Invisible No Longer
A professor of women’s studies/is speaking to high school students/about chocolate and the country/where much of it is produced,/Côte d’Ivoire.//
Good morning.//
Today, I would like to discuss with you/something related to this (showing chocolate).//
Chocolate is one of our favorite foods,/right?//
Japan has some of the biggest chocolate companies in the world,/and you each eat around two kilos of chocolate a year.//
When we talk about sweets,/we think about taste, price, and nutritional value.//
But today/I’d like you to take a moment to ask:/“Where does chocolate actually come from?//
Do chocolate farmers make decent wages?//
Are their work conditions safe?”//
Chocolate is made from cacao beans.//
Almost 40 percent of the world’s cacao beans/are produced in Côte d’Ivoire,/which is, in fact,/the world’s largest producer.//
Now,/look at the map on the wall.//
Can you find Côte d’Ivoire?//
The work on cacao farms is dangerous.//
Women do most of the work,/yet they make very little money.//
One woman farmer says,/“Women do everything,/right until the cacao dries.//
But the men take it,/sell it,/and never take us women into account.”//
Today,/I’d like to talk to you/about these women farmers.//
Some people call them/the “invisible women”/at the heart of the chocolate industry.//
One woman/on a cacao farm in Côte d’Ivoire/describes her typical day.//
She gets up at 4 a.m./and walks two kilometers to get water/before making breakfast,/cleaning the yard,/and preparing the children for school.//
Then she walks several kilometers to the field to work,/with her youngest baby strapped to her back/and sometimes with a toddler in tow.//
Cacao beans grow in pods/about the size of a football,/which she harvests from trees/using a knife attached to a long pole.//
In the evening,/she returns home,/carrying a heavy basket of cacao pods/on her head,/only to find more work waiting for her.//
Women do about 70 percent/of the work on the farms/but receive only about 20 percent/of the income.//
They must also do all the housework.//
This unfairness/is due to the country’s patriarchal society,/where men hold power/and make most decisions.//
Women have no say/about selling the cacao beans,/and their husbands don’t share the money.//
Women don’t have access to training or financial aid/which could help them lead a better life.//
There is a very large gender gap.//
Needless to say,/this gender gap must be closed.//
But how?//
In 2017,/Fairtrade UK started a school called/the Women’s School of Leadership/in Côte d’Ivoire.//
The school has transformed the students’ lives/by teaching confidence,/money management,/sustainable farming practices,/and women’s rights.//
Two of the graduates of the leadership school,/Edith and Rosine,/speak about their transformation.//
Edith: “Fairtrade training taught us/how to talk to our husbands/and make common decisions.//
In the past,/our husbands sold the beans/and didn’t show us the money.//
Now we know/how to negotiate with our husbands.//
We work together,/exchange opinions,/and share tasks.//
We support each other/to share our problems/and find a way through to a solution together.//
We feel empowered.”//
Rosine: “Now/my husband and I make a budget together/and I’m afraid of nothing/because I know how to manage my money.//
I am stronger.”//
The school is open not only to women/but also to men.//
A male graduate says,/“Previously men denied women’s rights,/but after training we realized/women needed to make decisions too.”//
Now he helps his wife cook and clean.//
Some people make fun of him,/but he doesn’t care.//
He says,/“My wife and I now live in peace.”//
If they are to achieve gender equality,/women must work to help themselves.//
Graduates of the school/are beginning to share their knowledge and training/with other women in the community.//
Some women have started small businesses/growing vegetables to protect their families/from unstable cacao prices.//
Rosine and Yaoua,/both graduates of the school,/lead a women’s society/to help girls get an education.//
Yaoua says,/“Women don’t have to be behind men.//
We are worthy too.”//
The project/to help the invisible women farmers of Côte d’Ivoire/has gone global.//
In Latin America,/Fairtrade opened leadership schools/in Guatemala and El Salvador.//
In Asia,/Fairtrade also opened schools/in Indonesia and India in 2019.//
The goal is to promote empowerment/and raise awareness of human rights.//
I began by asking you/to think about where chocolate comes from.//
Then we listened/to the voices of the invisible women cacao farmers/in Côte d’Ivoire.//
That led to the question/of how to overcome the gender gap.//
Now,/let’s think about our own lives and societies.//
How much have we accomplished/and how much more do we have to do/in order to close our own gender gap?//
A professor of women’s studies/
Good morning.//
One woman/
Needless to say,/
Edith: “Fairtrade training taught us/
The school is open not only to women/
If they are to achieve gender equality,/