Fashion with a Conscience

Next time you buy a pair of Gap jeans, do it guilt-free: you could be helping a gal in a factory across the globe. How? Gap has teamed up with the nonprofit International Center for Research on Women to help female factory workers train to be managers. “Men definitely occupy more management positions,” says Bobbi Silten, Gap’s chief foundation officer. “This gives women the opportunity to compete.” Gap’s investment makes sense, given that women produce more than 80 percent of the retailer’s clothes. The program, called Personal Advancement and Career Enhancement, which started in India in 2007, recently expanded to Cambodia, and will hit Bangladesh next.