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Fashion is a Feminist Issue — Here’s Why

March 4, 2021
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While the fashion industry may appear to be a means of women empowerment with their feminist-slogan t-shirts and clever advertising campaigns, there are painfully stark gender inequalities in the industry.

From the exploitive conditions in garment factories that brands source from to the so-called “fabric ceiling” present at the highest offices in clothing companies, fashion is a feminist issue at every level of the supply chain.

[Cover image via PayUpFashion.com]

Fashion and Feminism: in Numbers

Over 70% of the total fashion workforce is women, and yet women hold less than 25% of leadership positions in top fashion companies.

Despite women making up 78% of students at leading fashion schools, just 40% of womenswear designers are women.

Approximately 80% of garment workers are women, a majority of which earn less than $3 a day.

Meanwhile, women make up just 12.5% of CEOs and 24% of board members at clothing companies in the Fortune 1000.

That’s even less than the financial services industry where 18% of companies have women CEOs.

The Pay Gap

This disparity is even more disturbing when you consider the pay gaps between fashion CEOs and garment workers.

An Oxfam report found that top fashion CEOs earn in 4 days what a garment worker earns in her entire lifetime.

Other reports have illuminated how the fashion industry has created some of the richest men on the entire planet, at the expense of the most vulnerable in the supply chain — (mostly women) garment workers.

Exploitive Working Conditions

Not only do the women making our clothes earn poverty wages, but they often face a swath of other forms of unsafe conditions at work from excessive overtime to insufficient safety conditions.

As Fashion Revolution puts it, “Although producing for some of the most profitable companies in the world, [garment makers] are working for poverty wages, under dreadful conditions, and they have to undertake an excessive amount of overtime.”

Just how bad are these conditions? Here are some facts to consider.

According to Remake, garment makers work an average of 14 hours per day in sweatshops.

Clean Clothes Campaign reports that garment makers typically work 10-12 hours a day and when order deadlines are approaching, they can work up to 16-18 hours per day.

The organization also reveals that it is common for garment workers to work all 7 days of the week with no time off during peak seasons.

As if being overworked and underpaid wasn’t enough, many women in garment factories also face gender discrimination through sexual harassment, abuse, and mandatory pregnancy tests.

Human Rights Watch has documented widespread abuse and sexual harassment in garment factories in India, Pakistan, Cambodia, and Bangladesh.

A CARE International survey found that nearly 1 in 3 women garment workers in Cambodia reported experiencing sexual harassment at work at least once in the previous 12-month period.

And the Global Fund for Women reported that 50% of garment workers in India have experienced verbal abuse and 34% of garment workers in Vietnam have experienced physical harassment at work.

For those who do experience sexual harassment, there is little they can do because of the lack of protective measures or support from factory management — let alone from the multinational fashion brands.

When garment workers join together and stand up for their rights through organizing, they’re met with threats, union-busting, and unjust dismissals.

And yes, many of those feminist t-shirts are made in these exploitive conditions.

Why Does this Imbalance Exist?

These conditions are no accident. As Labour Behind the Label says, the woman-dominated garment workforce “is not by chance, but the result of discriminatory practices from start to finish. Women are desirable in the garment industry because employers take advantage of cultural stereotypes.”

And as Business & Human Rights Resource Centre senior researcher Bobbie Sta Maria, points out, “It is overwhelmingly women who do the badly paid, low-skilled manual labour, and almost universally men who are in positions of power over them.

The brands benefit from this model and its lower production costs because they know that women will accept poorly paid work to support their families.”

What We Can Do

The problem is clear. How can we take action and transform the fashion industry into one that actually empowers women, instead of exploiting them?

Learn about the injustices in the fashion industry. Here is a list of free sustainable fashion educational resources to get started with.

Reduce or eliminate fast fashion purchases. It may not be accessible for everyone to give up fast fashion entirely due to considerations like size or income. If you are able to give up fast fashion and/or reduce the amount of fast fashion your purchase, then this is a crucial action you can take!

These brands will frankly never care about the women who make their clothes as long as they are able to profit off of their exploitation. If you’re looking for some guidance, this post has tips on how to quit fast fashion.

Become a consumer activist and ask brands who made my clothes? Direct message brands on social media, tag them in posts with the hashtag #WhoMadeMyClothes, email their representatives, and sign petitions like the PayUp Fashion one from Remake.

Follow, support, and amplify the work of garment worker advocacy organizations. Some organizations include Garment Worker Center, Remake, Awaj Foundation, Clean Clothes Campaign, Labour Behind the Label, Fashion Revolution, and the Stand Up Movement in Sri Lanka.

Choose from ethical fashion brands when you do purchase something new. You’ll find plenty of these brands in guides here on Conscious Life & Style!

Here’s a guide to Fair Trade Fashion Brands and here’s one to ethical & eco-friendly marketplaces for one-stop conscious shopping.

As you can see, there are many ways to get involved in the push towards a fairer fashion industry. No action is too small and you will find your place in the movement.

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    You May Also Want to Check Out:

    Living Wages in Fashion: What Will it Take?

    How to Support Garment Workers During COVID-19

    Free Educational Resources for Learning About Sustainable Fashion

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    *sigh* another week, another fast fashion greenwas *sigh* another week, another fast fashion greenwashing campaign.⁠⁠
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📧 Dear @hm, nothing about your clothes is conscious if they're made by people who aren't earning fair wages. ⁠⁠
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Your collections will never be conscious no matter what percentage of your clothes are made from recycled or "sustainably sourced" (whatever that means...) materials at these insane production levels.⁠⁠
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Your very business model is reliant on a model of growth and excessive production that is incompatible with planetary limits.⁠⁠
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Not to mention, the success of fast fashion is reliant on disposability. Fast fashion can only succeed by shoppers consistently buying, wearing (maybe), and discarding their clothes.⁠⁠
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#fastfashionsucks #payupfashion #payyourworkers⁠⁠
    🧵🌿 WHAT IS COLLABORATIVE DESIGN?. // We talk 🧵🌿 WHAT IS COLLABORATIVE DESIGN?. // We talk a lot about the disconnection we have with the makers behind what we buy...
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But industrialization and mass production has also resulted in a disconnect between designer and maker. 
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For truly ethical production, there must be an equal knowledge exchange between makers & designers in the design process, especially when artisans are using traditional techniques & generations-old crafts. 
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But what does collaborative design look like in practice? And how does this type of collaboration support more sustainable and ethical production?
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I’m interviewed Tatiana of @zuahaza to discuss these questions and much more! Tune in and let us know your thoughts. 💗
    🛏🪑🏡 As promised, the guide to non-toxic f 🛏🪑🏡 As promised, the guide to non-toxic furniture is here!⁠⁠
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For a big list of eco-friendly and non-toxic furniture brands, check out the link in bio!⁠⁠
    🛋 Is your furniture off-gassing toxic chemicals 🛋 Is your furniture off-gassing toxic chemicals? Here's what to know about volatile organic compounds in furniture and how to reduce your exposure in your home.⁠⁠
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Top tip: Buying used furniture is a great way to reduce your exposure since the highest concentration of VOCs are off-gassed with newly manufactured furniture just out of the factory. (If you are looking for new furniture that’s safe though, stay tuned for a list of non-toxic furniture brands coming soon!)⁠⁠ 💚
    🏡 Are you familiar with sustainable interior de 🏡 Are you familiar with sustainable interior design?⁠⁠
⁠⁠
Unsurprisingly, the home goods & furniture industry has much of the same problems as fashion: labor exploitation, unsustainable production, and massive amounts of waste.⁠⁠
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But, there are ways to style our homes with intention, in a way that goes beyond aesthetics and considers the impact on people, planet, and our health.⁠⁠
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Swipe through for five tips from Kelly of @gratify_home and check out the link in bio for the full guide to sustainable interior design! 🛋 ⁠⁠
    🌿 Carbon offsets are much more complicated than 🌿 Carbon offsets are much more complicated than they might first appear.⁠⁠
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So, I've partnered up with @simplizero to talk about what carbon offsetting can (and cannot!) do, what the risks are of offsetting schemes, and how to find reputable offsetting projects. ⁠⁠
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For much more on this topic, read the full article. Link in bio!⁠⁠
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[sponsored] ⁠⁠
    We talk about the importance of living wages a lot We talk about the importance of living wages a lot in the ethical fashion space, but what does this actually mean?⁠⁠
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This question — and the question of "will increasing wages increase clothing prices?" — came up during last week's IG Live with Ayesha of @remakeourworld.⁠⁠
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These are both really common questions, so I wanted to dedicate an entire post to address them.⁠⁠
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For more on the topic of living wages in fashion, follow @asia_floorwage, @cleanclothescampaign, and @remakeourworld + check out the article linked in bio for a much bigger deep dive I wrote on consciouslifeandstyle.com.
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#LivingWagesNow #PayUpFashion⁠⁠
    Standing in solidarity with the Asian American com Standing in solidarity with the Asian American community and amplifying/re-sharing some resources for ways to take action to #stopasianhate.⁠⁠
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Yesterday's horrific shooting in Atlanta was the most recent anti-Asian hate crime — crimes which have increased nearly 150% in 2020 and surged even higher in cities like New York, which saw an increase of 833%. [Source: Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism]⁠⁠
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The hate must end. Visit anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co for a list of resources (updates, educational content, petitions, places to donate, mental health resources, etc.) Link in bio.⁠⁠
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Tags for resources listed: @apen4ej @stopaapihate @smithsonianapa @versian.co @unapologeticallyasian_ @goldhouseco @asianamericangirlclub @theycantburnusall @weareaanow @hateisavirus @nextshark @aapiwomenlead @asianaaf @stopaapihatenyc @asians4antiracism @asianamericancollective @advancing_justice_atl @aaajalc @napawf_atl⁠⁠ | posts are from @jezzchung @sophfei @kimsaira + @annie_wu_22 | cover image is from @nhiii
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#StopAAPIHate #hateisavirus #racismkills #dismantleracism
    ➡ IG Live with @remakeourworld's Ayesha Barenbla ➡ IG Live with @remakeourworld's Ayesha Barenblat is happening in just a couple hours (9am PST / 12pm EST)!⁠⁠
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We'll be discussing:⁠⁠
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👗 Why garment worker representation is so crucial to creating a more ethical and sustainable fashion industry⁠⁠
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👚 What centering garment workers would look like in practice⁠⁠
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👗 Whether or not brand-led initiatives and industry commitments have really led to any tangible improvements in the lives of garment workers (and why that's the case)⁠⁠
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👚 What sorts of reforms will be necessary to truly improve the industry⁠⁠
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👗 How we can all get involved in creating a more equitable future for fashion⁠⁠
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See you soon!⁠⁠
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