Crafty women are really getting down to business

Show how work associated with women can be given new value on the market through skilled marketing techniques. 

 

The world over “women’s work” is undervalued and this extends to the arts (compare, for example, the way in which carvings and sculptures, that are likely to have been made by men, are valued, in contrast to embroidery, mats, tablecloths etc by women). When men do “women’s work” eg cooking of sewing, new names are found for this (chefs, tailors, designers etc) and the work is given a different value. This article is about strategies that women can use, through organising, marketing etc, to give a new value to their work.

An interesting related exercise would be to send participants out to the nearest market to interview men and women who make and sell art work, to compare how much they earn, their experiences etc, as well as their ideas for increasing their profit margins.

 

Click here for additional training resources and information. Refer to fact sheet three.

Also look at Chapter 13, the Arts, in Gender in Media Training, a Southern African Tool Kit, Gender Links/ IAJ