The
particular position of women workers in zones
The importance of women's economic role is
not reflected at the level of policy or practice in the zones, and most government
agencies, investors, workers' organizations and other concerned groups could
be doing more to ensure that the distinct concerns of women are addressed.
Women workers' matters deserve more attention not only because the majority
of zone workers are women but because they experience the living and working
conditions differently from men. Women are generally in a weaker position
than their male counterparts and so any problem associated with zones has
a more severe impact on the female workforce.
In most zone-operating countries women were traditionally responsible for social reproduction while men handled economic production. However, changing attitudes, structural adjustment of the economy and poverty have forced many women on to the labour market. Despite their new economic responsibilities, often as the only or major income earner in the household, women have generally not been relieved of their domestic responsibilities. As a result many female zone workers are forced to rise earlier than usual in order to prepare the household for the day, and still have to care for other family members after arriving home from a 10- or 12-hour shift. This adds to their levels of fatigue and stress and may act as a distraction at work if the woman is worried about the health, well-being or security of family members. Child care is a big concern for working women and together with other domestic burdens may be the cause of late-coming, absenteeism and high labour turnover.
While the terms and conditions of zone work raise concerns for both men and women workers, those at the lower end of the occupational and skill hierarchy -- mainly women -- tend to be worse off. The situation of women is often defended with the argument that they would not be better off anywhere else, and that may well be the case. However, as wage earners in the zone women workers are part of the most dynamic sector of the economy and they aspire to better conditions than those prevailing in other sectors. Furthermore, employers complain of high labour turnover, low productivity, absenteeism and tardiness, which have their root causes in the unsatisfactory social and working conditions which many women face. If a more stable, long-term workforce is to be cultivated to produce world-class products, then the following issues need to be addressed in order to improve working conditions for female zone workers:
-- While zones have often increased women's access to jobs, they tend to be stereotyped into certain jobs at the lower end of the occupational hierarchy because of their perceived dexterity, small fingers or compliance, with the result that the distribution of women in the workforce does not reflect their educational level (which is often higher than the requirements for the job) or their experience. A 1997 study showed that women in Bangladesh were more prevalent at the bottom of the occupational hierarchy, direct labour, and the position was reversed at the top of the hierarchy. The proportion of direct labour which was female was 74.3 per cent, while at the level of officer-technical only 6 per cent were female. Seventy-five per cent of the workers on casual contracts were women.
-- The same study showed that zone enterprises tend to hire a higher proportion of women than non-zone enterprises, and that the reasons had less to do with wages than with non-price factors such as punctuality and amenability to skills acquisition.
-- In part, women tend to be paid at lower rates than men, because they generally occupy the lower-skill jobs, but this is true even when they are performing similar functions. In Bangladesh for example, 79 per cent of males in the EPZ are categorized as production workers, while the corresponding share for women is 98.4 per cent. The study referred to above concludes from this that women employees are disproportionately confined to relatively low-skilled (and thus low-paid) jobs in the enterprises located in the Bangladesh EPZs. In other words, there exists a sexual bias in the intra-firm division of labour which discriminates against the women employees.
-- The occupational and wage segmentation often assumes that the female worker provides only a secondary income to the household and will work for a shorter period of time than a male because of her reproductive role, whereas this is frequently not the case in developing countries with a high proportion of female-headed households. Young women are also expected to care for the elderly or other members of the household. These responsibilities place severe burdens on women's earnings, time and energy. In Guatemala an ILO study revealed that 45 per cent of female zone workers are single mothers, and in Nicaragua 66 per cent of women interviewed said they had more than three dependents. In Honduras 22 per cent of female zone workers indicated that they were the sole breadwinner in the household, while 73.5 per cent said that they contributed half or more of their wage to the household.
-- Because women seldom enjoy the same access to education and training as men, they are at a disadvantage in securing jobs in the high capital and skill-intensive industries, and employers may be reluctant to invest in the training of female workers for fear that they may leave to marry and have children. The missions conducted to prepare this report found that in labour-intensive processes the percentage of women was higher than in capital-intensive processes.
-- Hours of work tend to be long in EPZs, and this poses a greater health and safety problem for women workers because of their additional domestic responsibilities and increased vulnerability to harassment or attack when travelling to or from work at odd hours and in the dark.
-- Social security and welfare provisions are often sparse for zone workers, and the implications for women may be more serious. Most female zone workers have a target date for leaving the zone because the arduous nature of the work and inadequate social services make it too difficult to bear indefinitely. Without a pension or provident fund those women find it difficult to be economically independent after leaving zone employment, and without some training and retraining they are often unable to find alternative employment.
-- Many female zone workers perform only semi-skilled repetitive functions at work and receive a minimum of training. As a result they often leave the zone without a craft or the life skills that would enable them to be gainfully employed elsewhere or to work independently. In some countries NGOs offer courses to women workers in their free time; in Sri Lanka the ILO Model Hostel has a small training centre which runs extremely popular courses on topics such as sewing and baking.
-- Access to affordable and nutritious food is frequently a problem for female zone workers, and if they have to provide for their families the ramifications are more far-reaching. Local merchants are able to profit from the lack of alternatives available to zone workers and charge high prices for poor quality goods, with the result that women workers are often undernourished and prone to illness.
-- Health services in the zone and the local community are often limited, and seldom equipped to deal with the specific problems of women's health. Health education may not deal sufficiently with issues of reproductive health because of a lack of resources or religious and cultural sensitivities. In most zones and the surrounding communities there is a dearth of services dealing with family planning issues and sexually transmitted diseases. Furthermore, in some countries the social environment condemns unmarried mothers, leaving young women workers to deal with unwanted pregnancies in whatever way they can. Given the sensitive nature of this problem, exact statistics on abortions are not readily available, but it has been established that in many zone communities a large number of illegal abortions are performed.
-- For many women, the issue of child care is critical in determining whether they continue to work after having children. In many zones, workers are far from their families and lack the support of family networks or an established community. The availability of child care is often inadequate and the costs prohibitive. In Bangladesh an ILO mission to gather information for the Action Programme found NGOs actively involved in establishing crèches and pre-schools in enterprises. All the employer had to provide was the space and the time for breastfeeding women to be with their infants. In Malaysia the Government supports the establishment of child-care facilities in workplaces. Many countries have regulations which prohibit children from entering industrial areas and crèche services are therefore provided at the community level by the State. There is an ongoing debate as to whether it is preferable to have the child-care facility at the place of work or near the home. Many women workers would prefer to have access to affordable child care in the community. This would, in particular, ease the problem of having to transport children to the workplace.
-- Sexual harassment is a sensitive topic on which little hard data exists. However, ILO missions received a disturbing number of indications that suggest that harassment is present in zones and may even be widespread. In most cases a sexually harassed women would have no independent and confidential office or service to turn to, and zone administrations may wish to provide a counselling service for women. In Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean the Ministry of Women's Affairs, working with the Ministry of Labour and the zone authority, established a women's centre across the road from the zone to which women could go for advice and counselling on a wide range of issues.