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Women’s employment in the textile manufacturing sectors of Bangladesh and Morocco total, only seven female garment workers from the sample live in mess or boarding house with co-workers. They are mainly divorced or separated, though a few are currently unmarried, and almost all migrated between 1991 and 1996. None of the female workers from other manufacturing units live in mess or boarding house and only three out of a total of 30 respondents live in sub-let arrangement. While nearly a quarter of garment factory workers live with co-workers, be it relatives or friends, this type of living arrangement is almost nonexistent among female workers of other manufacturing units. The type of living arrangement utilized usually relates to other socio-demographic characteristics of workers. As opposed to a large number of female workers from garment factories who are young and currently unmarried, their counterparts from other manufacturing industries are predominantly married (two thirds) and live in family units, either nuclear (60 per cent) or joint extended (40 per cent). It should be recalled that garment factory workers often are the first generation settlers in Dhaka city, whereas women workers from other manufacturing industries are either non-migrant or long-term migrants. Hence, they (the latter) are already entrenched in the existing family unit and do not need to create new ways to sustain themselves in urban society. Unlike the family-based living arrangements of female garment factory workers, living in mess or boarding house is much more common among male workers in garment factories. One in three of these male workers lives in mess or boarding house mostly with coworkers; the majority, nearly three quarters, are also the recent migrants. Living in mess units or boarding houses is an age-old practice, which was in vogue in this sub-continent with the introduction of English education and subsequent city-based employment generated for men. The pattern of living arrangements described above suggests that female workers, in particular, depend largely on family members to cope with the urban environment. To overcome the existing negative attitudes about independent female labourers, and lack of low-cost housing or hostel facilities in Dhaka city, women workers live with members of the immediate or extended family. Family-based living arrangements give them protection from theft and other untoward incidences. In addition, the family can provide necessary services, such as childcare. In the absence of any institutional support, the role of family members in providing childcare facilitates female employment outside the home. Of those female workers from garment factories who had children under 5, almost 90 per cent get familial 136
Gender dimensions of labour migration in Dhaka city’s formal manufacturing sector support, as opposed to approximately 60 per cent of their counterparts in other manufacturing units. A large number of the latter group (nearly two fifths) depend on domestic maids to look after their children. Male workers, on the contrary, depend overwhelmingly on family members for childcare. The lack of childcare facilities in many of the emerging mega cities poses a big problem for women’s employment outside the home and for their occupational mobility. It cannot be assumed that families will continue to provide such services. Regarding the problem of theft, which is a major concern in urban Bangladesh, nearly 10 per cent of female garment factory workers, as opposed to 20 per cent of their male counterparts experienced theft in their place of residence while out for work. Incidence of theft is even higher in the case of male workers of other manufacturing units than their female counterparts. In the absence of responsible family members and relatives, who can look after the house during working hours, male workers who live in mess are more susceptible to theft than female workers. In meeting their day to day needs and those of their families, female garment factory workers face intense competition. A large number of helpers (unskilled workers) and operators (skilled workers) live in low rental accommodations, where they have to share latrines and bathrooms with 16 to 22 boarders on average and cooking gas burners or heaters with 10 to 15 families. In the city proper (Karailer Math in Mahakhali and Kalapani area in Mirpur) they live in high room crowding with an area of nearly 3 square metres for each person in a semi-durable type of structure at the cost of Tk 600 per month, which constitutes nearly a half and the total salary of the operators and helpers respectively (Afsar, 1998a). Here they share two or three latrines and five or six gas burners or heaters with 10-15 families. These arrangements make them vulnerable to pay cuts as they are often 10-15 minutes late in arriving for work. They generally lack cemented bathrooms or a covered space and running water facilities for bathing. 13 Not only do workers have to pay for collecting water from the few tubewells that are found in the area, but time travelling to these wells further increases women’s existing workloads. As the first generation of workers in a metropolis that is poorly planned and equipped with cost-effective amenities to meet the needs of the poor, female garment factory workers would appear to pay a higher price to surmount the odds in the settlement process than do their male counterparts. Nonetheless, they seem to be surviving relatively well in the highly competitive formal sector and have achieved the status of independent earners. This was unthinkable for 137
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Women’s Employment in the Textile
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This United Nations Research Instit
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Acknowledgements Many people have b
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notwithstanding the inertia of the
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Carol Miller is a policy analyst on
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xii VII. Contribution of different
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Introduction 1 Introduction 1 Shahr
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Introduction Table 1: Basic indicat
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Introduction women have been tradit
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Introduction The chapters on Bangla
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Introduction occurs, on average, at
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Introduction women workers related
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Introduction in low-income countrie
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Introduction by repaying their “d
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Introduction participate in labour
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Introduction their bargaining power
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Introduction processing zones hypot
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Introduction IV. The case studies T
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Introduction experience in garment
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Introduction V. Conclusion Although
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Introduction improved technology. T
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Introduction References Afsar, R. (
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Introduction Household Power Relati
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Wage discrimination by gender in Mo
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