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

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Female employment under export-propelled industrialization The annual compound growth rate of exports between 1992 and 1997 was a robust 19.4 per cent, four times higher than the GDP growth rates registered in the country over the same period. 2. Employment growth The rapid growth of Bangladesh’s RMG exports also meant a very high rate of employment expansion. In 1995-96, about 1.3 million workers were employed in approximately 2,350 RMG factories in the country. Table 5 presents information about the growth of employment in the RMG sector between 1981/82 and 1995/96. In 1991-92 (the most recent year for which activity-specific data are available), about 92.4 per cent of all employees in the RMG sector were production workers. It is of critical significance that women constitute the majority of this workforce. According to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), in 1996 almost 1.2 million female workers (i.e., 90 per cent of total employment in the industry) were employed in the export-oriented RMG units. As can be seen from Table 6, in 1994-95 about 46.7 per cent of the total workers employed in the textile sector of Bangladesh were women. It is interesting to note here that in almost all countries, irrespective of the level of economic development, women on average constitute almost three fourths of the total labour force in the textile sector. In contrast, in Bangladesh it is only in the export-oriented RMG industry and the silk sub-sector that women constitute the majority of the workforce: 9 out of 10 in the export-oriented RMG sector and almost 1 in 2 in the silk industry. The other notable female-intensive sub-sector is the handloom sector, where women constitute a little less than half of the workforce. In the spinning and knitting subsectors, the female participation rates are not significant. A substantial discrepancy in the female participation ratio is discernible between local and export-oriented RMG (see Tables 6 and 7). This is explained by the fact that in Bangladesh the RMG units catering to the local markets are mainly small tailoring outfits with a majority of male workers, while the export-oriented RMG units are relatively large units with a predominance of female labour. Table 7 also shows that between 1991-92 and 1994-95, the share of women in total employment registered an increase from 5 per cent to 10 per cent in spinning and from 4 per cent to 14 per cent in knitting. Ministry of Commerce projections (presented in section V) envisage a substantial increase in the share of women in the workforce of these sub-sectors in the near future. But given the relatively low share of 231
Women’s employment in the textile manufacturing sectors of Bangladesh and Morocco Table 5: Growth of employment in the RMG sector Year Workers Supervisors Managers Total 1981-82 4,200 315 28 4,543 1982-83 6,400 480 44 6,924 1983-84 24,000 1,800 172 25,972 1984-85 99,350 7,451 720 107,521 1985-86 323,200 24,240 2,348 349,788 1986-87 346,850 26,014 2,520 375,384 1987-88 362,250 27,169 2,632 392,051 1988-89 391,950 29,396 2,848 424,194 1989-90 405,700 30,428 2,948 439,076 1990-91 514,050 38,554 3,736 556,340 1991-92 729,100 54,683 5,300 789,083 1992-93 - - 804,000 1993-94 - - 827,000 1994-95 - - 1,200,000 1995-96 - - 1,294,000 Source: BGMEA. Table 6: Gender composition of employment in the textile sector (1991-92 and 1994-95) (million person-years) Sub-sectors 1991-92 1994-95 Male Female Total Male Female Total RMG Local 0.720 0.080 0.800 0.752 0.084 0.836 Export-oriented 0.080 0.720 0.800 0.120 1.080 1.200 Dyeing/finishing 0.200 0.004 0.204 0.212 0.005 0.217 Weaving (powerloom) 0.191 0.006 0.197 0.100 0.003 0.103 Handloom 0.572 0.455 1.027 0.409 0.324 0.733 Silk 0.100 0.100 0.200 0.110 0.120 0.230 Knitting/hosiery 0.043 0.002 0.045 0.044 0.007 0.051 Spinning 0.115 0.006 0.121 0.120 0.013 0.133 Total 2.021 1.373 3.394 1.867 1.636 3.503 Source: Ministry of Commerce, Government of Bangladesh, 1996. 232
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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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Gender and employment in Moroccan t
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Gender dimensions of labour migrati
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Table 1: Total number of male and f
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Becoming a garment worker 5Becoming
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Becoming a garment worker garment w
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Becoming a garment worker Table 1:
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Becoming a garment worker 2. “I e
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Becoming a garment worker out that
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Becoming a garment worker being. Th
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Becoming a garment worker support t
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Becoming a garment worker they firs
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Becoming a garment worker V. Conclu
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Becoming a garment worker is a job
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Becoming a garment worker Endnotes
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Becoming a garment worker Cole P. D
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