Femnet e.V.

The Partnership for Sustainable Textiles (Textiles Partnership)

Alliance initiative Gender Data Gap

The members of the Alliance for Sustainable Textiles, Hess Natur-Textilien GmbH & Co. KG, GERRY WEBER International AG, FEMNET e.V. and Global Standard gGmbH, together with the hessnatur foundation, formed the ‘Alliance Initiative Gender Data Gap’ from August 2023 to February 2025.

The cooperation was created through the ideas competition of the Alliance for Sustainable Textiles on the Textile Alliance's focus topics: Living wages and purchasing practices, circular economy and climate, gender equality and complaint mechanisms and remedies. The aim of the projects is to support members and other cooperation partners in ambitiously fulfilling their individual social and environmental due diligence obligations in the supply chains and achieving impact on the ground.

With the Alliance initiative Gender Data Gap The members were involved in the focus topic of gender equality using the example of Tunisia.

Focus on gender equality

Women workers in the textile industry are often subjected to intersectional discrimination.

“In general, women in particular experience sexual harassment in the workplace, pay inequality, disadvantage in career advancement or discrimination based on pregnancy. How can this discrimination be eliminated and gender-based violence in the textile sector overcome?”

_{Source: Alliance for Sustainable Textiles}

An important foundation for this was the systematic data collection on gender-specific topics in production facilities.

In the Global Gender Gap Index, Tunisia ranks 119th out of 149 (2018). According to the FWF GENDER FACT SHEET^[1] Many women in Tunisia suffer sexual harassment and violence. In addition, many women suffer from economic violence because they are either not allowed to work or their wages are confiscated by family members. In the textile industry, there is evidence of gender discrimination in production facilities, in particular through short-term contracts, overtime, pay inequalities, a lack of representation of women in management positions and a lack of maternity protection.

Although knowledge of the potential impact of the OECD sector risk of ‘discrimination, sexual harassment, gender-based violence’ is known, the actual level of gender discrimination has been difficult to evaluate due to lack of and non-transparent data and very low reporting rates. These data gaps are also reflected in other surveys, such as audits. In addition, due to the lack of data, companies face the problem of implementing effective measures against gender inequalities and discrimination in the first place.

Therefore, textile companies, production facilities and auditors need a harmonized and practically applicable methodology for data collection, which can be used across countries and companies. When collecting data, the ‘how’ is particularly important. As sensitive data is collected, trust needs to be created so that women can express their views on incidents of gender-based discrimination without fear of reprisals.

Collected data is a first step, but it is only the foundation for achieving real improvements in working conditions and gender discrimination.

As part of the Alliance Initiative, a tool was developed from which measures to improve gender inequalities can be derived on the basis of collected data. Recognized measures are discussed and implemented with the participating Tunisian production sites.

 

The actors

The alliance initiative is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). In the Alliance for Sustainable Textiles, business, civil society and the Federal Government are working together to make the conditions in textile supply chains more socially just and environmentally friendly. In addition to their individual activities and commitments, the members are involved in joint projects in the producing countries.

 

 

sources

^[1] Fair Wear Foundation, Tunisa Gender Fact Sheet, 09.02.2023