The state of the apparel and footwear industry: Employment, automation and their gender dimensions.

The main goal of this paper is to review the state of the apparel and footwear industry as it relates to automation, employment and gender issues in context of the ILO-EU project “Building Partnerships on the Future of Work” project. The paper highlights the importance of the sector for women’s employment and the gendered nature of the industry; summarizes the literature on the effects of industrial automation and digitization on employment in the apparel and footwear industry, in particular their gender dimensions; and presents a brief overview of the apparel and footwear sector in the project countries, namely Germany, Indonesia, Mexico, Romania and Spain.