Gender, Status and Empowerment

Hancock, Peter

doi:10.1177/0169796x0902500401

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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Section: Made In Sri Lanka: Spearheading Through a Pandemic?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet it is also an opportune moment to bring feminist geographical concerns on value creation and global production to the forefront. Several studies have featured the exploitative conditions garment sector workers based in FTZs (free trade zones) must navigate (Gunawardana 2016;Hancock 2009;Hoskins et al 2021;Ibrahim and Padmasiri 2019). Localised reports have drawn attention to the geographies of manpower (temporary) workers within the FTZs and their difficulties (Dammalage 2021;Padmasiri and Armulingam 2014;Skanthakumar 2017).…”

Section: Introduction: Tumultuous Times?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tenacity Besides Depletion: Pandemics, Protests, and Workers from the Sri Lankan Apparel Sector

Ruwanpura

2024

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Sri Lankan apparel has conventionally crafted itself as a niche and ethical supplier. Staying with this record, shifting to PPE (personal protective equipment) production, a tripartite agreement on minimum wages and a furlough scheme were key successes during the pandemic. However, the recurrent absence of living wages resulted in varied worker experiences. I use written testimonies from women garment workers to raise pivotal questions on how the lives of workers started to deplete during the pandemic and yet it did not prevent women workers from claiming differently—underlining slivers of hope, where depletion and tenacity are constant bedfellows. The pandemic was when Sri Lankan apparel's dis/articulation within global production processes came about. Contributing to feminist political economy readings of global production processes, I illustrate how depletion and tenacity are no binaries; acknowledging these spaces of hope offers the potential for agentive action.

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Section: Made In Sri Lanka: Spearheading Through a Pandemic?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction: Tumultuous Times?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Tenacity Besides Depletion: Pandemics, Protests, and Workers from the Sri Lankan Apparel Sector

Ruwanpura

2024

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Achieving Sustainable Development Goals: The Impact of the Apparel and Textile Industry on the Eradication of Poverty in Sri Lanka

Vidanage,

Weragoda,

Karunarathna

et al. 2024

SDGs and Textiles

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Women's economic empowerment and formal income: Sri Lankan Export Processing Zones (EPZs) and their impact on gender perceptions of empowerment

Hancock

Carastathis

Georgiou

et al. 2014

Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography

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Women workers in Export Processing Zones (EPZs) in Sri Lanka are often exposed to harsh working conditions and a range of negative social experiences due to their perceived low social status. Research has demonstrated that they experience both empowerment and disempowerment as a result of formal employment. The authors explore the differences between female Sri Lankan EPZ workers who felt empowered (n = 2196) and those who did not (n = 107), and investigate factors that contribute to empowerment. The analysis reveals a significant difference between the two groups of workers: empowered women had a longer history of employment service, saved significantly more money, and contributed much less to their family than non-empowered women. There were no significant differences in social experiences between the groups. However, the work-related variables used to investigate reported influential factors in empowerment demonstrated that as savings increased so too did the likelihood of empowerment. Conversely, as the proportion of the contribution to the family income increased, the odds of reporting empowerment decreased. The findings suggest that work factors may not be the most important in the establishment of and/or reporting empowerment but rather earnings management and contribution to household appear to be a more significant determining factor. Introduction Export Processing Zones (EPZs) are a relatively new phenomenon in Sri Lanka and employ over 50,000 women, predominantly in textile and garment factories. These industries are critical for the nation's terms of trade and the income earned by the young women who work in EPZs is very important to their own empowerment and that of their families. We found that most women contributed part of their salary to their family and saved part in formal bank accounts. They were doing this as a strategy intended to last for only 3-5 years, due to the harsh working conditions and negative societal attitudes to women in Sri Lanka working in export-oriented manufacturing. It is beyond doubt that women feel disempowered in EPZs globally due to long working hours and harsh working conditions, low pay, and severe managerialism.However, in this article we explore a more personal and experiential reason for feelings of empowerment and disempowerment that hinges on levels of savings and monthly remittances. Our study is quantitative and focused on a large sample size (n = 2303), the largest in the literature reviewed and thus unique. Quantitative analysis of women who work in EPZs on this scale is not apparent in any of the literature that we have sourced since 2004 and our analysis sheds new light on gender and empowerment in developing nations. For example, we found that women who had a longer than average (3-5 years) employment history had an opportunity to save more money. As expected, empowered women reported significantly more savings because they worked significantly longer. This finding is of interest as it sees women as active agents of change, with deliberate strategies devi...

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Gender, Status and Empowerment

Cited by 5 publications

References 22 publications

Tenacity Besides Depletion: Pandemics, Protests, and Workers from the Sri Lankan Apparel Sector

Tenacity Besides Depletion: Pandemics, Protests, and Workers from the Sri Lankan Apparel Sector

Achieving Sustainable Development Goals: The Impact of the Apparel and Textile Industry on the Eradication of Poverty in Sri Lanka

Women's economic empowerment and formal income: Sri Lankan Export Processing Zones (EPZs) and their impact on gender perceptions of empowerment

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