CAES Morocco: Leading Across Differences

      Gender roles seem to be very much imposed in Morocco. Moroccan culture is heavily, if not mainly, influenced by Islam. Islamic culture says that men provide everything in exchange for their wives’ total support. This system was not designed to be one of subservience by women, but powerful and/or loud men have bastardized the equal give and take that it was meant to be. For generations women have been put down and silenced and abused. They couldn’t have their own money or land or home or family or identity without a husband or a father, and to the rest of the world that is how they are and have always been.               However, on our very first tour in Casablanca, our guide educated us on how far Morocco has come in the fight for women’s autonomy. She said it was thanks to their current king  Mohammed VI. He has been reigning since 1999, and is beloved country-wide. King Mohammed VI has made known his stance on wom...

  Motherhood & Morocco All life comes from women. This is a fact we all know and see the evidence of daily, yet it is also a fact we choose to ignore or employ only when it is of convenience to society. Women are the backbone, the lifeblood, the prana, and the chi of all life. As we endure heartbreak, trauma, and illness, we call out for our mothers. As men die on battlefields and in army hospitals, they yearn for a touch of their mother. Across cultures, the mother figure is a respected tenet of the community, and in Morocco’s Argan Cooperative, the motherhood experience is respected and supported.  Though the history of feminism in Morocco is varied and contains times of both celebration and tension, yet the importance of family has remained a central tenet.  At the Argan oil cooperative, women bring the fruit from their argan trees into the cooperative, weigh, process and eventually, sell them for cosmetics and food oils. In this system, women own their own trees a...

In Morocco, gender roles are very much still skewed to benefit the male population and a patriarchal society. When I landed in Casablanca, I noticed this with the amount of men outside. In fact, while visiting the Hasan II Mosque at night that day, most of the women and children left the area at sunset, leaving only men outside. For me, this signified the patriarchal nature of Moroccan society. Having had experience with Muslim gender roles in the United States, I had a basic idea of how life at home likely is for women in Morocco. But, I was more interested in whether there has been progress for them, especially in terms of employment and economic growth.  According to Lisa Kolovich and Anta Ndoye’s book, Morocco’s Quest for Stronger and Inclusive Growth , there is a much higher unemployment rate for women than for men in Morocco. The book also cites the World Values Survey, which found that a majority of participants agreed with the statement that “Men should have more right to a...

In comparing sexual orientation in Morocco and the United States, there is a huge difference in the level of social acceptance and legal recognition of LGBTQ+ people. In the United States, discrimination definitely still exists, but there are legal protections in place including the right to marry, adopt, and live openly. In Morocco, however, homosexuality is criminalized, which can lead to imprisonment. Public expression of queer identity is not only socially ‘incorrect’ but also legally dangerous.      As someone who identifies as LGBTQ+, this was a constant consideration of mine as we traveled through the country. I thought about how difficult it must be to always have to hide such a fundamental part of yourself to stay safe. Not being able to have queer communities or celebrate love openly is something I do not think I could live with. It made me reflect on the privilege of living in a place where, even if full acceptance isn't always present, people at least have the...

    In the comparative study of Morocco to the United States, both countries have apparent differences and underlying issues. A major societal problem within Morocco is the gap in male and female occupations. These differences in the United States could be considered "sexist." However, I have realized that in Moroccan culture, there are more distinct gender roles in the workforce, and this is not necessarily a negative attribute.      I first realized the differences in gender roles between the United States and Morocco on our first tour of Casablanca. Our tour guide began to discuss gender roles and the jobs that women may have. She stated that women can still be "doctors", "lawyers", etc. However, I thought it was interesting that she had the need to even mention this. For lack of a better word, our tour guide seemed to "flex" the fact that women were able to have such prestigious jobs. When our group was at iBerry I was able to see a functioni...

     Throughout our stay in Morocco, each day it was increasingly obvious that gender roles were all under the common assumption in every city. Women have certain jobs and men have certain jobs. You rarely found them doing the same jobs or even the same activities. Women are placed in certain roles that are more confined than men where men are typically running most corporations and still able to sit in cafés throughout the afternoons.     In the United States women can be the breadwinners of the home, can sell things at the market, or even choose to stay home and tend to their children. In Morocco, women have specific jobs at factories, regulations placed by men in the family and their religion.     Although there are strides being made throughout the country, women still are in the minority of most conversations. Only 12.8% of businesses are ran by women, 8% of leadership in large companies are women, and 13.8% of leadership in trade sectors are wome...