The Power to Choose: Bangladeshi Women and Labor Market Decisions in London and Dhaka

by Naila Kabeer

Overview

In this path-breaking study, social economist Naila Kabeer examines the lives of Bangladeshi garment workers in Bangladesh and Britain to shed light on the question of what constitutes “fair” competition in international trade. She argues that if the unhealthy coalition of multinationals and labor movements is truly seeking to improve the working conditions for women and children in the “Third World,” as well as those of western workers, their efforts should be directed away from an attempt to impose labor standards and towards a support for the organization of labor rights. Any attempt to devise acceptable labor standards at an international level which takes no account of the forces of inclusion and exclusion with local labor movements is, she further argues, likely to represent the interests of the powerful at the expense of those of the weak.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781859842065
Publisher:	Verso Books
Publication date:	08/17/2002
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Naila Kabeer is a Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. She has worked extensively on issues related to gender and development in Bangladesh, India and Vietnam.

Table of Contents

	Preface and Acknowledgments	vii
1	Labour standards, double standards? Selective solidarity in international trade	1
2	'Rational fools' or 'cultural dopes'? Stories of structure and agency in the social sciences	16
3	The changing face of shonar Bangla: background to the Dhaka study	54
4	Renegotiating purdah: women workers and labour market decision making in Dhaka	82
5	Individualised entitlements: factory wages and intrahousehold power relations	142
6	Across seven seas and thirteen rivers: background to the London study	193
7	Reconstituting structure: homeworkers and labour market decision making in London	230
8	Mediated entitlements: home-based piecework and intra-household power relations	284
9	Exclusion and economics in the labour market: explaining the paradox	312
10	The power to choose and 'the evidence of things not seen': revisiting structure and agency	326
11	Weak winners, powerful losers: the politics of protectionism in international trade	364
Appendix 1	Methodological Note	405
Appendix 2	Statistical Background to the Dhaka Study	412
Appendix 3	Statistical Background to the London Study	421
	Bibliography	433
	Index	451

Editorial Reviews

A fascinating study of how women workers at two geographic poles of the global garment industry view their lives and work. Textured, ethically probing and challenging—a must read for anyone concerned about the impact of globalisation on workers.”—Gita Sen, Professor at the Indian Institute of Management

“Kabeer has provided valuable statistical data and informative personal testimonies on the lives of an often neglected section of women workers.”—Socialist Review

From the Publisher

Kabeer has provided valuable statistical data and informative personal testimonies on the lives of an often neglected section of women workers.

Socialist Review

A fascinating study of how women workers at two geographic poles of the global garment industry view their lives and work. Textured, ethically probing and challenging – a must read for anyone concerned about the impact of globalisation on workers.

Gita Sen