How the Fashion Industry is a Women's Issue

How the Fashion Industry is a Women's Issue

World Women's day is a time to reflect on how feminism and women's rights are relevant in every industry. The fashion industry is one in which has huge repercussions for women and we wanted to take this day to reflect on some of those issues and hopefully help contribute to a world with transparent and ethical fashion sourcing that doesn't exploit vulnerable women around the world.

International women's day fashion revolution

The garment industry is and has historically been one of the most female-dominated industries in the world. Today, more than 70% of garment workers in China are women, in Bangladesh the share is 85%, and in Cambodia as high as 90%.
 
Women worldwide are striving for decent pay, working under dignified conditions and having basic work security. It’s about moving out of poverty, being able to provide children with education, and to become more independent and grow as an individual.
 
Liberal writers such as Leslie T. Chang, argue that the globalised garment industry has had this empowering effect as women from poor backgrounds are able to find work and earn a salary. 

International Women's Day slow fashion
 
As consumers of fashion, we need to be conscious of the journey of a garment. Clothing doesn't just magically appear on the rails of your favourite store. Each item in your wardrobe has been touched by many people throughout it's pre-retail lifespan. 
 
Many of the popular fast fashion brands produce their garments in developing countries. In these regions, factories are competing to produce for these multinational companies by offering the lowest costs and the fastest and most flexible production. 
 
In a labour-intensive industries like fashion, costs are cut by cutting salaries and pushing workers to work longer hours. Women are hit particularly hard by these cuts with huge wage disparity and systematic discrimination wildly prevalent.
 
Fashion revolution , Women's Day


We at OhSevenDays would like to encourage transparency and hope to help shine a light on the issues surrounding fast fashion sourcing. We as a slow fashion company, produce all our pieces in-house within our local workshop made up of 4-5 tailors. Our sourcing processes focus on transparency and we love to show our customers the full journey of the pieces they buy from us, from fabric to wardrobe. 

From the OhSevenDays team, we'd like to wish all a Happy International Women's day! 

 Photo credit: arabnews.com, thepool.com, fashionrevoutions.com

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