Chapter 2: Literature Review
There is no denying the fact that without women empowerment development
goals of Bangladesh is always unreachable. This country belongs to a social
system where women consider as a burden for the family. However, the scenario
is changing with time. Nowadays, women are working in garments sector,
education sector, banking sector, different NGO’s and government organizations
but the single garment sector where seventy percent of workers of 4.0 million are
women and most of them are less educated, unskilled and from rural areas. These
women have neither decision making power and nor access to resources before
getting the job in the garments sector. The job creates ample opportunity for
female workers by giving economic freedom, keeping them near the resources
and facilities in the city area, and making them knowledgeable, and skills through
training, Counseling, and sharing problem with coworkers.
Several authors have analyzed aspects of women empowerment in RMG sector,
Female worker Economic Contribution in Bangladesh, Social Impact of
Garments Industry, the problems and the working conditions of female workers
have received the greatest attention.
However, a study by Uddin and Jahed (2007) revealed that how the garments
sector is contributing as prime mover of the socio-economic development of
Bangladesh. According to them, the garments industry has been leading the
Bangladesh economy since the early 1990s. Garments are the country’s biggest
export making up about three quarters of total exports, and the industry is a
symbol of the country’s dynamism in the world economy. The industry is also
the main non-farm formal sector creating employment opportunities for the poor.
The greater part of the workforce is female; those who are less educated and
migrated from rural areas. Thus, the garments industry is seen as contributing to
poverty reduction in Bangladesh by providing employment opportunities with
higher wages for the poor who would otherwise be engaged in low-wage
economic activities in rural areas.
Gajewski and Riley (2005) discussed about Bangladesh’s export trade practices
and their effect on the competitiveness of the garments industry. They said, a
wide body of evidence suggests that increased openness to trade and greater
export competitiveness contribute to higher rates of economic growth.
A study by Quddus and Rashid (2008) looks at the aspects of garments exports
from Bangladesh. They summarized that, the success of readymade garment
exports from Bangladesh over the past two decades has surpassed the most
optimistic expectations.
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Socio-economic dimension, familial dimensions and psychological dimensions
are three important dimensions of women’s empowerment (Malhotra et al.,
2002). These dimensions are dynamic, interlinked and mutually reinforcing at
household level and recognize the fact that the level of gender equality and
development are directly proportional.
Six indicators of women’s empowerment are contribution to household income,
access to resources, ownership to assets, participation in household decision
making, perception on gender awareness, and coping capacity to household
shocks (Shahnaj Parveen and Ingrid-Ute Leonhäuser 2004).
Billah and Manik (2017) In their study identified, four major factors financial
contribution to family, participation in household decision making, access to
resources and perception of gender awareness which represented ready-made
garments contribution to women empowerment
Women empowerment is the precursor of poverty elimination and uplifting
human rights in Bangladesh where half of the population is women. Social
oppression and economic inequality creates unfavorable situations for rural
women who are actually belonging to extremely poor income group (DFID,
2000).
Women’s are becoming vulnerable in Bangladesh because of their less access to
household resources, poor knowledge and skills, huge domestic workloads, and
limited part in household decision making (Sebstad and Cohen 2002).
In Bangladesh, women are unequally treated by the family members and
sometimes restrict them to go outside such as to join garment sector which means
women have no voice in the family (Cain et al, 1979).
Bangladesh RMG sector plays a significant role to reduce poverty and to increase
women empowerment. RMG industry has been swaggering in the country since
long time as a catalyst for sustainable development and growth. The RMG
employees around 4.0 million people directly, 70% of them women. This sector
has created a platform for 2.8 million women to engage in new productive role in
the society and empowering the poor.
The apex body of country’s leading export item, Bangladesh Garments
Manufacturers & Exporters Association has total number of 4300 members out
of which 1720 factories are Knitwear and sweater manufacturers and around 2580
factories are woven garments manufacturers.
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BGMEA member factories account for 100% woven garment exports of the
country and more than 95% of sweater exports, while around half of the light
knitwear exports are made by them (ACD, 2016).
Empowerment is ensured by raising voices. Female garments workers have
limited voice not only in the home because of male domination but also at the
work place because of absence of trade union (Ahmed, 2004: 38-41).
Development denotes, in a wide sense, fortifying well-being and the satisfaction
of human needs (Galtung, 1980). Therefore, in order to ensure development,
it is necessary to remove all kinds of gender inequalities, because gender
inequalities negatively affect the well-being (Klasen, 2000), and satisfaction of
human needs.
The above literature demonstrates that garments sector has pivotal role in women
empowerment especially for poor and rural women though it is not up to the
mark. In these circumstances, the authors attempted to find out the level of
women empowerment among the garment’s worker of Bangladesh.
Empowerment refers to boost decision making ability of individuals and groups
and transform those decisions into reality (Narayan 2002).
Resources mean material resources as well as social and human resources which
help to increase the capability of decision making. In the boarder sense, resources
are developed through a diversify social relationships such as family, market and
community of the society. Right to entry or use such resources will narrate the
rules and norms of administering distribution and exchange in different
institutional arenas. In determining the principles of distribution and exchange
certain actors authority over others according to the previously mentioned rules
and norms hence distribution of ‘allocative resources’ embedded by the
distribution of ‘authoritative resources’ (Giddens, 1979)
Sathar and Kazi (1997), for example, connect both `access' and `control' with
having a say in decisions related to particular household resources. They
measured two things such as ‘access to resources’ which is reflected on
whether women participate in household expenses decisions and whether
women can freely buy clothes, jewelry, and gifts for their relatives
and‘control over resources’ is calculated by knowing who kept household
earnings and who has the authority in household expenditure In Jejeebhoy's
(1997) analysis resources are related to the concepts of `access', control' and
`decision-making', where `control' sometimes referring to ownership and
decision-making.
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Women’s empowerment can be defined as controlling the key aspects of their
lives (Kishor's (1997). It is very difficult to define control in one term because
it has different meaning such as control explained in relation to resources,
earnings and expenditure. Some other sees control as a self-reliance means
self-dependency and some other sees decision making authority is a true
indicator of control. Last but not the least some people believe that freedom to
choice the life partner is also an indicator of controlling.
Measurement of agency comprises both positive and negative agency such as
women’s participation in public action, their mobility in the public domain,
the occurrence of male viciousness and so on. Nonetheless, decision making
agency is off and on use to measure agency hence decision making is the heart
of conceptualizing power (Lukes, 1974; McElroy, 1992).
Here are some decision-making indicators which vary country to country. In
Egypt, decision making power is measured on the basis of the decisions of
food cooked, visits, children's education, household budget, children's health,
use of family planning methods (Kishor, 1997).
In case of India, whether women have decision making power or not is judge
by look at the decision-making ability about disciplining the child; decisions
about children's education and type of school, purchase of food; purchase of
major household goods; purchase of small items of jewelry; and course of
action if child falls ill (Jejeebhoy, 1997). The factors are different
Zimbabwe where women’s decision-making ability depends on the decisions
about spouse working outside; making a major purchase; and the number of
children (Becker, 1997)
In Pakistan, decision making authority of women reflects the decision taken
by the women about Children's marriage; major household purchases;
Purchase of food; number of children; schooling of children; women's work
outside the home; sale and purchase of livestock; household expenses;
purchase of clothes, jewelry and gifts for wife's relatives (Sathar and Kazi,
1997)
In Bangladesh context, women’s decision-making ability lies on ability to
make small and large consumer purchases; house repair; taking in livestock
for raising; leasing in of land; purchase of major assets (Hashemi et al., 1996).
Agency is the capacity to make meaningful choice and asset endowments are
used as indicators of agency. These assets can be psychological, informational,
organizational, material, social, financial, or human. Some assets are easy to
measures while others are not.
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For example, it is difficult to access psychological assets (such as the capacity
to envision) or social assets (such as social capital) than quantify human assets
(such as skills or literacy) (Alsop, Ruth, Anirudh Krishna, and Disa Sjoblom.
2001). It is difficult to understand the interaction among assets for example, a
single asset is ownership of land can affect a person’s ability to make
meaningful choices whereas education (a human asset) often gives an actor
greater access to information (itself an asset) and at times improves his/her
capacity to envision alternative options (a psychological asset).
The manifestation and operation of formal and informal institutions or rules
of the game is an actor’s of opportunity structure (North 1990, and Uphoff
1986). The presence and process of the formal and informal laws, regulations,
norms, and customs determine whether individuals and groups have access to
assets, and whether these people can use the assets to achieve desired
outcomes (Freire 1973 and Fals Borda 1988).
Direct measures of empowerment can be made by assessing existence of
choice, use of choice and achievement of choice. For example, to assess the
degree of political empowerment of women, it is necessary to know (i)
whether opportunities for political participation exist, such as whether
elections are held, and, if so, (ii) whether women attempt to vote; and (iii)
whether they actually vote. The use of choice involves measuring whether or
not a person or group takes advantage of an opportunity to choose. The mother
of a child can think to send her daughter to school if there is a school it means
without existence of institution choice cannot be made (Alsop, Sjoblom, and
Krishna 2001).
The degree of empowerment is varying from level to level. Research
demonstrates that individuals or communities empowered at the intermediary
or macro level are not necessarily empowered at the local level (Fox 1996,
Moore 2001, Moser, 1987).
Socio-economic dimension, familial dimensions and psychological
dimensions are three important dimensions of women’s empowerment
(Malhotra et al., 2002). These dimensions are dynamic, interlinked and
mutually reinforcing at household level and recognize the fact that the level of
gender equality and development are directly proportional.
Six indicators of women’s empowerment are contribution to household
income, access to resources, ownership to assets, participation in household
decision making, perception on gender awareness, and coping capacity to
household shocks (Parveen and Leonhäuser 2004). Financial contribution
includes both farm activities and nonfarm activities.
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Access to resources narrates the right, scope, power or permission to use and
get benefits from household resources and social resources. The third indicator
of women empowerment is ownership of assets (both productive and non-
productive) which means women have the capability to control their own
assets and enjoy profits and advantages occurring form them. Participation in
household decision making is the fourth factor which actually shows the
women’s participation in decision making process and also implementing the
decision in different family and social matters. The fifth factor is the gender
awareness which denotes the women consciousness about gender inequality
and unfairness in the society. The sixth and the last indicator of women
empowerment is the coping capacity to household shocks which means
women’s risk-taking ability and crisis management capacity.
In these circumstances, the researcher will attempt to find out women
empowerment & Poverty Alleviation through RMG sector of Bangladesh.
Excessive workload is another problem in garment factory. Workers spend
approximately two third of the day in factories. According to the study of
several researchers, congested environment, excessive mental pressure to
fulfill the target, awkward postures etc. affected their health (Jana, 2008;
Alam, 2009; Ahmed & Raihan, 2014). The female workers are supposed to
work under mental pressure and sexually harassed by the supervisors in the
garment factory at the night shipment. Women are preferred by the garment
factory as they are easily manageable & more vulnerable (Khan, 2001).
Dunn & Mondal (2010) have showed that occupational safety and health
policy are not recognized by the factory owners properly although they are
alleged to comply. The core Occupational Safety and Health Convention (No.
155) are not sanctioned properly by Bangladesh. As Paul-Majumder (1998),
female workers are supposed not to take babies in order to continue their jobs.
Limited Emergency exit, narrow staircases, lack of fire protection,
inappropriate building etc. have increased the rate of accidents. Rana Plaza
collapse & Tazreen fire in Decmber 2012 indicate the unsound working
atmosphere of factory (Miller, 2012).
Compensation should be given to workers in case of work-related accidents.
But workers are not aware of their rights and the labour court system is
vulnerable.
Although workers engage themselves for most of the day in factory without
any time break but they do not get satisfactory money. With the little income
by herculean task, they can’t fulfill their basic needs and send their children to
schools.
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A large number of recent studies have reported that inadequate wages are
responsible for the labour unrest in the ready-made garment industry of
Bangladesh (Absar, 2001; Islam and Ahmad, 2010; Ferdous, 2012; Islam and
Ahmed, 2014).
There lies a strong relationship between political unrest & level of productivity
of the RMG industry. Political turbulence can reduce foreign currency by
increasing buyer uncertainty and cost pressures. Due to political instability,
buyers prefer to place orders in other countries. They don’t totally cut their
relationship with us but reduce the risk by dealing with others which ultimately
have a negative impact on productivity (Berg et al., 2011). During strikes or
locally known as hartals, workers do tend to arrive in proper time and it seems
very vital if a line manager or supervisor is absent. It reduces the efficiency of
an industry (Ahsan and Iqbal, 2014).
Uddin & Tangem (2015) applied some statistical techniques to find out the
factors responsible for the labor unrest in RMG factory in Bangladesh. The
study indicated unjust payment behavior, absence of proper infrastructural
facilities, and absence of proper recreation facilities, mental harassment etc.
as vital factors causing labor unrest. This study has been conducted to
prioritize the factors that can reduce the level of productivity of this
multibillion-dollar industry. A classical AHP method has been applied to rank
the factors.
Hossain (2000) examined the impact the participation of rural poor women in
credit programs had on contraceptive use and women’s empowerment. He
concludes that the decision-making in family matters, mobility status and
access to credit activities by poor women are important determinants for
contraceptive use. The NGO members who are involved with credit activities
are generally more exposed to modern ideas and views; and hence, they are
more likely to use contraceptives. Independent earnings by women give them
a higher status in the family and as a result of that, the husband-wife interaction
on decision-making increases. The involvement of women with credit
activities brings them outside the homestead and their exposures to different
modern views increase. The likelihood of using contraceptives is high if
husbands and wives take decisions on household matters jointly. The logistic
regression results suggest that a) women’s participation in NGO programs, b)
access to credit, and b) mobility outside the homestead increase the social
status of poor women. Consequently, their attitude towards contraceptive
change.
Biswas and Kabir (2002) examine the effect of women’s empowerment on the
use of contraception as well as how women’s empowerment affects
contraceptive use.
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A total of 840 eligible women from four villages were interviewed from two
different socio-culturally and religiously different areas (Comilla and Sylhet
sadar upazilas) following a two-stage cluster sampling method.
In addition, an expert’s opinion survey was conducted to develop weights for
empowerment indicators. The analysis of the study indicates that the higher
the of women’s empowerment, the higher is the likelihood of current use of
contraception. Among the different empowerment factors, reproductive rights,
decision-making power and awareness have significantly higher contribution
to current use of contraception. The implications of the findings were
discussed in terms of access to women’s education.
Jahan and Mahmud (2002) argue that women empowerment is the most
important and pronounced issue of the present world. It is not only important
for women development but also a prime step to face the broader problems of
the world. The empowerment of women is to develop women’s potentiality to
control to a greater extent their own lives, positions and environment. Jahan
and Mahmud (2002) attempt to reveal the sources of women empowerment.
They collected data from purposively selected personnel of the society through
specific questionnaires and observed that all the respondents have accepted
women’s education as the prime source of women empowerment. Other
important sources are intelligence, personality, ability to participate in
decision-making process. Most of the respondents did not consider factors like
a woman’s age, beauty, ownership of assets, etc. to be important sources. On
the other hand, the respondents have advocated for some related factors, like
a woman’s personal saving, health consciousness, moral character, honesty,
regards to respected persons, etc., as necessary factors for empowerment.
From the overall discussion it is clear that there is no single factor to be the
source for empowering women. Instead, the total striking issues of their life
are the sources of empowerment.
Peter and Mia (2006) examined the economic and social impact on women of
Bangladesh’s Rural Development Project 12 (RD-12), which has been a large-
scale credit and skill development project, targeted at people without assets.3
Focusing on rural areas of Jamalpur district, Peter and Mia (2006) investigated
the impact of female participants on their empowerment, coming to the
conclusion that the project was a success to significantly raise the women’s
economic and social status and decision-making power. Despite the success
of the project, Peter and Mia (2006) suggested that the supply of adequate
amount of credit with education and training for creating employment
opportunities and generating income for the women members should be
ensured under a special institutional framework for increasing their economic,
social and political awareness in alleviating poverty as well as establishing
empowerment in the society
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To study the literature review we have set a hypothesis for this research
2.1 Hypotheisis
Null Hypothesis (Ho): There is no relationship between women
Empowerment and readymade garments sector’s contributions in
Bangladesh.
Ho: B1=B2=B3=-------=Bk =0 (Here, B= regression coefficient)
Alternative Hypothesis (Ha): There is a relationship between women
empowerment and readymade garments sector’s contributions in Bangladesh.
Ha: At least one B is not zero
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