Beyond masters: women’s shifting roles in Nepal’s new neoliberal garment industry

ABSTRACT

The late 20^th century saw a phenomenal integration of the production and consumption of clothing between the Global North and the Global South. While global integration of mass manufactured garments has been discussed at length, this paper investigates the gender subjectivities within artisanal production of globally-oriented ethnic wear within the garment value chain. This ethnographic case study focuses on the women entrepreneurs animating the large-scale Nepali garment subcluster. This subcluster, with its origins in fringe tourism and development expatriatism became so integrated with its global counterparts that some entrepreneurs became prominent national names. The market conflated female and male designers and entrepreneurs. In this process of symbiotic absorption, and the dominance of garment production in the national economy, female entrepreneurs saw their careers sidelined and their contributions overlooked. This paper draws on an extensive ethnographic fieldwork encompassing the period from 1990s to the first quarter of the twenty-first century to explore the evolving dynamics of the Nepali public sphere in response to profound changes within the Nepali state. These transformations encompass the shift from a Hindu monarchy to a Maoist revolution, resulting in a secular, republican and federal state. The paper further examines the implications of these shifts for the female entrepreneurs in Nepal who have played a substantial role in Nepal’s industrialisation.

KEYWORDS:

• Textile
• clothing
• readymade garment
• craft
• female labour
• female enterprise
• gender
• empowerment
• market
• embeddedness
• MFA
• Nepal

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. See Ortner. Life and Death on Mt Everest. This book discusses the question of feminist economic independence among women who choose to forge business collaborations with their male partners, and can be read in conjunction with Ortner’s other work discussing gender independence when/if women consciously steer themselves into the enterprise domain, away from evolutionary nurturing. See Ortner, ‘Is Female to Male as Nature to Culture?’; Mohanty, ‘Under Western Eyes’; Also see, Moraga, This Bridge Called My Back

2. See Parker and Pollock, Women, Art and Ideology; Also See Parker, The Subversive Stitch for a discussion on the concept of “master” and “mistress” in the context of textile art and enterprise.

3. See Ong, Spirits of Resistance and Capitalist Discipline.

4. See Kabeer, “Women’s Economic Empowerment and Inclusive Growth.”

5. See Piore and Sabel, The Second Industrial Divide. The discussion differentiating mass manufacturing from what they called ‘flexible specialization’ is further sharpened in Sabel and Zeitlin eds. ‘Historical Alternatives’.

6. While shifting roles of female workers has been discussed in-depth, I take the view that there is scope for a closer look at the lived realities of women entrepreneurs to qualify theoretical arguments about gender and work. See Sen, ‘Gender and Class’. Also see, Joshi, ‘Notes on the Breadwinner Debate’.

7. The 17 brothers from the Rana family were said to be behind the court massacre which killed 40 or so senior civil and military officials thereby securing their grip on power, confining the Shah King(s)to ceremonial roles. The Ranas ruled brutally by passing the succession within the Rana family, and kept close alliance with the British. Eventually, soon after the British left India, the Shah king Tribhuvan allied with democratic parties to oust the Ranas out of power. King Tribhuvan Shah’s successor Mahendra then broke away from democratic alliance just a decade later to impose direct monarchy, known as Panchayat, which was ousted in 1990 through a popular uprising or Jana Andolan 1 during the reign of King Birendra. Following the royal massacre which saw King Birendra and his family dead, his brother King Gyanendra took power again in 2005 when the Maoist civil war wrecked havoc, and was dethroned in 2006 following a popular uprising which brought the Maoists and democrats together to reinstate democracy. This is known as Jana Andolan 2.

8. See Shakya, “Bridging the Design Gap,” 299.

9. The country-quota levels offered through MFA sought to reduce increased rates of Chinese and Indian garment exports to the American market, intending thereby to encourage exports from smaller and poorer countries as part of its economic diplomacy sharpening its developmental posture. Within South Asia, for example, Indian exports were curtailed by the MFA, while Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka found their exports encouraged. Nepal was given the highest South Asian ‘quota per capita’ of 2.3 pieces per head.

10. For detailed discussion on how Nepalese garment industry differs with those within and outside South Asia, see Shakya, Death of an Industry, 27–31.

11. See Shakya, Death of an Industry.

12. The initial interviews and ethnographic fieldwork on which this longitudinal analysis is based draws on the PhD fieldwork done under the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and follows the LSE ethical standards and guidelines. Subsequent interviews and fieldwork follow the ethical practice in University of Oxford, University of Pretoria and South Asian University where the researcher has subsequently been employed. The methodology adopted is that of ethnography and follows the ethics within the discipline of anthropology.

13. See Joshi, Lost Worlds. Also see Sen, Women and Labour in Late Colonial India.

14. See Parker, The Subversive Stitch.

15. See Parker and Pollock. Women, Art and Ideology.

16. When the firm is registered under the female head or just a female member of the family including possibly a young adult, this legal titling will be clarified to all involved, both at work and home, as something done exclusively for policy security and privilege.

17. For a detailed account on the history of Terai region depicting the Nepal-India border, see Gaige, Regionalism and National Unity. For a detailed account of the biosocial and political handling of this border during a series of crisis including border nationalism and corona virus, see Shakya, “The Politics of Border and Nation in Nepal in the Time of Pandemic.”

18. Among the tourists, first came the hippies and then the backpackers but also the aristocratic mountaineers and culture connoisseurs. For a discussion on early hunters in Nepal, See Liechty, ‘On the History of Wildlife’. For a discussion on early tourism in Nepal, see Smith, “Controlled vs Uncontrolled Tourism.” For a discussion on early development and expatriate life in Nepal, see Mihaly, “Developments in Nepal.” For an ethnography of expatriate life in Kathmandu, see Hindman, Mediating the Global.

19. See Biggs, and Lewis, “Fair Trade and Organizational Innovation”

20. See Shakya, ‘Bridging the Design Gap’.

21. See the first page for details on Nepali political history.

22. Following the ousting of monarchy in 2006, the democrats began to use the word ‘loktantra’ (rule by the peoples) to differentiate the republican democracy from constitutional monarchy where democracy was written as ‘prajatantra’ (rule by the king’s subjects).

23. Coded in 1974 but fully functional only in the early 1980s, the apparati of MFA allowed the United States to dole out country-specific quotas to those it considered friendly, thus curtailing the share of export from those it considered potentially hostile. Within South Asia, for example, Indian clothing exports were curtailed by the MFA, while Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka found their exports encouraged. Nepal was given the highest South Asian ‘quota per capita’ of 2.3 pieces per head, on the grounds that its garment industry was the most nascent compared to all its neighbours in the region.

24. The data cited here comes from Shakya, “Nepalisation of an Indian Industry”.

25. An unmistaken unease on Sabina’s part about the current cycle of collaboration with one of the sole buyers was that his wife, with whom Sabina had independent friendship, had been ditched from the business after they recently divorced. Even Raj spoke about how the division of property was not fair between the husband and wife upon divorce.

26. Nepali Congress is the largest party in Nepal. It started out as a socialist movement in the 1950s but after half a century or so, the liberal factions within the party have come to get the upper hand.

27. Raj maintained his control over this anonymous and fluid labour force in the early 1990s. In the following years, especially as the Maoist movement built its urban grounds after 2001, workers acquired a new agency. Mosaic had to let go of its pro-productivity union NTUC to give space to first GEFONT and eventually ANTUF affiliated with the (then) underground Maoist party who were looking for a foothold within Kathmandu in and around 2001. For further discussions on the rise of a Maoist trade union which displaced the mainstream unions affiliated with Nepali Congress and the moderate Left parties, see Shakya, ‘Labour Militancy in Neoliberal Times’.

28. For discussions on how patriarchy remains unchallenged in Nepal despite the country having a series of fundamental state restructuring since 1990, see Tamang, “Legalizing State Patriarchy in Nepal.” Also see Pandey, Omen in Nepali Politics.

29. Bushell, “Women Entrepreneurs in Nepal”

30. Xheneti, Thapa Karki, et.al. “Negotiating Business and Family Demands”

31. For discussions on socio-cultural notions about women’s economic engagements, see Rankin, “Cultures of Economies,” 132.

32. See Ortner, Life and Death on Mt. Everest.

33. For her continued writing on patriarchy and profit, albeit among the business people in the United States, see Ortner, ‘Too Soon for Post-Feminism’ and also Ortner, “Patriarchy and Profit”

34. See Mohanty, ‘Under Western Eyes’; Also see Moraga, and Gloria, This Bridge Called My Back.

35. See Shakya, ‘Labour Militancy in Neoliberal Times’.

36. For a discussion on how a series of policy-based loans issued by the World Bank and IMF resulted in ending the state role in enterprise development, see Shakya, ‘An Anthropological Reading’. For a brief clarification about as well as a discussion and contextualisation of Michael Buroway’s idea of ‘third wave of marketism’, see Shakya, ‘Labour Militancy in Neoliberal Times.’

37. See Kabeer, ‘Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment’

38. See Siddiqi, “Solidarity, Sexuality, and Saving Muslim Women in Neoliberal Times”

39. Referring to the tenets of Structural Adjustment preached by the World Bank and IMF which requested the third world governments to abandon industrial policies in favour of deregulation of industries and market. See Krueger (1974) for more technical discussion on how government withdrawal from industrial policy was presented as an essential condition of economic liberalisation in the 1990s.

40. For details on the ethnic politics within the running of Nepali economy, see Shakya, ‘Nepali Economic History’

41. When we compare this statistics to mainstream enterprise in Nepal as compiled under the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI), women’s legal participation in business is much higher in FHAN-registered businesses. The former lists women to own only about one percent of the businesses registered while FHAN suggests a 4 percent ownership. Of course, the statistics is only approximate in that almost all family-run businesses might be registered under the husband’s name even when the wives have equal participation and stake. If should also be noted that there might be occasions when male ownership could have been registered to reap policy benefits earmarked for women’s development (Source: www.fhan.org.np accessed on September 2, 2022).

42. Beyond this survey, it should be noted that a large number of women entrepreneurs forayed into business in the 1970s either by owning their private ventures as proprietors or forging co-operatives with sound financial footing. See twitter posts from eminent Nepali women Hima Bista (on 23 October 2017) and Subina Shrestha (6 December 2018) on entrepreneurial journeys of their mothers Hajuri Bista and Shyam Badan Shrestha which generated vibrant discussions in social media and beyond. Also see Chhetri, ‘Against All Odds’ and Republica Nepal Daily, “Newsmakers”

43. See Beckert, “The Social Order of Markets”

44. Coffin, The Politics of Women’s Work.

45. See Parker, The Subversive Stitch.

46. Parker and Pollock. Women, Art and Ideology.