Women workers in the apparel sector

Abstract

The early 1980s lead to a fl urry of analysis regarding the role of women workers in the apparel sector. These incipient feminist interventions tended to hone in on the economic status of women workers to the exclusion of understanding the multiple ways in which their social and cultural lives was also transformed through this process. This research lacuna was primarily fi lled through the works of cultural and social anthropologists. The past three decades' academic debates then have witnessed an intellectual and scholarly transition from the economic to the cultural, alongside strident calls for ethical corporate codes in the apparel sector. This journey, however, has not necessarily had an abiding focus on feminist concerns to do with the gendered nature of work itself.

Labour in global production networks: workers in the qualifying industrial zones (QIZs) of Egypt and Jordan

“…7 Egypt, however, exhibits many of the well-established characteristics associated with women working in export industries. These include family perceptions of female work as a secondary income and the greater 'flexibility' of female compared with male work (Elson and Pearson 1981;Pepper 2012;Ruwanpura 2011). The Egyptian case, however, adds a different side to the argument.…”

Conceptualizing Labor Regimes in Global Production Networks: Uneven Outcomes across the Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan Apparel Industries

“…Apparel is the largest labour-intensive manufacturing industry in South Asia, with women making up the vast majority of the workforce (Hewamanne 2008;Ruwanpura 2011;Mezzadri 2016;Saxena 2020). Within South Asia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have The Sri Lankan apparel industry also took off in the early 1980s following market liberalisation and associated trade policies (Kelegama 2004;Wijayasiri and Dissanayake 2009).…”