Gender, globalisation and empowerment: a study of women who work in Sri Lanka&apos;s Export Processing Zones

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Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Volume 6, Issue 1

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Gender, globalisation and empowerment: a study of women who work in Sri Lanka's Export Processing Zones

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Author(s): Peter Hancock , Sharon Middleton , Jamie Moore

Publication date (Print): Spring 2012

Journal: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

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Abstract

This paper provides new insights into the ways in which women experience formal employment as a result of working in export-oriented factories in a ‘developing’ nation. It is based on research that was funded by AusAID's Australian Development Research Award and conducted by investigators from Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Australia and the Centre for Research on Women (CENWOR) in Sri Lanka. Between 2008 and 2011, 2,304 women who worked in factories in Sri Lanka's Export Processing Zones were surveyed. The focus of the study was on gender empowerment and the aim was to collect empirical information on the lived experiences of these women factory workers vis-a-vis gender empowerment. According to neoliberal thinking, such women in a developing country, receiving a regular salary, should be at the forefront of international development and hence the most likely to be empowered. The paper concludes that the evidence is contradictory: these women were simultaneously both empowered and disempowered by the experience of formal employment.

Content

Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): workorgalaboglob

Title: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 1745641X

ISSN (Electronic): 17456428

Publication date (Print): Spring 2012

Volume: 6

Issue: 1

Pages: 131-146

Article

Publisher ID: workorgalaboglob.6.1.0131

DOI: 10.13169/workorgalaboglob.6.1.0131

SO-VID: c39c034c-9abf-4aca-af2f-f81170e98fb1

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Sociology,Labor law,Political science,Labor & Demographic economics,Political economics

References

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Athukorala, P, & S. Rajapatirana (2000) Liberalization and industrial transformation: Sri Lanka in international perspective , Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Attanapola, C. (2003) ‘Multiple voices, multiple realities: female industrial workers' health in Sri Lanka’ Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography , Vol 57, No 3:154–163.
Attanapola, C. (2005) ‘Experiences of globalization and health in the narratives of women industrial workers in Sri Lanka’, Gender, Technology and Development , Vol 9, No 2:81–102.
Bandarage, A. (1997) Women, populations and global crisis: A political-economic analysis , London: Zed Books.
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Board of Investment Sri Lanka (BOI) (2010) Industrial Relations Statistics of EPZs/IPs/EPPs in Sri Lanka , Colombo, Sri Lanka: Board of Investment.
Castles, S. (2001) ‘Studying social transformation’, International Political Science Review , 22 (1):13–32.
Charmes, J, & S. Wieringa (2003) ‘Measuring women's empowerment: an alternative assessment of the Gender-Related Development Index and the Gender Empowerment Measure’, Journal of Human Development , 4 (3): 419–435.
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Wolf, D. (1992) Factory Daughters: Gender, household dynamics and rural industrialization in Java , University of California Press: Berkeley.

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Athukorala, P. (2004) ‘Growth of manufactured exports and terms of trade: pessimism confounded’, in S. Kelegama (ed.) Economic Policy in Sri Lanka: Issues and Debates , New Delhi: Sage:37–53.

[2] Athukorala, P, & S. Rajapatirana (2000) Liberalization and industrial transformation: Sri Lanka in international perspective , Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[3] Attanapola, C. (2003) ‘Multiple voices, multiple realities: female industrial workers' health in Sri Lanka’ Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography , Vol 57, No 3:154–163.

[4] Attanapola, C. (2005) ‘Experiences of globalization and health in the narratives of women industrial workers in Sri Lanka’, Gender, Technology and Development , Vol 9, No 2:81–102.

[5] Bandarage, A. (1997) Women, populations and global crisis: A political-economic analysis , London: Zed Books.

[6] Board of Investment Sri Lanka (BOI) (2004) Make it in Sri Lanka , Colombo, Sri Lanka: Board of Investment.

[7] Board of Investment Sri Lanka (BOI) (2010) Industrial Relations Statistics of EPZs/IPs/EPPs in Sri Lanka , Colombo, Sri Lanka: Board of Investment.

[8] Castles, S. (2001) ‘Studying social transformation’, International Political Science Review , 22 (1):13–32.

[9] Charmes, J, & S. Wieringa (2003) ‘Measuring women's empowerment: an alternative assessment of the Gender-Related Development Index and the Gender Empowerment Measure’, Journal of Human Development , 4 (3): 419–435.

[10] Daily Times (2009) ‘Sri Lanka likely to lose EU trade concession’, Daily Times . Accessed September 2, 2009, from http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009\09\02\story_2–9–2009_pg5_37

[11] Department of Census and Statistics (2009) Quarterly report of the Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey First Quarter – 2009 , Accessed on Aug 6, 2009, from: http//www.statistics.gov.lk/samplesurvey/2009q1English.pdf

[12] Elson, D. (1999) ‘Labor markets as gendered institutions: Equality, efficiency and empowerment issues’, World Development , 27(3):611–627.

[13] Engman, M, O. Onodera & E. Pinali (2007) Export processing zones: Past and future role in trade and development , New York: OECD Publishing.

[14] Hancock, P. (2006a) ‘Women, work and empowerment: A portrait of women workers in two of Sri Lanka's Export Processing Zones’, Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift- Norwegian Journal of Geography , 60 (3):227–239.

[15] Hancock, P. (2006b) ‘Violence, women, work and empowerment: Narratives from factory women in Sri Lanka's Export Processing Zones’, Gender, Technology and Development , 10 (2):211–228.

[16] Hancock, P. (2008) ‘The utility of qualitative research: A study of gender empowerment in Sri Lanka’, in P.J. Maginn, S. M. Thompson & M. Tonts (eds.) Qualitative Urban Analysis: An International Perspective. Studies in Qualitative Methodology , Oxford: Elsevier:177–196.

[17] Jindasa, K. (2007) ‘MAS Holdings: Championing women's empowerment in the Apparel sector’, Compact Quarterly . Accessed on August 6, 2009, from: www.enewsbuilder.net/globalcompact/e_article000776336.cfm.

[18] Goonatilake, H. & S. Gunasekere (1995) Industrialisation and women workers , Colombo: Department of Census and Statistics.

[19] Hewamanne, S. (2003) ‘Performing dis-respectability: new tastes, cultural practices and identity performances by Sri Lanka's Free Trade Zone garment factory workers’, Cultural Dynamics , 15 (1):71–101.

[20] Jayaweera, S. (2002) ‘Fifty years since political independence: An overview’, in S. Jayaweera (ed.), Women in post-independence Sri Lanka , New Delhi: Sage:15–40.

[21] Jayaweera, S., & T. Sanmugan (2001) Women in garment and textile industries in Sri Lanka , Sri Lanka: Centre for Women's Research (CENWOR).

[22] Kelegama, S. (2007). South Asia in the WTO , New Delhi: Sage.

[23] Miller, J. (2002) ‘Violence and coercion in Sri Lanka's commercial sex industry’, Violence Against Women , 8 (9):1044–1073.

[24] Mittra, S & B. Kumar (2004) Encyclopaedia of women in South Asia , New Delhi: Kalpaz Publications.

[25] Piper, N. (2003) ‘Feminization of labour migration as violence against women’, Violence Against Women , 9 (6):723–745.

[26] Pyle, J, & K. Ward (2003) ‘Recasting our understanding of gender and work during global restructuring’, International Sociology , 18 (3):461–489.

[27] Rajapatirana, S. (2004) ‘Industrial policy’, in S. Kelegama (ed.), Economic Policy in Sri Lanka: Issues and Debates , New Delhi: Sage:213–236.

[28] Samarasinghe, V. (1998) ‘The feminization of foreign currency earnings: Women's labor in Sri Lanka’ The Journal of Developing Areas 32 (3):303–325.

[29] Samarasinghe, D. (2002) ‘Women's health, population and quality of life’, in S. Jayaweera (ed.), Women in post-independence Sri Lanka , New Delhi: Sage:143–210.

[30] Sharma, S. (1997) ‘Making the Human Development Index (HDI) gender sensitive’, Gender and Development , Vol 5, No 1:60–61.

[31] Sen, G, & C. Grown (1987). Development, Crises and Alternative Visions: Third World Women's Perspectives , New York: Monthly Review Press.

[32] Sivananthiran, A (2007). Promoting decent work in export processing zones (EPZs) in Sri Lanka . Accessed on July 15, 2009, from: http://www.ilo.org/public/french/dialogue/download/epzsrilanka.pdf.

[33] The World Bank (2006) Global Economic Prospects: Economic implications of remittances and migration , Washington: The World Bank.

[34] Wolf, D. (1992) Factory Daughters: Gender, household dynamics and rural industrialization in Java , University of California Press: Berkeley.