The Status of Moroccan Women in Work Environments
One thing that has stood out to me on the numerous visits to cooperatives and agricultural farms and facilities is the separation between women and men working. Most of them have boasted of how they have more women than men working in their facilities and there have been some entirely female cooperatives. However, if you listen closely, there is a difference in how the work women participate in and men participate in is described. As one shop owner in Fes said, men run the large standing looms because women cannot stand for as long and cannot work as long. At IBERRY, women are set to sorting and picking, the delicate and detailed work that goes in their processing facility. The saffron co-op also said that they use women for the delicate work of picking out the saffron threads from the flowers. On the other hand, men's jobs have been dealing with heavy machinery, working in the fields, and running larger companies and farms. It was nice to see so many women working at all these places, but there was still a clear distinction between the types of work they were allowed to do. Women are often described as delicate and detailed workers whereas men are strong movers, mechanical operators, truck drivers, owners. Even with the facilities, you do not see men and women doing the same job, which led me to wonder if they specifically hire certain genders for certain jobs.
However, Morocco is making strides in finding equality for women. More and more women are seeking employment and branching out in their job opportunities. Naima from Casablanca, for example, was our only female tour guide. The head technical manager for IBERRY was a female worker with her PhD in plant pathology, I believe. Women run stores and are the sole workers for the essential oil production and the saffron and argon co-ops. There is still a clear distinction, and according to The World Bank Group Morocco has an employment rate of 21.4% for females and 69.7% for males as of 2022. There is still work to be done and a stereotype of women as weaker to be broken, but there are many shinning faces behind improvements that are being made and strong women leading the way for equality.
WorldBank. (2023). Morocco. World Bank Gender Data Portal - Morocco. https://genderdata.worldbank.org/countries/morocco/#:~:text=In%20Morocco%2C%20the%20labor%20force,has%20remained%20roughly%20the%20same.
Allison, your observation and analysis is spot on. I, too, observed that women were left to do what were perceived as less strenuous jobs. I wonder though if it is because, culturally, Moroccan men are simply trying to be chivalrous and do the heavy lifting. The issue is that the more labor-intensive jobs are also some of the higher-paying jobs. The all-women cooperatives have proved that women can work and succeed in all aspects of agricultural production. I have observed though that there is still some hesitancy to women doing specific jobs perceived as men's jobs. For example, we have seen the police everywhere but have not seen women as police officers. We have seen soldiers and have yet to see women soldiers. There were several car repair shops in all the cities we visited, yet a woman has not been present anywhere near the shops. Morocco's working towards equity and equality, but much work is still to be done to change norms, thoughts, and behaviors.
ReplyDelete