Making a handcrafted shoe is a physically intensive job so we are being careful towards this. Perhaps at some point, as the company grows we would be able to invest more in this area and see if it needs to be changed for some women.
I think you need to be pretty careful about this. If you're saying making shoes is too physically intensive for any pregnant women, that's a pretty blanket statement. Some women are active until quite late into their pregnancy, and the idea that they might not be capable of making a shoe could seem quite insulting.
Also, presumably part of the appeal of this product is that your workers will receive better conditions than in horrible sweatshops. If you're saying that pregnant women are often exploited, but you won't let them work for you (and I may have misunderstood this) then aren't you dooming them to the conditions they already suffer, and denying them the chance to work for a better employer - you, in this case?
Thanks, those are really good points and we'll take some time to think about how to communicate this better.
I mentioned pregnant women because the ones I've seen doing this work stand out vividly in my memory as examples of people who are currently working under abusive conditions and deserve much better. That's one of the reasons why we started Markhor to begin with and have been very careful. And of course they'll be welcome to make shoes for us if they want to, since the conditions of such work will be much better.
In our parts of the world (eastern Europe), but I'm sure all the more in 3rd world countries, women don't get insulted if somebody suggests they shouldn't work during their pregnancy.
For most of them, unfortunately, working or not working is not decided on a whim, but because they need to feed their family.
So if you were to suggest them not to work during their pregnancy, they would be all but insulted, most likely they would laugh, knowing it's not a question of preference.
