Women’s increasing entry into paid work has not been accompanied by a corresponding change in the gender division of unpaid labour in the household and community. Though women increasingly participate in the labour market, the expectation is that they will also take responsibility for the household. To what degree does women’s waged work in the garment industry transform gender norms and dynamics in their home lives? To what extent do the choices they make at the household level translate to their empowerment? This paper examines these questions by looking at data collected on gender dynamics at work and at home in the clothing industries of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Kenya, Lesotho and Vietnam. While the extent to which women’s empowerment through employment in the garment sector remains fundamentally circumscribed by low wages, financial insecurity, and gendered expectations, the paper finds that Better Work has expanded the space in which women are able exert agency over their earnings within the context of household resource allocation, and has decreased the negative effects of ongoing and systemic financial precarity.
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Discussion Paper 24: Wildcat strikes and Better Work bipartite committees in Vietnam
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Discussion paper 17: Are Sweatshops Profit-Maximizing?
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Discussion Paper 33 – Supporting Mental Well-being of Migrant Garment Workers in Jordan
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Discussion Paper 9: Global Production Networks and Variegated Capitalism
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Discussion paper 16: Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: How does it Affect firm Performance and Profits
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Discussion paper 21: The Interaction of Labour Inspection and Private Compliance Initiatives
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Discussion Paper 38: Sexual Harassment – Causes and Remediation
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Discussion Paper 23: Labour Compliance and Factory Performance
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Discussion Paper 1: Labour Law Compliance and Human Resource Management Innovation
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Discussion Paper 25: Examining Barriers to Workforce Inclusion of Syrian Refugees in Jordan
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Discussion Paper 39: Is Social Compliance Win-Win for Workers and Firms? Evidence from Better Factories Cambodia
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Discussion Paper 35: Better Work Beyond the Workplace
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Discussion Paper 18: Occupational Safety and Health Conditions in the Apparel Factories
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Discussion Paper 12: Is There an Efficiency Case For International Labour Standards?
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Discussion Paper 29: Lights On: Transparency and Compliance – Evidence from Cambodia
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Discussion Paper 7: Lesotho Clothing Workers’ Perceptions of What Makes Better Work
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Discussion Paper 14: Sexual Harassment in Garment Factories: Firm Structure, Organizational Culture and Incentive Systems
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Discussion Paper 27: The impact of Better Work – Firm performance in Vietnam, Indonesia and Jordan
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Discussion Paper 28: Piece rate pay and working conditions in the export garment sector
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Discussion Paper 2: Excessive Overtime, Workers and Productivity
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Discussion Paper 10: Do Factory Managers Know what Workers Want?
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Discussion Paper 3: Apparel Wages Before and After Better Factories Cambodia
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- Category: Discussion Paper
- Publication: February 2020
- Series No: 35
- Author: Kelly Pike; Beth English