Women’s Labour in the Bangladesh Garment Industry: Choice and Constraints*

Abstract

This chapter examines some of the processes underlying the massive influx of women workers into export-oriented garment factories in Bangladesh. In the specific context of Bangladesh, the Islamic content of purdah is interwoven with local notions of female propriety, based on separate spheres for women and men, and on the social ideal of male breadwinner/female dependent. A striking feature which emerged from the interviews with women workers was that the overwhelming majority appeared to have taken the initiative themselves to enter the garment factories. The final point to make at this stage is that women’s accounts of their behaviour also helped to reveal o!her meanings of purdah hidden behind the hitherto received idea of purdah as female seclusion within the four walls of the home. The idiom in which the women spoke often conjured up an image of an invisible protected corridor stretching from the threshold of their homes to the factory gates.

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