Current Situation of Moroccan Women and Opportunities Amal Provides

Abstract

Women’s issues in the west have been in the news for many years now and are a very popular social issue. In Morocco, this is not the case. In order to understand women’s empowerment there, one must first adopt the cultural context. In order to do this I decided to volunteer at Amal Women’s Training Center and Moroccan Restaurant. I spent eight weeks fully immersed in Moroccan culture and six of those weeks volunteering alongside the service staff and trainees at the center. I observed operations of the center and interviewed staff on how things are done and what they see as the status that women occupy in society and its developments over the years. I found that Amal is successful at training disadvantaged women for positions within the workforce which gives them the ability to be financially independent. Overall, I observed that women are slowly gaining more opportunities in the public sphere and access to more legal rights. I also learned that there is a distinct divide between individuals in service positions and those in administrative positions. Amal is a successful organization at empowering women with the skills to be financially independent but could implement other programs and ideas to empower women fully.