Title: The wellbeing of garment workers in Bangladesh during COVID-19 - does gender matter?

Authors: Farida Chowdhury Khan; Farzana Misha; Nadine Murshid; Atonu Rabbani; Bakhtear Talukdar

Addresses: University of Colorado, 1420 Austin Bluffs Parkway, Colorado Springs, CO, 80918, USA ' BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, 28 Mohakhali, Bir Uttom A K Khandakar Road, Dhaka-1213, Bangladesh ' University at Buffalo, 685 Baldy Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA ' Department of Economics, Social Science Building, University of Dhaka, Dhaka1000, Bangladesh ' University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, 800 Main Street, Whitewater, WI 53190, USA

Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of COVID-19 on the RMG sector in Bangladesh. We find that the global pandemic created economic hardship, starvation, displacement from home, income discontinuity, and fear of isolated death among all workers across the board. Upon further analysis, we find that female workers were hit harder than their male counterparts. The disparity was due to women being in a more precarious situation concerning their jobs, mobility, and responsibilities as financial providers and caregivers. Economic emancipation enjoyed through working at garment jobs was significantly disrupted by massive layoffs as the pandemic unfolded. This created more mental stress and fear among the female workers than it did male workers. Our findings are supported both by quantitative and qualitative analyses.

Keywords: gender; Bangladesh; garments; labour; COVID-19.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGSDS.2023.135005

International Journal of Gender Studies in Developing Societies, 2023 Vol.5 No.1, pp.76 - 94

Accepted: 25 May 2023
Published online: 24 Nov 2023 *

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