http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8758-7761
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Abstract
This paper explores how gender ideologies shape industrial relations in the Asian garment industry. Drawing on ethnographic research, it illustrates how widespread norm perceptions of acquiescent women and assertive men reinforce patriarchal, authoritarian unions. Even if privately critical, women may be reluctant to protest if they anticipate social disapproval. Such beliefs reinforce patriarchal unions, curbing women workers’ collective analysis, engagement, and activism. This weakens the collective power of labour to push for better working conditions. Tackling norm perceptions and building more inclusive unions may help strengthen the labour movement.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Gunseli Berik, Stephanie Barrientos, Sarah Childs, Sylvia Chant, Nick Day, David Hudson, Emma Mawdsley, Chris Roche, Liam Swiss, Judith Teichman, and Yana van der Meulen Rodgers for encouragement and constructive criticism. Any deficits are clearly mine.
Notes
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2. Mezzadri, “Class, Gender and the Sweatshop”; see also Pangsapa, Textures of Struggle, 39, 141.
3. Barrientos and Smith, “Do Workers Benefit from Ethical Trade?”; Pearson, “Beyond Women Workers.”
4. Elson and Pearson, “Nimble Fingers”; Seguino, “Accounting for Gender.”
5. Mezzadri, “Class, Gender and the Sweatshop,” 1887.
6. Pearse and Connell, “Gender Norms,” 31–34, 46.
7. Butler, Undoing Gender, 48–51.
8. Salzinger, Genders in Production, 21.
9. Caraway, “The Political Economy of Feminization.”
10. Hossain et al., “Feminization and Labor Vulnerability”; Caraway, “The Political Economy of Feminization,” 407; Pangsapa, Textures of Struggle, 27.
11. Caraway “The Political Economy of Feminization,” 403.
12. Rudman and Glick, “Social Psychology of Gender.”
13. Macchiavello et al., “Challenges of Change”; Hewamanne, “Stitching Identities,” 129; Pangsapa, Textures of Struggle.
14. Rudman and Glick, “Social Psychology of Gender.”
15. Mills, “Gendered Morality Tales,” 3.
16. Silvey, “Spaces of Protest.”
17. Pangsapa, Textures of Struggle, 71.
18. Pangsapa, Textures of Struggle, 77.
19. Agarwal, “Bargaining.”
20. Pun, Made in China; Ong, Spirits of Resistance; Pangsapa, Textures of Struggle, 149.
21. Silvey, “Spaces of Protest.”
22. Lee, “Gender Ideology”; McDowell et al., “The Contradictions and Intersections of Class and Gender,” 448, 454, 457; Brickell and Chant, “The Unbearable Heaviness of Being”; Brickell, “Plates in a Basket will Rattle.”
23. Silvey, “Spaces of Protest.”
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26. Amengual and Chirot, “Reinforcing the State.”
27. Oka, “Improving Working Conditions,” 648.
28. Anner, “Worker Resistance”; Leung, Labour Activists; Park, “The Korean Women’s Trade Union,” 248.
29. Silvey, “Spaces of Protest.”
30. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class .
31. Evans, “The Decline of the Male Breadwinner.”
32. The latter does not apply in Vietnam or China, where one union confederation is permitted.
33. Alois, “Better Work,” 174; Human Rights Watch, “Work Faster”; Merk, “Stitching a Decent Wage,” 30; Nuon and Serrano, “Building Unions in Cambodia”; Seguino, “Accounting for Gender.”
34. Alois, “Better Work,” 187.
35. ILO, “Action-oriented Research”; Kumar “Interwoven Threads,” 797.
36. Kumar, “Interwoven Threads,” 797.
37. Fontana and Silberman, “Analysing Better Work Data,” 11–16.
38. ILO, “Action-oriented Research,” 60; Serrano and Certeza, “Gender, Unions and Collective Bargaining”; Crinis, “Malaysia.”
39. Dannecker, “Collective Action,” 34–35.
40. Kabeer, “Globalization, Labor Standards,” 22–23.
41. Nuon and Serrano, “Building Unions in Cambodia.”
42. Ford, “Briefing Paper,” 7; see also Ford, “Indonesia”; ILO, “Action-oriented Research,” 63.
43. Human Rights Watch, “Work Faster,” 91.
44. Serrano and Certeza, “Gender, Unions and Collective Bargaining,” 85–86.
45. Human Rights Watch, “Work Faster,” 91.
46. Basu, “Gender Knowledge,” 101.
47. ILO, “Better Work Indonesia,” 19.
48. Dannecker, “Collective Action,” 35; Nuon and Serrano, “Building Unions in Cambodia.”
49. Reerink, “Report on a Survey of Women,” 41.
50. Nuon and Serrano, “Building Unions in Cambodia,” 108.
51. Mills,
52. ILO, “Action-oriented Research,” Mills, “From Nimble Fingers to Raised Fists,” 135–138; Rock, “The Rise of Bangladesh Independent Garment-Workers.”
53. Ong, Spirits of Resistance, 192.
54. Ford, “Indonesia,” 24; Miles, “The Social Relations Approach,” 13–14; Park, “The Korean Women’s Trade Union,” 250; Pangsapa, Textures of Struggle.
55. Chang and Welsh, “Are East Asian Women Democratic Citizens?”
56. Shair-Rosenfield, “The Alternative Incumbency Effect.”
57. Evans, “For the Elections, We Want Women!”; World Bank, World Development Report 2012.
58. Dannecker, “Collective Action”; Hill, “India”; Kabeer, “Globalization, Labor Standards”; Trần, Ties that Bind, 206.
59. UNDP, “Women’s Leadership in Viet Nam,” 19, 32.
60. Serrano and Certeza, “Gender, Unions and Collective Bargaining,” 91.
61. Crinis, “Malaysia,” 59; see also Dannecker, “Collective Action”; Hill, “India”; Kabeer, “Globalization, Labor Standards, and Women’s Rights”; Trần, Ties that Bind, 206.
62. The two-minute video summary is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2QSuZkkw8c.
63. Pangsapa, Textures of Struggle, 85, 114–119.
64. Pangsapa, Textures of Struggle, 98, 117–118.
65. Hiwasa, “Changing Gendered Boundaries,” 140; Brickell, “The Whole World is Watching,” 1264.
66. Evans, “The Decline of the Male Breadwinner,” 1147.
67. Mohammad, “Making Gender Ma(r)king Place,” 1804.
68. Kirton, “Progress Towards Gender Democracy”; Ledwith and Munakamwe, “Gender, Union Leadership.”
69. ILO, “Women, Work & Development.”
70. Nuon and Serrano, “Building Unions in Cambodia.”
71. Oxfam, “Made in Myanmar.”
72. Barrientos et al., “A Gendered Value Chain Approach”; Pearson, “Beyond Women Workers”; Ruwanpura, “Women Workers.”
73. ILO, “Practical Challenges for Maternity Protection”; Human Rights Watch, “Work Faster.”
74. ILO, “Action-oriented Research,” 59.
75. ILO, “Brief on Work,” 1.
76. Evans, “Gender Sensitisation”; UNDP, “Women’s Leadership in Viet Nam,” 16–17, 44–47.
77. For example: Department for International Development, “Work in Freedom Programme”; see also Desai, “NGOs, Gender Mainstreaming.”
78. Miles, “The Social Relations Approach,” 13–14; Park, “The Korean Women’s Trade Union,” 250; Ford, “Indonesia,” 24.
79. Caraway, “The Political Economy of Feminization,” 415.
80. Evans, “For the Elections We Want Women!”; Shair-Rosenfield, “The Alternative Incumbency Effect”; World Bank, World Development Report 2012.
81. Macchiavello et al., “Challenges of Change.”
82. Macchiavello et al., “Challenges of Change.”
83. Agence Française de Développement, “Creation of a Training Institute.”
84. Evans, “The Decline of the Male Breadwinner.”
85. Trần, Ties that Bind, 122; IndustriALL, “Indonesian Union Adopts 40 per cent Women Quota”; Reerink, “Report on a Survey of Women,” 48–55.
86. Britwum and Ledwith, Visibility and Voice.
87. Fontana and Silberman, “Analysing Better Work Data,” 25.
88. Republic of Vietnam, “Law No. 10/2012/QH13.” http://vietnamlegal.com.vn/Legal-document/Law/labour-CODE/4-19c86.html
89. Chiricosta, “Following the Trail,” 133.
90. Rossi, “Better Work,” 515; World Bank, Interwoven.
91. ILO, “Better Work Vietnam.”
92. Mills, “From Nimble Fingers to Raised Fists,” 130; Robinson, Gender, Islam and Democracy; Wieringa, “Islamization in Indonesia”; Cagna and Rao, “Feminist Mobilisation”; Plankey-Videla, We Are in This Dance Together; Silvey, “Spaces of Protest.”
93. Broadbent and Ford, “Women and Labour Organizing in Asia,” 3; IndustriALL, “IndustriALL Women Stand by Quota Demand.”
94. Cagna and Rao, “Feminist Mobilisation”; Hickey et al., The Politics of Inclusive Development; Teichman, The Politics of Inclusive Development.
95. As also observed by Jad, “The NGO-isation of Arab Women’s Movements.”
96. Tankard and Paluck, “Norm Perception,” 196.
97. Jacob et al., “Gender Norms”; Htun and Weldon, “The Civic Origins of Progressive Policy Change”; Simón and Verge, “Gender Quotas”; Wotipka and Tsutsui, “Global Human Rights.”
98. Costa et al., “Following the Trail of the Fairy-bird”; IDEA, “Quota Project”; Reerink, “Report on a Survey of Women.”
99. Rock, “The Rise of Bangladesh Independent Garment-Workers Union,” 37).
100. IndustriALL, “Asia-Pacific Conference Highlights Struggles.”
101. Kabeer and Huq, “The Power of Relationships”; Gunawardana, “Struggle, Perseverance, and Organisation in Sri Lanka’s Export Processing Zones”; Jenkins “Organizing ‘Spaces of Hope,’” 638.
102. Ng and Chee, “Women in Malaysia.”
103. Robinson, Gender, Islam and Democracy, 113; Cagna and Rao, “Feminist Mobilisation.”
104. Berik and Van Der Meulen Rodgers, “Options for Enforcing Labour Standards.”