Reclaiming Value and Betterment for Bangladeshi Women Workers in Global Garment Chains
In Creating Corporate Sustainability. Gender as an Agent for Change, Beate Sjåfjell and Irene Lynch Fannon (eds), Cambridge University Press, 2018.
University of Oslo Faculty of Law Research Paper No. 2018-06
Posted: 22 May 2018
Date Written: May 22, 2018
Abstract
This chapter is concerned with the barriers to betterment of the lives for Bangladeshi women workers in the garment industries which are part of global chains headed by western global corporations. It assesses the considerable cultural barriers women face in improving their working and living conditions and the paradoxical relationship between these barriers and the legal entitlements women possess qua workers under national and international law. It considers whether women’s betterment is best pursued through the work of NGOs and other groups in pressuring global corporations to be more responsible or through their own political activity as organised labour. It concludes that while there is considerable scope for both, only women’s political activity can substantially increase their betterment.
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