Ready Made Garment (RMG) industry of Bangladesh is the highest foreign earning sector of the country. It is the second largest exporter in the world after China. There are 4.20 million workers working in this sector in about 5000 companies where more than 90% of workers are female who came from the rural areas of Bangladesh. Hence, female workers are the prime factor of this important industry of Bangladesh. But the working environment of these RMG companies is hardly conducive to work and not up to the international standard. Female workers are often harassed at the workplace and manipulated by their supervisors in this industry. Hence, this study aims at identifying the working environmental factors of female RMG workers of Bangladesh. This is an exploratory research based on secondary data, pilot survey, and experience survey. The prime objective of this study is to develop a conceptual framework on the environmental factors of the female garment workers in the RMG industry of Bangladesh. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the readymade garment industry of Bangladesh. This study identified that the female garment workers work in a suppressive and unfavorable environment. They are abused by their supervisors and their colleagues at work. Sometimes, they are also sexually harassed at the workplace where they work. Therefore, they always remain in tension and work with high physical and mental pressures that have also an impact on their work performance. It is suggested in this study that the managers of RMG companies should change their behavior toward these illiterate female workers and are to be protected from the manipulation at work. Industrial Laws may strictly be used by the government to overcome this problem.

The rapid development of the garment sector, along with its mobilization of women workers, has made it a popular issue of concern among policy makers, activists and scholars. This paper intends to investigate the work environment, both physical and social, of the women workers in the ready-made garment (RMG) sector in Bangladesh. To that end, it attempts to identify the problems faced by the women workers, to explore the underlying reasons and to recommend appropriate measures in meeting the challenges. The study surveyed 180 workers from 30 garment factories situated in different locations of Dhaka and Gazipur area to determine the key influential factors that significantly influence on livelihood and environmental perspective of female garments workers in Bangladesh. These workers were surveyed through convenience sampling method with structured questionnaire from June to July 2016. After collection of primary data, hypotheses were formulated and one sample T-test was used to test the hypotheses with 0.05 level of statistical significance. For assuming the characteristics of data, demographic analysis, descriptive analysis and interpretations were drawn on the basis of percentage frequency, calculated mean, standard deviation (SD). In addition, empirical analyses were depicted by coefficient of variation (CV). The recommendations were provided based on the research findings and analysis.

Readymade garment industry is the prime foreign earning industry of Bangladesh where more than 4.2 million workers are working of which 90% workers are female who come from the rural areas of the country. The working conditions and the working lives of these female workers are hardly up to the standard. The working lives of these female workers are substantially disturbed by the unfavorable working conditions that lead to job dissatisfaction, job insecurity, and low productivity of the workers. These are due to not maintaining government compliances by these readymade garment (RMG) companies. Therefore, a serious concern has been raised by the national and international community regarding the working conditions and the working lives of these female workers of Bangladesh. Therefore, this paper aims at identifying the working conditions and the working lives of female readymade garment workers of Bangladesh. For conducting this study, both primary and secondary data were collected. Primary data were collected by using a structured questionnaire. A total of 267 female workers were interviewed for this study. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the present working conditions of the female workers and inferential statistical were used to identify the relationships between the overall working conditions and the working lives of the female workers. Results show that the female readymade garment workers of Bangladesh work under the suppressive working environment. Female workers are always exploited by their managers and supervisors due to gender difference and submissiveness. Managers also misbehave with them by capitalizing their illiteracy and submissiveness. Female workers are often disturbed by the male colleagues too at work place and outside the factory. They do not have freedom at work and have no promotion at work. This study suggests that the policymakers of this sector of industry should follow the industrial laws and create a favorable working environment which will be favorable for the female workers to work in this sector.

Readymade garment industry is the prime sector of foreign earnings of Bangladesh. There are more than 4,500 garment companies are operating in Bangladesh. More than 80% of the foreign earnings are coming from this sector. At present, four million workers are working in this sector in which 90% are rural women. It is claimed by the employers that the garment companies have helped to develop the socio-economic status of the rural women employed in this sector. Hence, this paper aims at identifying the socio-economic status factors of the garment workers of Bangladesh. This study suggests that housing, water and sanitation conditions, medical facilities and first aid treatment, wages, social status, adaptation of cultural values and norms, attachment with labor unions, ownership arrangement, leave with pay and overtime are significantly related to the socio-economic status of the garments workers of Bangladesh. This study recommends that the measures for improving the socio-economic status of the women workers are related to the improvement of their housing conditions, education, health and sanitation, and the favorable service rules for the women workers.

The RMG industry of Bangladesh is the main sector of foreign earnings. There are more than 4,000 garment companies in the country. More than 75 per cent of the foreign earnings come from this sector. More than four million workers are working.in this industry of which 90 per cent is women coming from rural areas of Bangladesh. It is claimed by the employers that the garment companies have helped to develop the socioeconomic status of the women working in this sector. Hence, this study aims at identifying the socioeconomic factors of the garment workers of Bangladesh. The study is based on a survey of 242 female workers of 29 garment companies located in different Savar and Ashulia of Dhaka division where most of the RMG companies are located.

This article is a literature review in which a comprehensive understanding is developed of the multiple and contemporary facets of the problem of gender inequality in international supply chains of ready-made garments (RMG). The main focus of the study is on the RMG manufacturing sector in Bangladesh, since this sector represents a hub in international RMG supply chains. The issue of gender inequality in the RMG sector represents a main concern of NGOs, the OECD, the ILO, national governments, international buyers and brands, and other stakeholders. Using a structured literature review method, literature is selected from various international academic sources in a systemic way. The selected literature is analysed by employing Lessig's analytical framework, developed as the New Chicago School. The authors apply this framework to identify which forces and constraints influence the situation of gender inequality in the Bangladeshi garment sector. The influencing factors are organised in the four categories acknowledged by Lessig: law, cultural norms, market and architecture. Through this lens of a regulatory ecology approach, various types of constraints are identified that need to be addressed in order to solve the issue of gender inequality in the RMG industry in Bangladesh. In addition,the Capabilities Theory of Martha Nussbaum provides a basis for the discussion on how to improve the situation of female garment workers in Bangladesh. Accordingly, this research contributes to a holistic and institutional understanding of the options of how to improve the status of gender equality in the Bangladeshi RMG sector. The options discussed cover legal, regulatory and semi-legal instruments and market behaviour of local RMG companies, international buyers and brands, NGOs and unions.