This chapter takes as its central focus the relationship between minority ethnic women and employment in North West England. In terms of labour market activity, this group represents one of the least active sections of the population and therefore one of the greatest challenges to current initiatives to increase workforce participation. The analysis presented here is based on case studies constructed from interviews with project staff across a number of community projects in North West England and West Yorkshire.

The purpose of the SEQUAL research was to explore ‘promising practices’ that were being applied through the community and voluntary sector that could have wider application in improving labour market opportunities. The issues explored here are mostly concerned with women originating from South Asia or having a South Asian heritage and the text often refers specifically to Pakistani and Bangladeshi women. In reality, the projects deal with a much broader range of women from different origins and backgrounds but the issues encountered were similar. Pakistani and Bangladeshi women represent the largest minority ethnic groups in North West England and they also have the lowest labour market activity measured in recent surveys (Botcherby, 2006; CRE, 2006; Heath and Cheung, 2006).

The objective here has been to outline some of the ‘promising practices’ that have emerged from the research and locate them within a context that reflects the barriers that have to be overcome in extending labour market participation. The SEQUAL research shows the importance of community-based initiatives (CBIs) in improving ‘employability’ for women through a holistic framework that can help to overcome the complex social and cultural barriers that prevent access to training and the development of skills. The role played by community projects is not only to provide training and support but also a framework for negotiating between, on the one hand, values of tradition, culture and religion and, on the other, the implicit values associated with the ‘citizen-worker’ that is at the core of welfare and labour market reform. The research also raises problems about the notion of employability as the only factor in widening labour market participation. The qualitative accounts given by project staff and women involved in these projects point to the limitation of measures to improve employability where employment opportunities are restricted.