The Power to Choose: Bangladeshi Women and Labour Market Decisions in London and DhakaIn this path breaking study, social economist Naila Kabeer examines the lives of Bangladeshi garment workers to shed light on the question of what constitutes "fair" competition in international trade. While Bangladesh is generally considered a poor, conservative Muslim country, with a long tradition of female seclusion, women here have entered factories to take their place as a prominent, first generation, industrial labor force. On the other hand, in Britain's modern and secular society with its long tradition of female industrial employment, Bangladeshi women are largely concentrated in home-based piece work for the garment industry. This book draws on testimonies of both groups concerning their experiences at work and the impact these have on their lives generally to explain such paradoxes. Kabeer argues that any attempt to devise acceptable labor standards at the international level which takes no account of the forces of inclusion and exclusion within local labor markets is likely to represent the interests of powerful losers in international trade at the expense of weak winners. |
Contents
Labour standards double standards? Selective | 1 |
Rational fools or cultural dopes? Stories of structure | 16 |
background | 54 |
women workers and labour | 82 |
factory wages and intra | 142 |
background | 193 |
homeworkers and labour | 230 |
homebased piecework | 284 |
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Common terms and phrases
able activity agency analysis Bangla Bangladesh Bangladeshi community Bangladeshi garments Bangladeshi women bargaining behaviour Bengali breadwinner Britain cent chapter child labour choice clothing industry conflict constraints countries cultural daughters Dhaka domestic dowry earnings economic employers explained factory employment family members father female labour forms of employment garment factories garment industry garment workers gender girls groups home-based homeworking husband income individual interviewed labour force labour market decisions labour standards labour supply decisions lives London context machine machinists male marriage married ment migration norms organised paid parents particular patriarchal pointed preferences protectionism purdah racism Razia Sultana relationships reported response role rural sample sector social status structure structure and agency sweatshops take up factory testimonies Third World Tower Hamlets trade trade unions UNICEF village wages wives woman women workers women's labour supply World Bank