The Women Who Power Fashion

From factory floors to retail spending, women sit at both ends of the fashion supply chain. They are the workforce, the consumers, and the economic engine behind the $2 trillion fashion industry.

March is Women’s History Month, and every year it makes me look at fashion a little differently.

Typically, we discuss fashion through runway shows, trends, and designers. However, a much larger picture emerges when I zoom out and examine the industry's organizational structure.

The fashion industry is more than just a creative one. It is an international economic system, and women are the ones driving that system at almost every level, from production to consumption.

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The Women Making Our Clothes

The stats are hard to ignore when I consider the fashion industry's production side. Approximately 70–80% of workers in the garment industry worldwide are women, especially in major apparel-producing nations like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, and India.

Garment manufacturers give millions of women access to the job and vital income. The clothing business has contributed significantly to the rise in women's economic engagement in various areas.

However, there is also a glaring disparity in the global fashion supply chain's structure.

The clothing business has grown extremely efficient at making clothes at a low cost and in a timely manner. However, just a small portion of the value gained once those products reach international retail marketplaces is generally given to the workers who sew them, many of whom are women. A dress that sells for $80 may only represent a few dollars in factory wages.

When I think about fashion’s global scale, it becomes clear that much of the industry’s affordability is supported by millions of women working behind the scenes.

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The Women Driving Demand

The consumer side of the fashion economy is likewise dominated by women.

Fashion is directly impacted by the 70–80% of purchase decisions made by women worldwide. Women make up the largest and most powerful consumer base in the fashion business, from everyday clothes to high-end purses.

I find this relationship fascinating because of how uncommon it is from an economic standpoint.

The bulk of clothing is produced and bought by the same demographic group.

To put it another way, women are both the labor and the source of demand for the fashion business.

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A $2 Trillion System Built Around Women

In the upcoming years, the global fashion sector is predicted to generate more than $2 trillion in revenue annually. That value travels through a huge network of manufacturers, retailers, supply chains, and brands.

However, when the industry honors women, a select few prominent individuals; designers, models, editors, and executives, usually receive the most attention.

And such women are deserving of praise. However, they only make up a small portion of the women who maintain the fashion industry.

Millions of women are employed farther upstream in the supply chain, cutting patterns, sewing clothes, running factory lines, and packing goods that will eventually cross seas and end up in closets all over the world.

They are rarely part of fashion’s public narrative. Yet without them, the industry simply would not function.

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What Women’s History Month Reveals

Women’s History Month is often about celebrating women’s achievements. But when I think about fashion, I find myself thinking less about celebration and more about recognition.

Because women are not just participants in the fashion industry, they are its foundation.

A large portion of the world's clothing is produced by women, who make up the bulk of the worldwide garment workforce. They also continuously develop the cultural trends that dictate what the market produces next, and they have a significant impact on the great majority of fashion purchases.

In economic terms, women sit at both ends of the fashion value chain: production and demand.

Fashion may present itself through glossy campaigns and runway shows, but beneath that spectacle sits a simpler reality.

The global fashion industry doesn’t just sell to women.

It runs on them.