Contemporary processes of learning to sew the deel at a public university in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia)

This article analyses the role of learning to sew in the socialisation process of women in contemporary Mongolia.. Based on ethnographic data collected in 2018 at a public university in the capital Ulaanbaatar, it shows how the sewing workshop is a privileged space for learning how to sew the deel, a garment that Mongolians claim to be traditional, and for women to socialise and share with their apprentices and teachers. The workshop becomes a place of professional socialization for future seamstresses, a profession that is still strongly anchored in a gendered division of roles.