Women in garment sector hit hard by COVID-19: ILO

The impact of COVID-19 on women in the garment industry has worsened due to underlying challenges, including discrimination and harassment, underrepresentation of women’s voice, wage gaps as well as unevenly shared unpaid care and family obligations, says a new brief from the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Entitled ‘Gendered impacts of COVID-19 on the garment sector’ the brief aims to raise awareness of the gendered reality of COVID-19 and to outline how the pandemic impacts women and men workers in the garment sector, according to an ILO webpost.

“Women account for approximately 80 percent of the garment sector workforce, so they are heavily affected to start with by many of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, women also experience additional impacts due to the existing challenges they face in the workplace as well as expectations regarding women’s obligations in the home,” said Joni Simpson, Senior Gender Specialist for the ILO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

Recent ILO research highlighted how major buying countries’ imports from garment-exporting countries in Asia had dropped by up to 70 percent in the first half of 2020, due to COVID-19. This has led to a sharp increase in worker layoffs and dismissals while factories that have reopened are often operating at reduced workforce capacity.

The Asia-Pacific region employed an estimated 65 million RMG workers in 2019, accounting for 75 percent of all garment workers worldwide.

In a study conducted on garment workers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Kenya, Lesotho and Viet Nam, ILO’s Better Work project found that waged employment helped advance women’s empowerment in societies considered to be highly gender.

Women’s employment in Better Work factories has enabled them to improve their leverage and influence in household spending and decision-making, and has increased men’s participation in unpaid care work.

“Women constitute 60 percent of the workforce in the Bangladesh ready-made garment industry. A drop in women’s employment will not only impede their economic and social empowerment, but will also give rise to shortage of experienced, loyal and skilled workers in the industry,” said Tuomo Poutiainen, Country Director of ILO Bangladesh.

The brief highlights short, medium, and long-term impacts of the crisis on women workers. It also includes a series of recommendations to help build a more just and resilient industry and greater gender equality.

Recommendations, include greater focus on retrenchment and closure practices as well as addressing women’s disproportionate unpaid care obligations so they can return to work as factories resume operations. Efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic should account for the unique ways that women and men may encounter the effects of the coronavirus at work, at home and in their communities. The importance of strengthening efforts to combat violence and harassment in the workplace is highlighted, in view of emerging data showing that COVID-19 has increased the risks of gender-based violence.

“It is crucial that governments, businesses and other stakeholders understand the multi-dimensional impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on both women and men workers, and design policies that enable a smart, sustainable and gender-responsive recovery. Otherwise, the COVID-19 crisis threatens to exacerbate pre-existing inequalities and will hamper the social and economic sustainability of the garment sector,” said Jessica Wan, Better Work Gender Specialist.