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

Female employment under export-propelled industrialization
is thus important to endow women workers with basic education and
vocational training (including computer literacy). Female-oriented
investment in human resource development may therefore be the most
dependable deterrent to technological redundancies. Alternatively,
with the changing nature of national competitive advantage, a
mismatch may emerge between the skill and quality endowments of
female labour and the skill and quality endowments demanded.
Under these circumstances, if certain supply-side constraints are not
addressed through public policy interventions (e.g., in the areas of
skill development and health care), female employment in the export
sector cannot be maintained and enlarged — in absolute or relative
terms.
One also needs to take into account the fact that the level of
export-supported female employment is vulnerable to fluctuating
global demand. This may be reinforced by the “footloose” nature of
foreign investment (one of the major sources of female employment),
which may shift production locations in search of cost-effective sources
of labour, usually for their “old” technologies. While global demand
may be an exogenous variable (predicated largely on the economic
activity rate in the developed countries), the extent to which an
exporting country can create a niche for itself depends on the
availability of a quality workforce within a conducive policy
framework.
It is thus important to look beyond the immediate benefits
accruing to women workers in Bangladesh through increased access
to wage employment as a result of trade expansion. A new set of issues
with far-reaching implications for the industrial employment of
women in the context of economic globalization requires attention.
While women’s short-term material interests are served by such
employment opportunities, fulfilment of longer term strategic gender
interests may only be evaluated in terms of continued access to such
opportunities in the future, coupled with enhanced gender equity in
the labour market.
2. The nature of the study
a. Objective and scope
The primary objective of the present chapter is to assess the
adjustment dynamics of the export-oriented manufacturing sector in
Bangladesh in view of the opportunities and constraints created by
changes in technology and the economy. This line of investigation
has been pursued in the concrete context of the apparel industry in
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