per cent of those interviewed were illiterate. Producing carpets requires an artisanal training which does not need a specific education level. Indeed, this lack of education was never raised as a problem in the interviews with the heads of the carpet factories. Production is based on the artisanal know-how of the experienced women. Apprenticeship is carried out informally, with the maalma taking responsibility for teaching the craft to the girls that she takes on. This gives her freedom in controlling the apprentices that factory heads would not have. The women workers with the highest levels of education are found in the garment-making sector: only 12.9 per cent of them are illiterate. Here the ability at least to read is an asset for the worker. All the factory heads emphasized the importance of the worker 74
Gender and employment in Moroccan textile industries knowing how to read figures and letters. The level of education of the workers determines the quality of their work. An illiterate worker gets the sizes muddled up and makes mistakes in putting numbered pieces of material together, which has a negative effect on production quality. It is interesting to note that while many factory heads expressed the wish to recruit employees with a rather higher level of education or with some vocational training (Table 9 indicates the virtual absence of higher qualifications amongst the sample group), they nevertheless hesitate to put such policies into practice. There are several reasons that may explain this pattern. Table 9: Level of instruction for women workers by sector (percentage) Level of Carpets Knitwear Garments Total instruction None 75.0 33.3 12.9 38.1 Primary school 22.1 30.6 32.3 28.4 Secondary I cycle 1.5 27.8 43.0 25.9 Secondary II cycle 1.5 8.3 11.8 7.6 Professional or 0 0 0 0 higher education Total 100 100 100 100 Even if a girl has had some education, its value for the employer is questionable. In fact, even when she has finished the five grades of primary school, her education is insufficient: what she has learnt is not enough for the job market, not to mention the fact that when she leaves school her knowledge is soon forgotten and she becomes almost illiterate. Several factory heads confirmed that most of the women workers, even those with several years of primary education, cannot read French or make out figures properly. In addition, firms want a labour force whose apprenticeship and qualifications they control. Comments made by one head of a garment factory about the more educated job-seekers are illustrative of the attitudes that prevail. University graduates are no good. Unfortunately, when they are recruited they want to have a telephone, an office and a secretary, whereas they have to be working in production. They are spoiled, they don’t want to work between 12 and 2. But in this job one has to sweat. University trains people for working in an office, which hinders them from getting jobs. (Head of a garment factory) 75
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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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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 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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