Women's employment
in EPZs
Zone workers are a very significant component of formal employment in zone-operating
countries, and women are usually in the majority, particularly in the garment
and electronics sectors. Table 2.7, constructed by an ILO advisor on women's
issues in Central America, illustrates the predominance of women workers in
the zone workforce and the high percentage of textile and garme nt plants which
are female labour-intensive.
In Bangladesh gender-based employment data are available for the Chittagong EPZ (CEPZ) only. Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) data for 1996 show that 70 per cent of the 32,095 employees in the CEPZ were women.
Table 2.7. Women's employment in free zones in selected countries of Central America and the Caribbean, 1995
| Country | Number of plants | Average number of workers per plant |
Percentage of workers employed in the textile and garment industry |
Total number of workers |
Percentage of women workers |
| Guatemala | 481 | 345 | 80 | 165 945 | 80 |
| Honduras | 155 | 395 | 95 | 61 162 | 78 |
| El Salvador | 208 | 320 | 69 | 50 000 | 78 |
| Nicaragua | 18 | 418 | 89 | 7 533 | 80 |
| Costa Rica | 250 | 200 | 70 | 50 000 | 65 |
| Panama | 6 | 200 | 100 | 1 200 | 95 |
| Dominican Republic | 469 | 353 | 65 | 165 571 | 60 |
Source: L. Daeren: "Cuestiones de género en la industria maquiladora en América Central y República Dominicana", paper presented to an ILO Subregional Tripartite Seminar in San José, Costa Rica, 25-28 November 1997.