2.4 SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION


shown that the gender inequality which resides in social norms and institutions persists even after many years of economic development; in fact, old forms of gender discrimination may survive economic liberalization while new ones emerge (Self and Grabowski 2009; Jomo 2001).


Evidence suggests that two types of gender inequality are inherent in this economic growth strategy in many countries. First, a rising economic tide does not necessarily lift all boats. Both women and men may benefit from increased economic opportunities, but because women are universally paid less than men and their labor is more contingent they typically gain less than do their male counterparts. A recent analysis of women and men working in foreign export manufacturing zones in China, for example, found that women received smaller wage gains compared to men (Braunstein and Brenner 2007). Secondly, pre-existing gender inequality is often used intentionally to attract foreign investment and economic growth and, in some cases, might be a prerequisite for it (Seguino 2000). Especially


in middle-income emerging economies


that depend on export-oriented production, gender inequality is both an outcome of and a stimulus to growth. Employers tap lower-wage women to work in industrial production to keep the costs of goods low for export. For investors the ability to pay women workers lower wages is seen as an investment enhancement and profit multiplier: gender wage differentials signal opportunities for profitable investment (Seguino 2000; Ertürk and Çaatay 1995). The “labour-cost advantage” of hiring women is a product of government and corporate policies on employment and wages that make women’s labour cheap and simultaneously mobilize gender ideals and stereotypes that justify women’s concentration in unskilled, low-paying, high- turnover jobs (Enloe 2014; Berik 2000).


As multinational companies scour the globe for ever- cheaper production sites, the fact that women’s labour can usually be made cheaper than men’s means women typically predominate on the bottom tier of most global production systems. The exploitation of poor, non-unionized and ultimately ‘disposable’ women in developing countries proliferates through the use of sweatshop suppliers (Bettany et al. 2010). The “global assembly line” is, at least in the early stages of global integration, typically a feminized one: in 2012 there were an estimated 4500 export-oriented garment factories in Bangladesh employing 3 million people,


70% of whom were women (Enloe 2014); as Mexico’s large-scale export-production programme of maquilas got under way in the 1980s, women accounted for more than 75% of workers (Brown and Cunningham 2002); in 2015, women dominated Cambodia’s garment sector, making up an estimated 90-92% of the industry’s estimated 700,000 workers (HRW 2014). This feminization of global assembly production is typical but not universal: in India the majority of garment workers in industrial production are men.


The bottom tiers of global manufacturing production, which are often among the most feminized, are also among the most dangerous for workers. Garment workers, for example, suffer from musculoskeletal and respiratory problems, eye diseases and vision problems, skin diseases and stress as well as being at a high risk of accidents and injuries. Since most of these workers are from lower socio-economic classes, work-related impacts are compounded by poverty, lack of education, poor working conditions, excess working hours and poor diet (Saha et al. 2010). Catastrophic workplace accidents are not uncommon in emerging-economy industrial workplaces. Lax workplace oversight (often compounded by corruption, inadequate infrastructure and negligence) can result in large-scale disasters such as the Tazreen Fashions factory fire that killed more than 100 workers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2012 and the collapse of an eight-story garment production centre in 2013, the Rana Plaza, also in Dhaka, that killed more than 1000 workers and injured even more. In 2015 the International Labour Organization reported that 80% of export-oriented ready-made garment factories in Bangladesh should have better fire and electrical safety standards, despite a government finding that most of these factories were safe (Quadir 2015).


The social costs, particularly gender inequities, of


garment production are paralleled by environmental damage which, in turn, exacerbates social impacts. Bangladesh’s garment and textile industries have contributed heavily to what experts describe as a water pollution disaster, especially in the large industrial areas of Dhaka: many rice paddies are now inundated with toxic wastewater; fish stocks are dying; and rivers are filled with textile dyes due to routine dumping of wastewater from textile mills and their associated factories (Yardley 2013). In China, which produces an estimated 65% of the world’s clothing, the textile and garment industry is one of the country’s biggest water polluters, using more water than almost any other


117


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164  |  Page 165  |  Page 166  |  Page 167  |  Page 168  |  Page 169  |  Page 170  |  Page 171  |  Page 172  |  Page 173  |  Page 174  |  Page 175  |  Page 176  |  Page 177  |  Page 178  |  Page 179  |  Page 180  |  Page 181  |  Page 182  |  Page 183  |  Page 184  |  Page 185  |  Page 186  |  Page 187  |  Page 188  |  Page 189  |  Page 190  |  Page 191  |  Page 192  |  Page 193  |  Page 194  |  Page 195  |  Page 196  |  Page 197  |  Page 198  |  Page 199  |  Page 200  |  Page 201  |  Page 202  |  Page 203  |  Page 204  |  Page 205  |  Page 206  |  Page 207  |  Page 208  |  Page 209  |  Page 210  |  Page 211  |  Page 212  |  Page 213  |  Page 214  |  Page 215  |  Page 216  |  Page 217  |  Page 218  |  Page 219  |  Page 220  |  Page 221  |  Page 222  |  Page 223  |  Page 224  |  Page 225  |  Page 226  |  Page 227  |  Page 228  |  Page 229  |  Page 230  |  Page 231  |  Page 232  |  Page 233  |  Page 234  |  Page 235  |  Page 236  |  Page 237  |  Page 238  |  Page 239  |  Page 240  |  Page 241  |  Page 242