Globalization and the Moral Economy: Women Factory Owners and Governance in the Bangladeshi Garment Industry

• In Event: 280 - Regular Session. Development and Gender: Women and Empowerment

Abstract

The vast scholarship on gender and globalization highlights the woman garment factory worker. But these women, in fact, form the lowest segment of the globalized commodity chain of the apparel industry. The author argues that comprehensive solutions, to women workers’ voice, rights, and workplace safety, lie beyond the shop floor. Therefore, factory owners and buyers, in higher segments of the chain, should also be investigated. Based on a pilot study of women garment factory owners and workers conducted in July 2013, in the aftermath of the Rana Plaza disaster, this paper presents two primary stages in such an inquiry. First, it presents an analytic framework of gender, governance, and labor, which includes all levels of the global value chain: workers; factory owners; buyers; and consumers. The theoretical approach combines literatures on globalization and the feminization of labor, the globalized commodity chain framework, and the exit-loyalty-voice model. Second, the paper presents three testable hypotheses. 1. If factory owners have more voice in the relationship with the buyer, working conditions can improve for women workers. 2. Factory owners, who are affiliated with the women’s NGOs, are willing to give women workers voice. 3. Factory owners, who have developed a feminist consciousness, utilize the moral argument to try to improve conditions in their factories and in the garment sector as a whole. In conclusion, the author states that scholars need to explore the possibilities of a moral economy and meanings of feminist governance within the globalized commodity chain.

Author

• Fauzia Erfan Ahmed, Miami University-Ohio