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The Women Behind the Clothes

How one apparel company is improving the lives of the women in its supply chain through reproductive health training

By UN Foundation

March 8^th, 2016

225 million girls and women who want to choose when, whether, and how many children to have face barriers accessing contraceptive information and services globally. When girls and women can’t plan their families, they face numerous challenges – from an increased risk of death, to a greater risk of dropping out of school, to a reduced ability to earn an income, and more.

Yet as an estimated 1 billion women enter the global workforce over the next two decades, there is an unprecedented opportunity to reach and empower women by providing critical reproductive health education and services through workplace programs.

A number of companies, including several in the apparel sector, an industry dominated by women workers, have already begun empowering workers in their supply chains through programs that provide access to reproductive health information and services. Companies that employ large numbers of women are in a unique position to help ensure that women have access to the family planning education and services that will improve their health and enable them to advance their careers, provide for their children, and be in control of their lives and their futures.

The Women Behind the Clothes

ANN INC., the parent company of Ann Taylor, LOFT and Lou & Grey, is one company who has begun encouraging its suppliers to provide women’s health education and services in its factories. As part of ANN INC.’s 100,000 Women Commitment, they aim to empower women in their global supply chain to reach their full potential. This includes working with the Business for Social Responsibility (BSR)’s HERproject, a women’s health program designed for workplaces that provides workers with education on topics ranging from nutrition, to sanitation, to reproductive health. To date, ANN INC. has sourced 50% of its apparel through partners that provide their workers with the HERproject curriculum.

Three years ago ANN INC. asked one of its suppliers, PT Tainan in Indonesia, to implement BSR’s HERproject in order to provide health information, including education on reproductive health, to its workers. Three years later the workers are healthier and more empowered, and the factory has seen improvements in retention, absenteeism, and morale. When workers are healthier and happier they are also more productive – a win-win for both the women and the factory.

The Women Behind the Clothes

The Women Behind the Clothes

The Universal Access Project at the United Nations Foundation recently traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia to visit the PT Tainan factory and learn more about how the workplace reproductive health program has changed the lives of the women workers and impacted the factory. Three key themes emerged:

1. In Indonesia workers often have limited and inaccurate knowledge about reproductive health because of taboos. Since apparel factories employ mostly women, they are important venues to provide reproductive health information.

2. Access to contraception not only improves health, it also helps women in the workforce advance their careers by empowering them to choose when and how many children to have.

3. When women can plan their families, they tend to be happier and healthier which can translate into improved productivity and economic growth.

The Women Behind the Clothes

The Women Behind the Clothes

The Women Behind the Clothes

But don’t take our word for it. Keep reading to learn the personal stories of two factory workers, Arekalita and Khoreiyah; a health educator, Butet; and the factory manager, Jerry, about what access to reproductive health education has meant to them and the factory.

The power of a Peer Educator: Meet Arekalita

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The Women Behind the Clothes

The Women Behind the Clothes

The Women Behind the Clothes

Arekalita lives in a small town on the outskirts of Jakarta with her husband and 19-year-old son. When asked about her job in the packing division at PT Tainan, Arekalita proudly says, “I really like it …. PT Tainan allows me to earn an income for my child, for our meals, our daily needs, to renovate the house, to send my son to school, and to send him to college.” Although she is financially stable now, her life was not always easy. She explains, “My life is very different. The life of my mom was a life in the past, a life of hardship. She was only a farmer and she had six children. It is hard to provide for six children. It was difficult to send six children to school.”

Arekalita and her husband chose to use a three-month injectable contraceptive in order to have one child because, as she explains, “We were reflecting on our life, and we realized that we were still quite poor and my husband was the only one working. Hence we decided to have one child first, and then we used contraceptives …. The best part about being a mom myself was to witness the birth of my child and to see him grow and to see him now achieving his dream of going to college.”

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The Women Behind the Clothes

The Women Behind the Clothes

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Now Arekalita works to share her story and support for family planning with her coworkers, serving as a peer educator for the HERproject. She explains, “As members of HERproject, we gather employees during lunch breaks and then we share knowledge on health … Because I am a member of HERproject there are many friends asking me questions while having a meal about reproductive health, about HIV, about self-protection, and about proper breakfast.” Arekalita also notes the contribution of family planning to the economic empowerment of her female coworkers, explaining, “When a family does not have many children, only two children, the family will lead a better life and they can support their careers as well.”

Planning Her family, planning her life: Meet Khoeriyah

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The Women Behind the Clothes

The Women Behind the Clothes

The Women Behind the Clothes

Khoeriyah, who goes by ‘Lala,’ uses her bachelor’s degree in fashion design to work in the layout division preparing patterns at PT Tainan. As the sole breadwinner in her household, she emphasizes the importance of her income, saying, “Having my own income means I can provide for my family because both of my parents no longer work, and while I’m still living with my parents I provide for the family – I cover all the needs of the house.”

In addition to earning an income at PT Tainan, Khoeriyah has also learned about the importance of reproductive health. “I am fortunate that in Tainan Enterprise we have HERproject that provides information on contraception,” she shared. “I want to have two kids: one boy and one girl,” she adds with a smile. “I can plan a better family with two kids …. First and foremost I consider the funding for their education. Secondly, a smaller family seems to be a happier family. We can share a love that is fuller.”

The Women Behind the Clothes

The Women Behind the Clothes

The Women Behind the Clothes

In her eight years at the factory, Khoeriah notes that she has seen a change in her coworkers since the introduction of the HERproject, saying, “The change that I witness among my friends following HERproject is that they know more about contraception, how to plan their number of children.” This knowledge extends beyond simply improving the workers’ health and also aids the women workers in advancing their careers, adds Khoeriah. “Without the HERproject,” Khoeriyah explains, “employees would not be able to plan their families - they would not know how to use contraception.”

Growing knowledge, Advancing careers: Meet Butet

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The Women Behind the Clothes

The Women Behind the Clothes

Butet is a health educator for the Foundation for Mother and Child Health (FMCH), an Indonesian NGO based in Jakarta that provides services for women and children. Through her work with FMCH, she provides women’s health training to the workers at PT Tainan through the HERproject. Butet takes great pride in her work, saying with a smile, “Observing [the HERproject participants] growing and enhancing their knowledge is very fulfilling.”
Providing reproductive health information in a workplace program is particularly important because, according to Butet, “the apparel industry and apparel factories mostly hire women.” “For working women, they will face major difficulty if they do not plan their life and plan their family,” Butet adds.
Information is power, and according to Butet, one of her primary roles as a health educator is to dispel common myths. “One of the main barriers is that women usually trust myths …” she explains. Myths are often perpetuated because, according to Butet, “Many people in Indonesia still think that reproductive health is a taboo topic that it is not allowed to be discussed in public, so it is only allowed to be discussed among women.” She sees the provision of reproductive health information through workplace programs as a key intervention to overcome these barriers.

The Women Behind the Clothes

The Women Behind the Clothes

Since the introduction of the HERproject three years ago, Butet has observed a number of differences among the women workers, saying, “They communicate better, they are more confident, and they are able to voice their aspiration more. They are happier because they feel that the factory cares about them and their sense of belonging to the factory increases. Most importantly their health is also improving and they care more about themselves.” She feels confident the reproductive health information she is providing is changing the lives of the female workers and the factory culture as well, saying, “My proudest achievement is witnessing the passion of the factories to provide better service for their employees.”

"The health of these female workers is an asset of the company": Meet Jerry

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The Women Behind the Clothes

The Women Behind the Clothes

The Women Behind the Clothes

Jerry Chang is the managing director who oversees all production in Indonesia for PT Tainan Enterprises; and for Jerry, the benefits for providing workplace women’s health education that includes reproductive health are two-fold: First it enables women workers to be healthier and more empowered; and second, when women workers are healthier and more empowered, they are more engaged and productive – a boon for the company as well.

On the benefits to the women derived from the reproductive health education, Jerry explains, “The HERproject teaches workers about how to make better management over their lives by planning the number of children that they have that would best fit their own lives.” And on the benefits to business, he adds, “Throughout the three years we’ve been running the HERproject our turnover rate has come down from 1% to 0.5% …. We see improvement in absenteeism, turnover, and in turn it helps with the productivity in general for the workers …. The sense of belonging of the workers has been improved a lot throughout the project.”

The Women Behind the Clothes

The Women Behind the Clothes

In an industry so dominated by women, a special focus on reproductive health becomes even more important. “In PT Tainan, there are around 90% women. They’re very important to our factory. That’s why after we implemented HERproject, we’ve found it very helpful for us. The health of these female workers is an asset of the company. When they share a sense of belonging towards the factory … be it efficiency, production, or even workers’ peer-to-peer relationship, it uplifts the whole factory,” emphasizes Jerry.

Jerry and PT Tainan have no intention of ending the HERproject any time soon. According to Jerry, “We are still running the HERproject even after the trainings, and we’re still keeping the project rolling by having the [peer educators] extend the knowledge to their family, their friends, and even to an orphanage.” Jerry adds with a smile, “We’ve been running a lot of different projects in the past and so far we do think that the HERproject is the best for the garment industry.”

In their own voices

Take a look at the video below to hear from the women yourself and get a sneak peek into their lives.

Want to learn more and take action?

Arekalita and Khoeriyah have access to family planning information and services, but hundreds of millions of girls and women globally don’t. Be a part of the movement to change this. Take action and learn more at universalaccessproject.org. You can also learn more about ANN INC.’s efforts to improve the health of the women in its supply chain by visiting http://responsiblyann.com/women/. To find out more about Business for Social Responsibility’s HERproject, visit www.herproject.org.

© 2026 UN Foundation

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