The Southern African Customs Union has made it easier to trade in crafts within the region. African women for example, sisal bag producers in Kenya have been hurt in local markets by cheaper goods from Southeast Asia. In Pakistan and India falling exchange rates and inflation are hurting crafts people. In Thailand the local market has collapsed, and middlemen are calling for lower prices. Eighty percent of the employees are women, usually high school graduates between the ages of 18 and 25.
Firms prefer single women.
Often when they marry and have their first child they move to sub-contracting from home. As their children are older they often go back to the factory, but when they reach their 40 s they move again into the informal sector to take up crafts production or open variety stores. It is good for women to have employment alternatives. It gives them a better chance to control their lives, if they control the income they earn. Philippine women feel a strong duty to support family.