Gendered work: an analysis of work in a Fijian garment factory

Abstract

This paper examines the gendered construction of work in a Fijian garment factory. It calls for a geography of labour market processes that draws attention to the social construction of occupations themselves as gendered. The paper presents an account of the growth and development of the Fijian garment industry, and seeks to position individuals at the centre of our understanding of garment workers’ experiences of their work and its gendered attributes. Through three worker profiles, it is demonstrated that jobs in the garment industry (as elsewhere) are not gender‐neutral, nor are they empty slots to be filled with workers as already‐socially‐constituted men and women with fixed gender attributes. Rather, this paper demonstrates that jobs and occupations in the garment industry are socially constructed and gendered.

Key Words:

• Labour market
• gender
• social construction
• occupational sex segregation
• garment industry
• Fiji