Blog 3: Sexual Orientation or Gender Roles

By


I think I’ve been really aware on this trip of when and in what contexts we’ve interacted with women. I was really glad to see women in professional and leadership roles at places like the berry farm and ENA. I've attached a picture of us speaking to the female students at ENA about their studies, which was an experience I found to be really rewarding. With this in mind, I was surprised to learn that, as of 2025, women make up only 22.4 percent of the labor force in Morocco. In fact, the employment rate of women has experienced a sharp decline since its most recent peak of 26.1 percent in 2008 (World Bank, n.d.). This trend both contradicts other trends in the MENA region and flies against efforts made by the Moroccan government to increase female employment (O'Neil, 2018). 


There are a number of obstacles that are keeping women from higher levels of employment in Morocco. Many education programs have begun to address issues of illiteracy among rural women, but still there remains a troubling ratio of educated women (including 47 percent of Moroccans with tertiary degrees) to employed women. Further challenges include social and gender roles of women within the family life. Women who are expected to perform household and childcare related duties are less likely to find gainful employment outside of the home, even despite academic background (O'Neil, 2018). It seems to me like this issue requires more social and cultural change, but this can be encouraged by the government through programs providing childcare support and paid maternity leave for women who want to enter the workforce. 




O'Neil, K. (2018, November 1). Why Education Isn’t the Only Solution: An Overview of Female Employment in Morocco and the Region. High Atlas Foundation. https://highatlasfoundation.org/insights/why-education-isnt-the-only-solution-an-overview-of-female-employment-in-morocco-and-the-region-2

World Bank. (n.d.). Labor force, female (% of total labor force) - Morocco. World Bank Group. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.TOTL.FE.ZS?locations=MA

Comments

  1. Alex McDonaldMay 22, 2026 at 6:02 PM

    Your blog helped me better understand the challenges women in Morocco face with employment and social expectations. I thought it was interesting that even though we saw women in leadership and educational settings during the trip, workforce participation among women is still relatively low. I liked how your editorial recognized both the progress being made and the cultural expectations that still affect women’s opportunities. Something additional I found is that many Moroccan women contribute through informal labor, especially in agriculture and family businesses, which often is not included in employment statistics. Your post also made me wonder if younger generations in Morocco will continue pushing for changes in traditional gender roles as more women pursue higher education and professional careers.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who Am I? Think Again. Exploring Authentic Identities

By
Image
  This video is part of the  TED Talks  series.  TED  (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a nonprofit devoted to disseminating "ideas worth spreading." I thought the idea of  creating authentic identity through failed imitation  was a great theme to begin the course as well as the blog. My hope is that you will step outside of the  status quo  and use your creative nature to complete the assignments and explore identity in a global context throughout this semester. What are your thoughts about Hetain Patel's presentation?
Read more

Motherhood & Morocco

By
Image
  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...
Read more

Sexual Orientation or Gender Roles - Markeila Howard

By
  During my time in Morocco, I had the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the identity of Moroccan women. A  perspective very different from my own. What struck me most was the complex and evolving role of women in Moroccan society as they navigate the balance between tradition and modern change. Moroccan women live in a society deeply rooted in Islamic traditions, yet one that is also undergoing significant transformation. According to the World Bank, Morocco has made substantial progress in gender equality, particularly in education and legal rights. Throughout the trip, several people mentioned that women now have more legal protections, especially in the area of divorce. In most of the places we visited, it was predominantly women who were hard at work—doing the tedious jobs like cleaning and sorting out bad fruit—while men handled tasks involving heavy equipment. These women challenged the stereotypes I previously held about what life is like for women in a tra...
Read more