Executive Summary:
The Hypocrisy of Barbie’s Feminism: Labor Conditions of Working Class Women in a Mattel Factory in China
In 2023, the Mattel-backed film featuring Barbie dominated the global Box Office, resonating with audiences globally due to its progressive feminist themes. Unsurprisingly, the sale of Barbie dolls boomed shortly after the movie’s release. While Mattel reaps significant financial rewards from Barbie’s cultural prominence, questions arise regarding the increased demand for the toys: where are these toys made, what are the working conditions in these factories, and how much are the workers paid?
In the backdrop of Mattel’s success, China Labor Watch went undercover in 2024 to investigate. We focused our efforts on investigating Chang’an Mattel, a toy manufacturer in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China, which is directly owned by Mattel. At the time of investigation, the Chang’an factory was producing Barbie dolls. Posing as regular workers at the factory floor, we conducted worker interviews to understand the day-to-day working environment in the factory.
We found workplace conditions that violate local labor laws as well as 5 out of 8 commitments listed in Mattel’s Responsible Supply Chain Commitment (RSCC). More specifically, we found:
- an overall culture of sexual harassment,
- absence of workplace accommodations for reproductive health needs,
- gender segregation in the workplace and under-representation of women in leadership positions,
- safety concerns with the living environment,
- excessive overtime and suspected forced overtime,
- low wages,
- workplace bullying,
- workplace health and safety issues,
- inadequate training provisions,
- unmet social security requirements,
- lack of workers’ representation, and
- discriminatory hiring practices.
The findings of this investigation suggest that the promise of emancipation and feminist empowerment in the Barbie movie rings hollow. It also demonstrated little changes have been made in the factory, following our earlier investigation into two Mattel factories in 20204 where we found that women who work in the assembly line were subjected to sexual harassment, and overall working conditions for all workers contravened local labor laws.
Underlying these findings is a tale of gendered double standards, one of liberal Western feminism and emancipatory aspirations at the expense of working class and non-White women in China. More importantly, our findings demonstrate that Mattel has not made systemic improvements to better the working conditions for workers in the factory, despite our previous findings highlighting how the working conditions in their factories violate Chinese labor laws. We call on Mattel to introduce immediate rectifications in the Dongguan factory, and detail specific recommendations in the report.
In the Barbie movie, Barbie proclaimed “We fixed everything in the real world so all women are happy and powerful.” Inspiring equivalent feminine achievements in the “real world” need not be limited to a certain race, class, ethnicity, or gender. The reality on the ground today certainly needs fixing. Mattel can take the first step