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Mauritius Role of Women
As in other industrializing countries, the role of
women is
changing rapidly. A major force for change has been the
rapid
influx of women into the many jobs created in the 1980s in
the
export processing zones (EPZs--see
Industry and Commerce
, this
ch.). Although low-paying for the most part, the jobs
allow women
formerly confined to the roles of mother and wife to gain
a
certain degree of personal and social freedom. One woman,
in a
1993 National Geographic article, said:
For a Mauritian woman, to work is to be free. Before, a
girl
could not leave home until her parents found a husband for
her,
and then she moved into her husband's family's home and
spent the
rest of her life having babies. I met my husband at work,
and it
was my decision to marry him. Now we live in our own
house.
The government has taken measures to promote equality
of the
sexes by repealing discriminatory laws dealing with
inheritance
and emigration. In 1989 the government appointed equal
opportunity officers in the principal ministries to deal
with
women's issues. Reports by the Ministry of Women's Rights
and
Family Welfare and others indicate, however, that violence
against women is prevalent. The increased employment of
women has
created the need for more child-care services and for more
laborsaving devices in the home.
Data as of August 1994
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