Despite constituting the core of the workforce that propels the export-oriented garment manufacturing sector of Bangladesh, a staggering 97.1 per cent of women workers are still concentrated in low-paid jobs even as there is no improvement in participation of women in the managerial positions.
These are some of the findings that came out of International Labour Organisation’s study titled ‘Understanding the Gender Composition and Experience of Ready-Made Garment (RMG) Workers in Bangladesh’.
As per the ILO study, compared to 80.8 per cent of their male compatriots, 97.1 per cent of women workers were concentrated in low wage grades (there are seven wage grades in the production section in the RMG sector and Grade 1 is the highest paid, while Grade 7 is the lowest).
According to the ILO’s report, 83.8 per cent of women workers surveyed are employed in Grades 4 to 7, whereas the figure is 67.7 per cent for male workers.
The report further underlined that in the past decade there have been no improvements in enhancing women’s representation in managerial and leadership positions in apparel sector.