TO THE MARKET x Jane Mosbacher Morris
Sustainable, Responsible, and Authentic
The international aid industry and the vast majority of public sector engagement of women in the developing world provide social services, not job creation. Teju Coles similarly articulated in his book, Known and Strange Things, that these types of organizations tend to operate with a top-down approach to development, constructing a narrative of heroic humanitarians bestowing charity upon the world’s poorest women. While poverty renders women in the developing world particularly vulnerable, technocratic, patronizing aid does not suffice. Women need tangible economic freedom. This existing work neither alleviates poverty nor leads to substantive long-term economic development. Rather, it can further serve to maintain the status quo in a way that precludes systematic change. The freedom to work and make a living by choice, in conditions that are fair, safe, and dignified is essential to human welfare.
Jane Mosbacher Morris founded TO THE MARKET (TTM) to connect retailers to ethical, environmentally responsible supply chains that empower women. During her time at the Department of State, Jane identified two significantly underserved markets. On the demand side, there was interest among millennials in ethically made products. She found that young people want to see the same transparency in the fashion world that now exists within the food and beverage space. On the supply side, she identified an incredible untapped production capacity around the world, particularly in the artisan industry. It’s the second-largest economy in the developing world, behind agriculture, but is largely disconnected from the supply chains of traditional retailers and corporations.
TTM democratizes access to the global supply chain through job creation so that female makers operating ethically and sustainably can participate more fully. TTM believes that female employment is an essential responsibility that shapes and fulfills human dignity. Their goal is to link these global opportunities with these less visible female suppliers, ultimately supporting the working woman in communities across the globe. TTM connects small female artisan collectives from all over the world with corporations including, but not limited to, Hilton and Home Depot, retailers such as Target, Bloomingdales, and Macy’s, and brands such as Madewell. To get a perspective for how each TTM order works to create a larger transformative impact, a recent TTM face mask order engaged six artisan groups from six different countries, employed over 1,000 makers across the globe, and generated close to 220,000 hours of paid, dignified work.
TTM serves as an effort to help guarantee economic freedom for women. Achieving economic freedom can influence education, women’s rights, healthcare, marriage, and many more sectors, but it also has the potential to create substantive rights and representation for women where they have never before existed.
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