Tawashi Br Tawashi Brush Coir Production Sri Lanka

Ethiopia Women’s work in the household, community and the (new) business Women ♀ Unpaid caring work in the household Community work Unpaid productive work for the cash market Unpaid productive work for household consumption Community work 4 h/week Unpaid productive work Cooking cleaning, washing clothes 20 h/week Taking care of children and elderly 10h/week Looking after cows and goats, home gardening. Approx 6h/week Producing brooms, drying fish, sewing Approx. 5h/week Community activities 2h /week Paid productive work for the enterprise Approx 24 h/week Total hours worked in an average week: 71 hours

Areas for women to negotiate

Actual stories on women’s agency: Sri Lanka “ ‘We become efficient because we work at the production centres and we also work at home. We enjoy the feeling that we are being productive and not just carers of children and husband. Time is not such a problem when you are efficient. However, we do not have the free time as we had before. We have to plan our work and time more efficiently.” t

Some quotes from women ‘We become efficient because we work at the production centres and we also work at home. We enjoy the feeling that we are being productive and not just as carers of children and husband. Time is not such a problem when you are efficient, however we do not have the free time we had before. We have to plan our work and time more efficiently’. ‘Because of the group dynamics and friendship between the women working in the production centre we feel that the relaxing time we had at home is replaced by the relaxing times and chats we have with the others in the production centres. My husband and I work as a team together sharing the workload and ensuring the housework is all done’. Some interesting outcomes of joining the production centres Our children are no longer lazy and do their own work Our children learn that they can’t always order us around and they have become independent We have become independent of our family and can make decisions for ourselves since we have our own income. At first we felt guilt for not doing our household chores but we no longer feel that because everyone in the house has become independent and is taking responsibility for the jobs. The village people respect us more because we are earning an income. In some instances because we have increased our efficiency we have the ability to do more and therefore we are helping more at the village than before. Earlier my husband did not do any work in the household but now he has started helping out. He helps out because he knows that I can’t do two jobs. He would like to keep the child at home but she is attached to me so I have to bring her to the production centre. We pay for the child’s preschool but the State has free education and health for older children. The State does not give us any other help.

The product - Tawashi brushes made from coir There are 13 production centers that are located walking distance from the women producer’s houses in the village. The centers are either housed at community centres or within the land of a village woman producer. Women work flexible hours in the production centres and are expected to produce 300 brushes a day. The centres are open all day so women can come to work at anytime. Some women bring their children to work and the children play in the workplace. If women have other commitments they may come at a later part of the day to finish their work. Each production centre has approximately women engaged in producing brushes for two private sector companies. (Alliance five and Hayleys). Women who work in the centre are able to produce the 300 brushes by working three or four hours a day. However they are expected to work each day of the week with the exception of Sunday. Since they are earning approximately Rs a month most women are keen to complete their target. The leader of the group usually liaises with the private sector company and make the arrangements about targets and payment. The woman leader would pay her team according to the brushes they produce per month.

Gendered market map Please see separate document