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Garments Women Workers
in Bangladesh: Globalization and Sexual Harassment |
2001 International Labor
Organization report documents increase in sexual harassment under
globalization. Workers’ high job insecurity, low pay, bad working
conditions, low status, and low bargaining power increase sexual harassment.
Flexible production regime of globalization increases number of worksites
characterized by conditions that favor sexual harassment.
Working Women in Bangladesh
Female labor force participation is increasing dramatically in Bangladesh.
Problem of sexual harassment needs urgent attention. Double Jeopardy of
sexual harassment: at work and in public places between residence and work.
Goals of This Study
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Compare Garments and
Electronics Industries.
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To go beyond statistics.
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To get at everyday
experiences of working women.
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Build on existing
information.
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Open up questions for
further research.
Methods of Study
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In depth interviews and
informal
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conversations with 100
workers.
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Random Sample,
Snowballing technique.
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41 Female Garment
workers: 21 Non-EPZ and 20 EPZ.
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40 Female Electronic
Workers.
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19 Male workers.
Definitions of Sexual
Harassment
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Conduct unwelcome and
unwanted by recipient.
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Conduct of a sexual
nature or based on sex, affecting the dignity of individuals.
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Conduct that affects
employment conditions.
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Intimidating,
humiliating, threatening.
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Not just personal or
woman’s issue – a human
rights and labor rights issue that affects society
and economy.
What constitutes sexual harassment for women workers themselves?
What is the relationship between sexual harassment and employment
conditions?
What is the impact of sexual harassment?
What do workers know about their rights?
What are effective remedies?
Research Questions
A Cautionary Caveat Stereotyping of “global sweatshops” and the passive,
sexually exploited third world woman.
Mobilizations in the North against sweatshops in Asia.
Universal Labor Standards and disguised agendas.
Intersection of human rights discourse with geopolitics.
Impact on Bangladesh Garment Industry.
Workers Accounts of Their Experience of Sexual Harassment
Occupation and Location Specific. Range from rape and assault to leering,
suggestive comments, disrespect and verbal
misbehavior. Perpetrators are male colleagues, superiors
or their relatives, and strangers on the road.
Differences Between Sites Between
* Electronics and Garment Factories
* Smaller and Larger Factories
* EPZ and Non-EPZ sites
Differences Between
Electronics and Garment Factories
Not a single electronics
worker reported being physically harassed themselves or having ever heard of
a sexual assault in their workplace.
27% of all garment workers and 38% of non-EPZ garment workers reported
having been physical harassed themselves.
30% of all garment workers and 50% of all non-EPZ workers reported having
heard of sexual assaults in their workplace.
.
Verbal Abuse
Most common abuse is gali or expletives.
40% of all workers and 80% of non-EPZ garment workers reported the use of
sexual expletives in their workplace.
Sexualized vocabulary and body language.
Hostile, sexually charged work environment.
Perpetrators: supervisors, linemen, line chiefs, and production managers.
Also periodic hair pulling, stroking, and kissing workers sitting at
machines.
A“Bangla” Factory
Distinction
Highest incidence of sexual intimidation and coercion in non-EPZ garment
factories.
Related to pace of production.
Perpetrators: supervisors, line chiefs, and others.
Frequently use their position to get women to meet sexual demands.
Night-Shift Problem
Especially in Bangla factories.
Most likely after work before going home.
Late night shift workers often sleep in factories.
Perpetrators: linemen, PM, supervisors,
security guards, owners, managers, or close relatives with access to
factory.
Especially in smaller factories.
Going to and from work
By far most significant occasion for sexual harassment of women workers.
Electronics and non-EPZ workers most vulnerable, because of lack of private
transport.
EPZ workers’ security declines when they leave EPZ and wait at bus stands.
Rape and murders of garment workers on outskirts of EPZ central in workers’
lore.
Forms of Street
Harassment
Risks differ by time of day and mode of commuting.
Daytime verbal abuse widespread.
Women go in groups for safety.
Even so, physical assaults from rickshaw pullers, three-wheeler drivers, and
pedestrians.
Groping, shoving, pinching, kicking.
How Women Feel
Experience of social and economic deprivation.
Poverty makes them vulnerable.
Only the rich get justice.
Insecurity on the street and at work part of continuous experience of
victimization, not just as women but as poor working women.
Job Insecurity
Only 2% of all women signed contracts.
27% signed a blank piece of paper.
70% signed nothing.
78% of electronics workers and 80% of non-EPZ workers signed nothing.
Fear of Reporting Sexual Harassment on the Job
Fear of job loss.
Helpers have least security and report feeling most vulnerable to
harassment.
Helpers youngest, least educated.
Skilled operators older and twice as likely to report feeling of job
security – though half still report physical abuse.
Fear of Retaliation and Stigma
Reporting harassment in the workplace may lead to retaliation outside.
Blacklisting of whistle-blowers.
Women do not always have the option to walk away from jobs even if they are
subject to humiliation: Lojjar matha kheye
abar kaje ashey.
Impact on Productivity
47% of all workers report that sexual harassment impairs their productivity.
Slightly more of these are electronics (51%) and EPZ workers (50%).
Most of the rest of the workers report being emotionally disturbed by sexual
harassment.
Only 14% report no impact on their productivity, and most of these are women
working in the non-EPZ (Bangla) garment factories.
The atmosphere of fear and resentment infects all workers.
Male Attitudes
Over half of all men interviewed said they have a high opinion of female
co-workers.
One quarter said they do not or would not allow their wives to work outside
the home.
35% said female co-workers have been sexually harassed.
Half said retrenched garment workers became sex-workers.
The Law and Workers Rights
Few viable unions exist to negotiate on questions of harassment.
Workers have minimal knowledge of labor laws.
1965 Employment of Labour (Standing) Act should protect workers from
unlawful dismissal.
Enforcement of labor laws non-existent.
Nari o Shishu Nirjaton Domon Ain (2000) contains section on sexual
harassment but does not mention the workplace specifically.
Conclusions of Study
Sexual harassment in Bangladesh,
Ø undermines women’s right to pursuit of secure and safe
livelihood
Ø impairs productivity
Ø Intimately related to conditions of recruitment and
practices of dismissal
and
its causes and conditions reflect the impact of globalization on women
workers as described in the 2001 ILO report.
Contributing Cultural
Factors
Gendered Spatial Codes and Constructions of Respectability.
Predominant attitude toward poor working women as “Fallen Women.”
Widespread Notion of Garment Worker as (Virtually) Sex Worker.
Justifications of Sexual Harassment as Normal Male Behavior.
Social Stigma of Reporting and Tendency to Blame the Victim.
General Recommendations
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Define sexual harassment
as feature of both workplace and public environments.
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Refine laws.
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Enforce laws.
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Improve union awareness
and performance.
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Improve public policy
environment.
How to Improve Sexual
Harassment
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Policies: ILO
Recommendations
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Explicit policy
statements.
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Complaints procedures.
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Enforce rules.
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Protect victims
confidentiality.
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Train professionals in
all relevant fields.
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Communicate acceptable
norms for society
as a whole.
Specific Recommendations
(1)
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Collaboration between
government, labor and women’s organizations to draw up a code of conduct
for the industrial sector.
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Factory-based complaints
procedures and disciplinary bodies with majority female members.
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Workers must be assured
of confidentiality and protection from retaliation.
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Compliance with existing
labor laws must be enforced more effectively to avoid arbitrary dismissals
and informal recruitment practices.
Specific Recommendations
(2)
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Gender-sensitivity
training for all people in authority, in factories and public
institutions.
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The language of the law
should be amended. The stress should be on the protection of women’s right
to equality and dignity of labor, rather on the protection of modesty.
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Provision of Company
buses, women-only buses.
Street lighting, and specially trained police patrols.
Mass Media campaigns.
Source: Globalization,
Sexual Harassment and Workers’ Rights in Bangladesh:Strategies for
Intervention
http://www.cpd-bangladesh.org/dp_040303.PDF |