An academic study indicates the door-to-door beauty sales firm Avon is providing women in South Africa with a route out of poverty.
The sound of "Avon calling" was first heard in rural New York, and became part of the rhythm of middle England; less well known is the popularity of the door-to-door makeup-selling company in South Africa, and its social impact on impoverished women.
Yet this is the unlikely subject of a three-year academic study by Oxford University researchers, funded by a £160 000 grant from the British government, found that becoming an Avon lady in South Africa is often a route to financial independence and greater self-confidence.
Professor Linda Scott, a leader of the project, said: "I was not prepared for the way the women felt about it. We came to call it 'lipstick evangelism'. There was a significant number who had sad stories – they had been raped; they had HIV – and they took up Avon as a last resort."
Since its founding, in 1886 by a struggling door-to-door bookseller who switched to perfumes, Avon has expanded to more than 100 countries, including Britain, where it has operated since 1959.
Scott said it arrived in South Africa in the mid-1990s, and now has tens of thousands of representatives – black and white women and a few men.
Financial autonomy
Trade union estimates say black women in South Africa earn an average of R1 200 a month, while white women earn R9 600 and white men around R19 000.
The Oxford research included surveys with 300 black Avon representatives and 77 customers, plus interviews with Avon's management, representatives and consumers.
It found Avon representatives' income put them in the top half of black women in their communities, and brought them in line with what a black South African man earns.
Avon representatives with 16 months or more in the system earned enough to cover a typical household's expenditure for food, non-alcoholic drinks, clothing, shoes and healthcare.
Three out of four representatives told the survey Avon had helped them achieve financial autonomy, and nearly 90% said they had learned skills from Avon that could be transferred to other employment.
Inspiring achievement
"Respondents reported in very large numbers that working for Avon had given them confidence and social skills, as well as earning them respect from family and their community," the researchers said.
"This effect on their sense of empowerment seems to result from the supportive and gender-friendly network, as well as the formal recognition system that Avon employs to reward and inspire achievement."
Scott, an expert on the history of grooming practices and author of the book Fresh Lipstick: Redressing Fashion and Feminism, said South Africa also has distinctive consumer patterns, with lotions and fragrances outselling soaps, lipstick or eyeshadow.
The study was led by Scott and Dr Catherine Dolan of Oxford's Saïd Business School, and was funded by the British government through the Economic and Social Research Council.
Scott said she had made contact with Avon at the outset but the company then "stepped back". She added: "We didn't really talk to them for three years. I haven't discussed it with them." – © Guardian News and Media 2012