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My reading of the thread was that pregnant women are not allowed to work for Markhor. I interpreted "I personally would love...Unfortunately..." and "Perhaps a

My reading of the thread was that pregnant women are not allowed to work for Markhor. I interpreted "I personally would love...Unfortunately..." and "Perhaps at some point...we would be able to...see if it needs to be changed for some women" as implying the policy is that pregnant women can't work for them right now, but maybe in the future this could change. To be clear why I'm confused, myself and others interpreted her statements as meaning pregnant women can't work there and explicitly asked about this. I didn't read anyplace where she said "no, pregnant women actually can work for us, techcrunch is wrong and your shoe might be made by a pregnant woman" in response. I'll take your word that I'm brainfarting and pregnant women are actually allowed to work for Markhor after all. I'm still not seeing how that follows from the comment thread, but if that is the case I offer my apologies.

pen2l 11y ago
I think in general Markhor's model of operation is commendable. This transformation of business -- this lifting of the veil, getting to know the backstory of how our products are made, it's great, this transparency, this kind of personalization will make way for better working standards for workers abroad, since we humans tend to be more moved when the intimate and visible details are put in front of our eyes. If I see that the guy making my shoes is making a dignified living, that he's not stuck in a circle of indentured servitude, that's awesome. Also, I wouldn't read into the pregnant woman comment too much. Pakistan is a very different world -- and there is a legitimate concern of pregnant women doing this kind of work. Most "mochies" (folks who work on shoes) do this stuff sitting down on the floor (despite the pic of a guy working on a table on techcrunch article), I cannot think in any way that that is good for a pregnant woman. The Markhor dude messed up in explaining what he was getting at, I think his motives are good, it's probably a language/culture barrier at fault here. That said, the other thing is that there are basically no women mochies in Pakistan. That's just a matter of fact, so uh, women getting fired are not even a concern to begin with. :) tldr: this ain't the company to get your pitchforks ready for -- facebook et al. are a better bet.

pen2l 11y ago

I think in general Markhor's model of operation is commendable. This transformation of business -- this lifting of the veil, getting to know the backstory of how our products are made, it's great, this transparency, this kind of personalization will make way for better working standards for workers abroad, since we humans tend to be more moved when the intimate and visible details are put in front of our eyes. If I see that the guy making my shoes is making a dignified living, that he's not stuck in a circle of indentured servitude, that's awesome. Also, I wouldn't read into the pregnant woman comment too much. Pakistan is a very different world -- and there is a legitimate concern of pregnant women doing this kind of work. Most "mochies" (folks who work on shoes) do this stuff sitting down on the floor (despite the pic of a guy working on a table on techcrunch article), I cannot think in any way that that is good for a pregnant woman. The Markhor dude messed up in explaining what he was getting at, I think his motives are good, it's probably a language/culture barrier at fault here. That said, the other thing is that there are basically no women mochies in Pakistan. That's just a matter of fact, so uh, women getting fired are not even a concern to begin with. :) tldr: this ain't the company to get your pitchforks ready for -- facebook et al. are a better bet.