Women's Employment - United Nations Research Institute for Social ...

Women’s employment in the textile manufacturing sectors of Bangladesh and Morocco
d. Tapping the gender issues within the federations/unions
Besides the office bearers of the federations, who were mostly
male, we also sat independently on several occasions with only the
unit union leaders, who were mostly female, as well as other female
members and supporters of the federations in or outside their office
premises. During our group discussions with female members and
supporters we asked particularly to what extent their own issues and
sentiments — such as, for example, ensuring separate toilets and
changing room facilities at the work place, fighting against sexual
harassment, ensuring personal security and safety both in and outside
the workplace, overcoming various hazards of long working hours,
ensuring health and childcare facilities and so on — were echoed in
the activities and demand charters of the federations.
We also wanted to verify whether any gender subordination
existed in the hierarchy of the federations in terms of decision making.
While most of the workers spoke positively about the inclusion of
“all feasible women’s issues” in the activities and demand charters of
the unions, their responses on issues related to gender subordination
within the unions were varied. Some were quite ambivalent in their
expression of opinions. Some accepted the prevalence of male
domination within union leaderships as inevitable given the existing
socio-political conditions in Bangladesh which, to their mind, were
not conducive to women’s leadership, particularly when it came to
industrial dispute resolution. For them, industrial disputes in
Bangladesh are always confrontational, and therefore male leaders
are better equipped to withstand the management in times of crisis.
Some argued that given the opportunity and perhaps a little outside
support, women workers would be equally able to lead their unions
or federations. In support of their argument they pointed to the fact
that both the President and the General Secretary of non-registered
Federation G — a federation established with support from an
American-based NGO — were women. For the majority of them,
however, the issue of leadership within unions or federations did not
really matter because the women workers constituted more than 90
per cent of their total membership.
e. The garment federations: Formation and network
During our interviews with both the federation leaders and
general female members, the first thing we wanted to know was how
their federations were established and whether there was any political
or NGO connection during the inception of any of the federations.
The reason for this query was our a priori assumption that the nature
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