Trading Away Our Rights - Oxfam International

EPORT final 19/1/04 10:19 am Page 18Far too much of women’swork is still uncountedand undervalued.International LabourOrganization 9Empowerment through employment in BangladeshIn 1982 the government of Bangladesh began to promote export-oriented manufacturing;within two years, the garment industry took off. The sight of thousands of young women inthe streets of Dhaka travelling to and from work was a highly visible sign of social change.For many, there has been significant personal change too.Paid employment has improved many women’s bargaining power within the family,especially with husbands, fathers, and brothers. A 1990 survey of more than 30 garmentfactories found that two out of three women had some control over their earnings. 4According to one woman, ‘In my mother’s time … women had to tolerate more sufferingbecause they did not have the means to become independent. They are better off now,they know about the world, they have been given education, they can work and stand ontheir own feet. They have more freedom.’ 5Many married women workers interviewed in 2003 said that they now take decisions withtheir husbands on family matters, and 13 per cent said their husbands now shared some ofthe housework, especially shopping and cooking – a small but significant shift in a stronglygendered society. 6 ‘The garment sector has brought a silent revolution for women in oursociety,’ said Shirin Akter of Karmojibi Nari, an NGO supporting women workers. ‘Butwomen workers’ rights and status will still not be secured until their freedom of associationis assured and their voices are more widely heard.’ 7All poor people face costs when employed in this way, but the impacts fall particularlyhard on women:• Women typically have less education, land, or savings than the men in their families.That weaker negotiating position leaves them with the primary responsibility forcaring work in the home – raising children, tending to the sick and elderly – and itmakes them more dependent on whatever paid work they can get. No wonder theyoccupy the vast majority of jobs at the end of global supply chains.• Stuck in low-skilled, low-paid jobs, women are less able to renegotiate theirhousehold roles, and so they bear a double burden of paid and unpaid work.That undermines their struggle for greater equality in the home and in society, andleaves little time for participating in workers’ organisations and social support groups.• Insecure contracts often lack the protections and benefits – such as limits on overtime,rest days, sick leave, accident cover, and maternity leave – that are invaluable forwomen in supporting their families. Without this support, either from the State orfrom employers, the strain often undermines their own health and well-being andtheir children’s futures. 8The harmful impacts of precarious employment can be long-term and community-wide.And they are felt in every country. Women and migrants from poor communities inrich countries also face precarious terms of employment in trade-competing sectors.The pressure of competition from low-cost imports is clearly one reason – but so too isthe pressure inherent in being employed in a global supply chain, whether it is sourcingdomestically or overseas.Permanently temporaryWomen are more likely than men to be hired on short-term, seasonal, casual, orhomework contracts, renewed every year, every three months, or even every day.They end up working long-term but without the protection and support that come withlong-term jobs. In Chile and South Africa, women get the temporary jobs in the fruitsector, hired on ‘rolling contracts’ for up to 11 months, year after year. ‘We are permanentwhen it suits management,’ as one South African woman put it. 10 Likewise, almost all ofChina’s migrant garment workers are given one-year contracts, repeatedly renewed,leaving them with no job security.Women are the temporary workers on fruit farmsSouth AfricaChileWoman as % of alltemporary andseasonal employees69%Woman as % of alllong-termemployees26%52% 5%Source: Barrientos et al. (1999) and Venegas (1993) cited in C. Dolan and K Sorby (2003)1819