‘Band aid’ for women in the ready-made garment industry: self-help and surveillance in Bangladesh

Abstract

After the collapse of the Rana Plaza building killed over a thousand garment workers in 2013, several transnational corporations partnered with nongovernmental organizations to offer factory-based training initiatives for women in Bangladesh. These programmes promote worthy goals, including women’s empowerment, menstrual health and financial literacy. But textual and visual analysis of lesson plans, awareness posters and instructional videos for workers reveal two mechanisms that undermine transformative change: They splinter worker solidarity through a focus on individualistic self-improvement (self-help) and facilitate business-as-usual by selectively revealing and concealing aspects of workers’ lives (surveillance). This study highlights the worker-facing side of corporate social responsibility and transnational business feminism’s turn toward empowerment education. These programmes purport to be good for business and for women. However, the training materials provide women with what I call ‘band aid’ remedies by telling women how to fix themselves and by strategically covering or exposing their problems.

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