From Impoverished Beneficiaries to Empowered Stakeholders

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From Impoverished Beneficiaries to Empowered Stakeholders

— a case study of H&M Foundation Multi-Sectoral Sustainable Initiative for female Bangladeshi RMG workers

Areeba Ahmed

Zhuohan Xie (Ivy) Masters in Sustainable Management

Uppsala University Supervisor: Matilda Dahl

6/2/2021

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Abstract

Our paper sheds light on the most underrepresented and vulnerable stakeholders of the RMG value chain: female garment workers. Even though they are primary stakeholders, their rights, representation and future development are often overlooked. The RMG sector in Bangladesh is primarily composed of women. We show that taking intersectional feminist lens into the stakeholder theory prioritizes the complexity of issues faced by female garment workers. In order to fully understand the issues faced by these women a holistic approach must be taken to understand their complex multi-faceted problems. Our research looks into H&M Foundation’s initiative to provide short-term assistance for COVID-19 response and long-term support through hard and soft skills for RMG workers in Bangladesh as the sector becomes more automated. In this is a multi-sectoral sustainable initiative H&M Foundation has partnered up with various local stakeholders, NGOs and special interest organizations, to support female garment workers. We interview all stakeholders and decision makers involved in this project and other members of the RMG value chain to understand the issues faced by these women and what solutions can be offered.

Key Words: Stakeholder Theory, Intersectional Feminism, Female RMG workers, Bangladesh, H&M Foundation, Multi-Sectoral, Sustainable Initiatives, Automation, COVID-19

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Acknowledgement

We would first like to thank all the interviewees who took the time from their extremely busy schedules to provide us with the time and gave us invaluable information upon which so much of our thesis depended on. An entire online program has been extremely difficult, but being able to access these amazing trailblazing organizations in Bangladesh has been terrific. Thank you to our thesis advisor, Matilda, and some extremely helpful classmates who pushed us to further elaborate our ideas.

I want to thank my family for their unconditional love. It had been an adamant dream of mine to write about Bangladesh. As disheartened as I was that this entire program was conducted online, I want to thank my feisty roommate for encouraging me to take advantage of the situation and utilize my resources here in Bangladesh. I would also like to thank my dear Swedish kompis in Dhaka with whom I would have fika with knäckebröd & lingonberries. I have seen and experienced Sweden without ever having stepped into the country. And lastly, my wonderful friends near and far, who are more family than friends, and have provided unconditional support during such a challenging year.

I would like to thank my family who always supported me through the distances during the past year. I cannot finnish this thesis without their unconditional support. Besides, I would like to thank my friends in Sweden and in China , who always keep faith in me through the entire process. Last but not the least, I would like to thank my roommates Shaelyn, Kadri and Lucas who gave emotional support and unforgettable memories in Visby.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 1 ACKKNOLWDGEMENT 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 ABBREVIATIONS 5 1. INTRODUCTION 6

1.1 PROBLEM 7

1.2 AIM 9

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 10

1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY 10

2.BACKGROUND 11

2.1. GARMENT SECTOR IN BANGLADESH 11

2.2. COVID-19 IMPACT OF WOMEN IN GARMENT SECTOR 12

2.3. H&M FOUNDATION INITIATIVE 13

2.4. BRIEF ON STAKEHOLDERS 14

3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 16

3.1. STAKEHOLDER THEORY 16

3.2. INTERSECTIONAL FEMINISM 18

3.3. ADDING FEMINIST LENS STAKEHOLDER TOWARDS STAKEHOLDER THEORY 19

4.METHODOLOGY 21

4.1. RESEARCH PHILOSOPHY AND METHOD CHOICE 21

4.2. RESEARCH DESIGN 22

4.2.1. CASE STUDY 22

4.2.2 H&M AS RESEARCH CASE 23

4.3. DATA COLLECTION 24

4.3.1. INTERVIEW 24

4.3.2.ONLIE DATA COLLECTION 25

4.4. DATA ANALYSIS 26

4.5. ETHICAL CONSIDERATION 27

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5. EMPIRICAL STORY 27

6. EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS 31

6.1. IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM: BEFORE THE INITIATIVES 31

6.1.1. CULTURAL & SOCIO-ECONOMIC OPPRESSION 31

6.1.2. UNDERREPRESENTATION IN MANAGERIAL ROLES 33

6.1.3. LACK OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING 33

6.1.4. GENDERED IMPACT OF COVID-19 34

6.2. MULTI-STAKEHOLDER & MULTI-SECTORAL INITIATIVE 35

6.2.1. MULTI-STAKEHOLDER 35

6.2.2. MULTI-SECTORAL INITIATIVE 36

6.2.3. INTERSECTIONAL FEMINIST LENS ON MULTI-STAKEHOLDER INITIATIVE 37

6.3. URGENT NEEDS - COVID SUPPORT 37

6.3.1. HEALTH AND HYGIENE 37

6.3.2. CHILDCARE SERVICES 38

6.3.3. PSYCHO-SOCIAL SUPPORT 40

6.4. PASSIVE TO ACTIVE SUPPORT 39

6.4.1. TECHNICAL SKILLS ENHANCEMENT 39

6.4.2. SOFT SKILLS ENHANCEMENT 41

6.4.3. CONFERENCE FOR FUTURE WORK AND INNOVATION CHALLENGE 42

7. DISCUSSION: CHALLENGES & CONTRAST 44

8. CONCLUSION 46

8.1. ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS 47

8.2. LIMITATIONS OF THIS STUDY 49

8.3. FUTURE DIRECTION OF STUDY 49

REFERENCES LIST 51

APPENDIX 1 57

APPENDIX 2 59

APPENDIX 3 60

APPENDIX 4 61

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Abbreviations

BGMEA - Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association

BSR – Business for Socially Responsible

COVID -19 – CoronaVirus Disease

H&M – Hennes & Mauritz

IBRD – The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

ICRW – International Center for Research on Women

IDA – International Development Association

ILO - International Labor Organization

NGO – Non-governmental Organization

RMG – Ready Made Garment

STC - Save the Children

TAF- The Asia Foundation

WHO – World Health Organization

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1. Introduction

If the girl who made your skirt is not paid

You cannot say it's beautiful.

If the pay is less than living wage

You cannot say it's beautiful.

If the colored dyes now lie in rivers,

Poisoned fish, polluted waters,

If there’s no sick pay, no toilet breaks

If the factories are in decay

No matter what your mirror says

Or how stylish you might look today

You cannot claim it’s beautiful.

By Hollie Mcnish

Fashion brands that promote feminism through women empowerment initiatives can contradict

themselves when unsustainable practices and gender inequality are found within the value chain.

The fashion industry faces major challenges related to “women's wellbeing and labor rights,

employees professional and personal development” (Miotto & Vilajoana-Alejandre, 2019). Is it

the ultimate oxymoron to print a feminist quote on a t-shirt when they are manufactured in places

by women who are earning alarmingly low wages working in dangerous conditions? A study

conducted by Business for Socially Responsible (BSR) and International Center for Research on

Women (ICRW 2017) states, globally the apparel sector is one of the largest employers of

women workers. The industry potentially has the power and influence to impact the lives of

millions of women in low-income countries, their families, and ultimately the communities

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(2017). With such a significant influence on their livelihood, it is imperative to have a positive

impact. Women play a vital role in the fashion industry, especially in the garment sector. “With

statistics indicating over three-quarters of garment workers worldwide are women, it’s time we

started considering fashion as an industry intrinsically linked with the rights of women – from

the lowest-paid factory jobs right up to corporate positions” (Piper, 2018). According to the

Global Fund for Women (2016), the global workforce in the garment industry comprises

approximately 80% women. Fashion products sold in retail chain stores are overwhelmingly

created by women. Fashion is associated with femininity, yet many researchers have observed

that sustainability issues surrounding fashion can often be undermined (Giertz-Mårtenson, 2012).

Even though women are the majority makers and consumers of clothing, gender discrimination

and inequality run rampant within the industry.

1.1 Problem

A report by the Clean Clothes Campaign (2013) explains the fact that the vast majority of

garment workers are women not by chance, but as a result of discriminatory practices in the

value chain. Employers can take advantage of women for various factors. Their impoverished

states, need for employment and cultural suppressions of ignoring women’s plight in the

workplace. Since these women are also responsible for reproductive and domestic

responsibilities, they do not have time or money to advance their education or learn other skills

to enhance their employability. Due to the fear of job loss and underrepresentation on a

managerial level, they cannot speak up against dangerous working conditions. Gender

discrimination is prevalent throughout all the countries in which garments are currently

produced. Women are frequently subjected to verbal and physical abuse and sexual harassment

(CleanClothesCampaign, 2013). “Most female readymade garments workers have identified lack

of safety, access to education, unawareness of labour rights and health insecurity as the major

hurdles in attaining their highest potential in the sector” (Khan, 2014).

An issue brief by the International Labor Organization on the gender composition and experience

of Bangladesh’s RMG sectors states according to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and

Exporters Association (BGMEA), 80 percent of the 4 million garment workers in Bangladesh’s

factories are women. Most come from impoverished or economically disadvantaged

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backgrounds. Among women workers, 29.1 percent have no formal education or have not

completed their primary education. In the past decade, no significant improvements were made

to encourage an increase in the number of women in managerial and leadership positions. The

sectoral leadership roles are male-dominated. Better Work, which is a partnership with the

International Labor Organization (ILO) and International Finance Corporation (IFC), found in

their compliance report that 95% of supervisors in the sector were men (Matsura, ILO, 2020).

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has significantly affected the global garment industry. The

pandemic has further highlighted the disparity of how women are more consistently affected as

Cook (et al. 2021) explains how the fallout from the pandemic has led to grave consequences for

women from mounting evidence which points to reduced access to “sexual and reproductive

health services, increased domestic violence, and disproportionate effects on women’s

livelihoods.” Despite pressures from transnational labor rights activists to support garment

workers, fast fashion brands such as Primark, C&A, and Zara have canceled orders, which has a

significant impact on garment workers around the world (Brydges & Hanlon, 2020). The Center

for Global Worker Rights (CGWR) surveyed Bangladeshi garment manufacturers where they

estimated buyers had canceled $1.44 billion worth of garment exports, leaving factory owners

unable to pay their workers (Anner, 2020).

ILO (2020) created a report on the gendered impact of COVID-19 on the garment sector which

shows even though the pandemic has long and short-term effects on garment workers, it

disproportionately impacts women and threatens to exacerbate pre-existing inequalities and will

hamper the social and economic sustainability of the garment sector (ILO, 2020). Given the

gendered reality of COVID-19, ILO recommends dedicated gender-responsive measures and

policies should be designed and implemented based on the short- and long-term needs and

realities of women in the industry. It elaborates how crucial it is that governments, businesses,

and all relevant stakeholders understand the multi-dimensional impacts of the COVID-19, design

policies that enable an innovative, sustainable, and gender-responsive recovery. This paper will

investigate the sustainable collaboration initiated by H&M Foundation with several other NGOs,

to provide short- term assistance for COVID-19 and long-term training and support to women in

the garment sector in Bangladesh, through interviews with all relevant and participating

stakeholders. We analyze whether implementing the stakeholder theory through a feminist

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intersectional lens can highlight and address how to improve the situation for female garment

workers.

1.2. Aim

The Ready-Made Garment (RMG) sector in Bangladesh has been one of the main contributors to

GDP growth, fundamental export division, and foreign direct investment. By providing low-cost

labor with enough skill and development, it gives brands like H&M, Zara, Macy’s, and Walmart

lucrative options of manufacturing their products (Hossain, 2019). As a sector that mainly

employs women, the garment industry has played a significant role in shaping the lives of these

impoverished women by offering opportunities to earn themselves and gain independence.

Although providing such large-scale employment to women in these impoverished states can be

seen as an emancipatory tool to free themselves of cultural chains, Rahman (2010) questions

whether the job emancipates them from exploitative situations or exploits them because of their

condition. Female garment workers constitute a highly vulnerable group of young, poor,

unskilled, sometimes illiterate, and often single women in a society dominated by strong gender

hierarchies. With few support systems in place, women are often most underrepresented in the

sector (Fathi, IFC, 2017).

To address such issues, corporations often adopt sustainability efforts through social and

environmental sustainability initiatives. But as Dominic Barton, the global managing partner in

McKinsey & Company（2018）reasons, often a firm’s sustainability efforts fall short or do not

sufficiently address the full impact of their operations (2018). When sustainability measures are

taken there is often disproportionality in the stakeholder’s importance (Bharti et al. 2020).

Women garment workers are one of the main contributors of the entire RMG operation and are

primary stakeholders in the value chain yet they are one of the most vulnerable and

underrepresented. Akhter (et al. 2019) elaborates that to understand the issues faced by women

garment workers in developing countries one must look at the multi-dimensionality of problems

that are the root cases, which includes culture, gendered norms and socio-economy. As

previously mentioned, in ILO’s recommendation on designing sustainable policies to remediate

the short- and long-term impact on garment workers, it is essential to consider the salience of

stakeholders to understand the multi-dimensional impact. As researchers we aim to examine

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whether analyzing intersectional feminism on stakeholder theory helps understand the multi-

sectoral issues faced by female RMG workers in developing countries.

We use H&M foundation’s multi-sectoral sustainability initiative with various other NGOs as a

case study. The initiative provides a short-term relief program to address the impact of COVID-

19 on female garment workers and a long-term training program to address employment risk

within the sector as factories become more automated. Through interviews of prominent

stakeholders, we try to analyze how intersectional feminist lens highlights the muli-

dimensionliaty of the issues faced by these women, and further understanding the intention

behind corporate’s sustainable initiatives.

1.3.Research Questions

1. How intersectional feminism lens on stakeholder theory can be used to gear the sustainability initiatives better supporting female garment workers?

2. How can sustainability initiatives be geared towards making female garment workers from passive beneficiaries to active stakeholders in the RMG sector and/or value chain?

1.4. Scope of study

Our paper brings a wide range of stakeholders involved in the lives of Bangladeshi female

garment workers from various sectors. The H&M foundation initiative involves NGOs and other

organizations, who play a role in shaping these women’s health, safety, skills training, and

overall well-being. There have been previous studies conducted on multi-sectoral initiatives to

address issues in the garment industry and evaluating stakeholder theory in RMG sector in

Bangladesh, but our paper sheds light on the immediate impact of COVID-19 on female garment

workers in Bangladesh, how they were remediated from the initial stage of the pandemic, and the

importance of establishing long term plan of training and skills enhancement.

The primary mode of data collection was 10 semi-structured interviews with project leads

from various sectors of sustainability, as it provides us with multi-disciplinary knowledge about

how to address this problem. But as all these organizations are secondary stakeholders in the

RMG value chain, hence we also interviewed 3 H&M suppliers as they are primary stakeholders

strongly involved in the working conditions and livelihood of female garment workers. Due to

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lockdown restrictions, we were not able to conduct our original thesis plan of interviewing

garment workers directly. The findings are later analyzed as we try to argue that female

garment workers need a bigger say as stakeholders and whether this can be done if relevant

stakeholders involved in the RMG sector choose to understand, assess and prioritize their needs.

We will try to gain the perspective from all interviewed stakeholders, what they believe female

garment workers' involvement should be in the RMG value chain, and to what capacity do they

view them as prominent stakeholders. From these interviews we try to analyze the

intersectionality of all the multi-faceted issues faced by these women and understand how to

uplift them from their impoverished circumstances to an empowered state.

2. Background

2.1.Garment Sector in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in poverty reduction, supported by sustained

economic growth. It has been among the fastest-growing economies globally over the past

decade because of a demographic dividend, strong RMG exports, and stable macroeconomic

conditions (The World Bank, IBRD, IDA). Bhattacharya et al. (2002) explains that Bangladesh’s

RMG segment started in the 1970s as a small non-traditional sector of export and has now

become one of the key drivers of the economy. It eventually became a dynamic player in export

as well as in the domestic economy through backward and forward linkage activities. It went

beyond a developing country predominantly receiving aid to a trading nation (Bhattacharya et al.

2002). In the 2017-18 fiscal year the RMG sector became a US$30 billion industry which

accounts for 83% of the country’s total revenue. The sector has exponentially expanded

employment job opportunities, raised women’s employment, and pushed Bangladesh’s female

labor force participation rate up to 36.4 percent in 2017 (ILO, 2020). As Rahman and Sidiqqui

(2015) explain, of all the aspects in the sector that have received attention, the problems, and the

working conditions of workers have been prioritized the most. After the Tazreen fire and

collapse of Rana Plaza, the issue has been under scrutiny. Following the Rana Plaza factory

collapse in 2013 which killed 1,133 people, several initiatives have been taken to improve

building and fire safety in the industry such as the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in

Bangladesh. It was created and headquartered in the Netherlands, and it is a legally binding

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agreement between factories, global brands, and retailers, trade unions to ensure safety in

Bangladesh’s RMG sector (Fahti, 2017).

The progress made in terms of fires and safety standards indicates that when strong measures and

enforcement mechanisms are in place, people become more accountable towards achieving the

targets. The same enforcement has not been made for gender equality (ILO, 2020). The sector’s

improvement to strong safety measures was a reactive rather than a proactive measure to stop

incidents like this from happening in the first place as there was a huge “misalignment between

the requirement of Western codes of conduct and the cultural and socio-economic context in

Bangladesh” (Huq et al., 2014). As for gender inequality in the industry, Ferenschild and Wick

(2004) argue that in the RMG sector, “the industry’s growth strategy depends on the social

discrimination of women and as a consequence of this, on their major willingness to accept low

qualified, low paid and, often, informal employment opportunities.’’

Tuomo Poutiainen, country director ILO, Bangladesh (2020) explains in a press release that

despite significant investments by government entities, national and international organizations

to improve working conditions in the RMG sector, gender-based challenges persist. The RMG

sector’s evolution has not been sufficiently gender-responsive. He elaborates that “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” (International

Labor Organization, 2020). Even though there have been improved safety measures taken in

factories in Bangladesh since 2013, female workplace health and safety issues in the RMG sector

continue, especially low wages, limited representation in managerial positions, and skills

enhancement (Akther et al，2019). According to the CleanClothesCampaign (2020) new

minimum wage level is (8,000 BDT/85 euro) which amounted to only half of what the unions

demanded of 16,000 BDT and fell short of living wage calculations for Bangladesh (Clean

Clothes Campaign, 2020). Even though safety measures and hazardous conditions have been

addressed and have come a long way through compliance and external audits, there is still a

major gender pay gap in the garment sector, sexual harassment as well as limited representation

in leadership positions in factories (Huynh, ILO, 2016).

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2.2.Covid-19 impact on female garment workers

The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified Bangladesh as one of the 25 most

vulnerable countries to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The high population density,

poor infrastructure, weak health systems, and low awareness of basic preventive measures

contributed to the rapid spread of the disease (WaterAid, 2020). Even though the work put in by

RMG workers brings in billions of dollars to factory owners, many were seen laying off workers

during the initial lockdown and not paying 2 months of salary (Kabir et al., 2020). Policy

specialist at Better Work Global Arianni Rossi (2020) explains that women are more susceptible

to getting infected in the garment sector where social distancing and safety measures are

impossible to implement and monitor in the workplace (World of Work: The pandemic Impact

on female garment workers. BetterWork, ILO, 2020). In the brief created by ILO regarding the

gendered impact of COVID-19 on the garment sector, the results show that the crisis exacerbated

the existing inequalities. There were already practices of discrimination, violence, and

harassment in the workplace, now it may also be an occurrence at home for these women if both

members of the household lost their job due to the pandemic. (ILO, Gendered Impact of

COVID19, 2020). The uneven distribution of family obligations falls on women. The experts

urge to address the needs and realities of the different groups of women and gender-responsive

initiatives and policies can be taken. ILO recommends addressing violence and harassment in the

workplace which has increased since the pandemic and ensuring women’s voice and

representation are included in managerial positions and leadership. The approach recommended

by ILO states a multi-sectoral method of including key stakeholders like international retailers,

government entities, health communities, and other relevant organizations. (ILO, Gendered

Impact of COVID19, 2020).

2.3.H&M Foundation’s Initiative

Considering the pandemic’s impact on female textile workers, H&M Foundation (2020) initiated

a two-year-long project collaborating with various NGOs and special interest organizations to

provide support for female garment workers in Bangladesh. The initiative plans to address two

big issues that women in the garment sector in Bangladesh are facing. The first is to provide

short term assistance for the effects of COVID-19 and second is to address the long term effects

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of increased automation in the textile industry. They selected 76,000 young women and their

families in Dhaka, the country’s capital who will receive emergency relief. As the textile sector

is one of the most significant contributors to the country’s GDP, the local and global effects of

the pandemic have had an immense impact on the suppliers and workers.

Along with H&M foundation the stakeholders involved in this project are WaterAid, The Asia

Foundation, Save the Children, Shimmy Technologies, CARE and BRAC. The Foundation has

first donated 12 million SEK to the NGOs so that emergency relief is reached to at least a million

people.Through social innovation and community-based programs, the foundation is planning on

addressing the gender challenges of female garment workers (H&M Foundation, 2020).

2.4. Brief on Project Stakeholders

1. H&M foundation

H&M Foundation is a non-profit global foundation established in 2013, privately funded by

Steffan Persson, founders and main owners of H&M Group. It is a separate entity of the H&M

Group with its team, strategy, and board. The foundations’ goals are aligned with UN

Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and were established to create, collaborate and fund the

world’s most urgent challenges and find solutions. Their non-profit is meant to complement the

role of their commercial company. Their positions as a private non-profit foundation allow them

to take more funding risks than NGOs or their corporate side can’t. The foundations' goal is

long-term plans to change the systemic issues ingrained in the social and political elements of a

country. Their goal is to navigate the fashion industry to a positive and sustainable place by

accelerating innovation, redesigning systems, constructive activism, and providing emergency

relief (H&MGroup).

2. . WaterAid

WaterAid is a UK-based charity organization operating as an NGO in Bangladesh since 1996. In

Bangladesh, over 4 million people lack access to a clean water source and over 85 million don’t

have access to proper sanitation. The charity’s three main goals are clean eater, decent toilets,

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and decent hygiene. Their core goals are aligned with WaterAid’s global goal and with SDG 6

which states access to clean water and sanitation (WaterAid.org).

3. The Asia Foundation

The Asia Foundation was founded in 1954 as a nonprofit international development organization

committed to improving lives across a dynamic and developing Asia. They work with partners to

continue the peaceful development in Asia. They are headquartered in San Francisco and have

offices in 18 Asian countries. For more than 65 years, The Asia Foundation has worked with the

government, civil society, community, and religious leaders, and the private sector in

Bangladesh. Together with their partners, The Asia Foundation works to tackle community

challenges, build leadership capacity that reflects the country’s diversity, and facilitate broad-

based participation in the country’s development (TheAsiaFoundation.org).

4. CARE Bangladesh

They are one of the largest international humanitarian organizations that are committed to

helping poor communities and alleviating extreme poverty. CARE was founded in 1945 but its

operations in Bangladesh have been running since 1949, even before Bangladesh’s

independence. Their goal is to give voice to the community of people who are highly

marginalized through legitimate claims and entitlements. Recently CARE Bangladesh is

collaborating with 35 projects to improve livelihood and promote gender equality and women

empowerment in the country (CareBagladesh.org)

5. Save the children

Established in 1919 in the United Kingdom, they have been operating in Bangladesh since 1970

and have reached over 15 million people each year. Their goal as an organization is to give every

child in Bangladesh the right to grow to their potential selves and utilizing resources to maximize

the impact. (Bangladesh.SaveTheChildren.net)

6. BRAC

BRAC which was founded by Sir Fazle Abed in 1972 in a small village in Bangladesh has now

grown into the largest development organization in the world. BRAC’s programs reach millions

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of people in Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Liberia,

Myanmar, Nepal, and the Philippines. Their operations involve microfinance, education,

emergency preparedness and response, empowerment and livelihood of adolescents, agriculture,

livestock, and health (BracInternationa.org).

7. Shimmy Technologies

Shimmy Technologies is a women-owned Industry 4.0 company preparing the apparel industry

for the future of work by developing upskilling and reskilling applications. Their goal is to invest

the majority of their profits into sustainable enterprises to support their mission for gender equity

and decent work for the 75 million people in the apparel supply chain.

8. RMG supplier (Interviewee A, B, C)

3. Theoretical Framework

3.1. Stakeholder Theory

The Stakeholder Theory was coined in 1984 in R. Edward Freeman’s book ‘Strategic

Management – A Stakeholder Approach.’ The force that drove the theory into fruition was when

managers and corporations started to face unprecedented backlash for the levels of

environmental turbulence and change (R. E. Freeman & McVea, 2001). The status quo in the

business framework was no longer working to develop new strategic directions. Freeman

observed that the current theories were inconsistent with both the quantity and kinds of change

that were occurring in the business environment of the 1980s and realized that a new conceptual

framework was needed (Freeman, 1984). The fundamental task of the Stakeholder Theory is to

actively oversee and incorporate the relationships and shared interests of shareholders,

employees, customers, suppliers, communities, and other groups to guarantee the long-term

success of the organization. It includes the voices of all those who have a stake in the business

and promotes an ethical and efficient way. As Harrison (et al., 2015) explains that primary

stakeholder includes employees, managers, financiers, customers and suppliers and secondary

stakeholder groups include communities, special interest and environmental organizations, the

media, and even society as a whole. The stakeholder theory is a business management and

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ethical theory for companies based on the moral treatment of all the stakeholders (Harisson et al.

2015). As López-Fernández & Romero-Fernández (2019) clarifies, only the primary stakeholders

have a direct economic impact of the firm’s actions, while the secondary stakeholders are those

who affect and/or influence and are affected by firms. Urgency among stakeholders refers to the

degree of immediate attention and response by a certain group of stakeholders. And a dependent

stakeholder is one who has the urgency and legitimacy but depends on others for the power to

carry out their will (López-Fernández & Romero-Fernández, 2019).

Figure 1. Freeman, R., Harrison, J., & Zyglidopoulos, S. (2018). Stakeholder Theory: Concepts and

Strategies

When designing business management from an international context Jamali & Mishrak (2007)

elaborate that the “institutional framework and predominant management mindset of each

country reflect its distinct history and the peculiarities of its socio-political configuration.” As

stakeholder theory is becoming a global phenomenon, the first issue organizations find

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themselves dealing with is the institutional and regulatory framework in different countries and

how they can support and design business plans to include a variety of stakeholders. “At the firm

level, organizations that operate in countries that are different from the home country may

contribute a great deal in terms of novel ideas about how to manage stakeholders… Because

developing nations tend to be much more resource-constrained compared to nations that are

highly industrialized, stakeholder theory would suggest that firms in these nations are likely to

benefit greatly from the value-creating processes associated with managing for stakeholders”

(Harrisson et al. 2015). In a global context organizations are in contact with a multitude of

stakeholders and can greatly benefit from effective interactions and collaborations, and the most

relevant stakeholders being, “shareholders, employees, governments and non-governmental

organizations (López-Fernández & Romero-Fernández, 2019).

Yu (2009) argues that even though garment workers are relevant stakeholders in the RMG sector

they do not possess the “legitimacy and power to air claims for labor abuses; workers have been

merely passive beneficiaries for years.” Garment workers as key stakeholders in the sector often

cannot raise and remediate and have to rely on the advocacy of other influential stakeholders

(Yu, 2009). The salience of stakeholders dictates how much representation they have in the

framework. She calls for a need to transition workers from passive beneficiaries to active

stakeholders. To prioritize female garment workers, the stakeholder framework can be seen

through an intersectional feminist lens.

3.2. Intersectional Feminism

“Feminism is informed by intersections of history, theory, ideology, social movements, and

Individual acts of courage and agency” (Villaverde, 2008). To further explain Intersectional

Feminism, this term was first proposed in 1989 by American law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw.

She interpreted "intersectoral feminism" as "the observation that various forms of inequality

often work together, and it is also a prism that exacerbates each other" (Collins, & Bilge, 2020).

She then further explained that the way of intersecting shows that people have multiple

complexity's social identities, not just gender, but also class, race, religions, socioeconomic

status, and even much above that, can form a compound and overlapping experience of

discrimination (Collins, & Bilge, 2020). Thus intersectoral feminism focuses on the voices of

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people who experience overlap and exist simultaneously in oppressive forms to understand their

depth-inequality (Carastathis, 2014). Applying intersectionality into the real world also means

identifying the historical context of the problem while these historical issues have caused severe

inequality from the very beginning (McCall, 2005). These inequalities are intertwined with each

other, such as poverty, social identities, racism, and gender discrimination, depriving many

people of their rights and equal opportunities in which the influence spans several generations

(Morris & Bunjun, 2007). People who suffer the most from gender inequality are also the poorest

and most marginalized (UNWOMEN,2020). Based on this social phenomenon, intersectional

feminism shows the researcher that striving for equality not only means reversing gender

injustice but also means eliminating all forms of oppression (Davis, 2008). Through feminism

and by adding the concept of intersectionality, the movement has become enabling women of all

races, economic statuses, religions, identities to hear their voices (Carbin & Edenheim, 2013).

Many scholars emphasize that intersectional feminism can be applied to the study of women’s

empowerment in developing countries (Whittier, 2016). Researchers emphasize in their studies

that the intersectional approach of feminism requires social, economic, and political forces from

different parties to interact together to solve the overlapping problem of female garment labor

violence based on gender issues (Cooper, 2016. Naples, 2009). Due to these women's lower

social status, language barriers, poor educational background, and economic instability, it

requires special attention from all social sectors (Morris, & Bunjun, 2007).

3.3. Adding feminism lens towards stakeholder theory

Wicks, Gilbert, and Freeman (1994) discussed in their article that feminist theories could make

practical contributions to the communication between different stakeholders. The current

stakeholder theory insists on emphasizing the power of all parties in a patriarchal attitude, and

this indirectly leads to the exploitation of some less-powered stakeholders due to the extremely

unbalanced power structure of many companies to a certain extent. Unlike traditional business

ethics, the introduction of feminism as a moral base of stakeholder theory is conducive to

emphasizing the responsibility of companies to stakeholders rather than power. To a certain

extent, feminism has a higher moral development, which places more emphasis on others’

interests (Gilligan,1982). While the traditional theory of business ethics only requires the

company to consider others' situation to determine the best choice for all stakeholders, Freeman

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(1984) reflects the biggest problem in traditional stakeholder theory is that it hardly takes into

account how to make decision-makers in enterprises aware of the importance of morality or how

they incorporate moral considerations into their decision-making process (Palmer, & Stoll,

2011). This leads to the company's confusion in the decision-making process because the power

of one stakeholder is not necessarily more remarkable than the power of another. If all

stakeholders are treated as equal in terms of rights under the influence of traditional stakeholder

theories, then which party should be privileged if a decision needs to be made? In this kind of

power dilemma, traditional moral approaches cannot give us the answer (Horrison, et al., 2015).

Thus, putting forward feminist ethics and cares about moral consensus is the key to changing this

status quo in order to prioritize the needs of garment workers（Machold, et al., 2008). First,

Burton and Dunn (1996) argue that the principle that needs to be formulated is “being cautious

enough with those stakeholders with the least benefits so that they will not be harmed; within the

scope of not being harmed, stakeholders who have close relationships with the company should

be given privileges"（ Burton, & Dunn, 1996). The aforementioned principle may not eliminate

all harm. Still, it at least largely limits the harm among the most vulnerable groups, and it is clear

that the harm they suffer is greater than the advantage given to them in society (Burton, & Dunn,

1996). Generally, it is not only necessary to understand which stakeholders have the power to

participate in decision-making processes, but also which stakeholders are most susceptible to the

impact of this outcome. Therefore, in any situation that needs to be weighed, the company should

follow the feminist ethical point of view and establish special and very close relationships with

those disadvantaged stakeholders, and even when such care needs to be detained, it usually

brings in the case of the interests of others. The company should also try its best to take care of

these stakeholders with limited power and are underrepresented（ Harrison et al., 2015). From

a broader perspective, feminism is based on caring for others. Therefore, the theory of

stakeholders based on feminism ethics needs to protect the rights and interests of disadvantaged

groups that are exploited in the globalized market（ Buchholz & Rosenthal, 2005). Especially

in the context of MNCs, stakeholder management with feminist lens as moral standard are

crucial. In Palmer& Stoll (2011)’s opinion, if stakeholder theory is to make a strong ethical

responsibility for the ethical interests of all people affected in the business activities of

multinational companies, then the stakeholder theory needs to appeal to the moral agency that

has so far been richer than before (Palmer & Stoll, 2011). Therefore, in this study, we use

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intersectional feminism as a moral background to empower the traditional stakeholder theory to

see how companies can use the intersectional feminist lens to better support female garment

workers. Especially in the RMG sector in developing countries, the garment workers are a huge

part of the stakeholder yet are the most vulnerable ones who haven't been given enough

representation over time. By taking the intersectional feminism lens, we as researchers aim to

address female garment worker’s problems and needs by taking their overlapping social

identities into consideration, so we can better understand H&M foundation’s decisions to

collaborate with a wide range of NGOs and organizations and how to provide holistic support.

4. Methodology

In this chapter, the general overview of the methodological elements adopted in this thesis will

be presented and followed by discussing why the chosen elements are considered suitable for this

research. This section will be starting with the introduction of the research philosophy of

interpretivism and further explain the qualitative research method and abductive research

approach. The following section will describe the case study that will be taken and the data

collection strategy in more detail.

4.1. Research Philosophy and Method Choice

Proctor (1998) believes that the consistency between research goals, selective methods, and the

researcher's personal philosophy is the foundation and reason for any research project, which is

why understanding philosophical issues are so important in choosing research methods. First, it

can help researchers to determine the most suitable research methods used in the study. Besides,

the understanding of research philosophy will enable researchers to evaluate different methods

by identifying the advantages and limitations of specific methods at a starting point, which may

effectively avoid improper use of strategy (Crossan, 2003). Researchers will make various

assumptions at each step of research, in which research philosophy will help us understand how

reality, human knowledge, and the researcher’s own values affect research assumptions

(Saunders et al., 2016).

However, this paper adapts to the philosophy of interpretivism because of the learning

objectives, as our research questions are exploratory in nature and need to be assessed through

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language. To further explain interpretivism, it advocates that the human experience of the world

is not a passive perception and acceptance of the external material world but an active

understanding and interpretation (Saunders et al., 2016). The researcher of social sciences must

first understand different concepts, ideas, and language of research will affect the researcher's

recognition of the social phenomenon under study (Williams, 2000). In general, researchers who

accept the interpretive tradition believe that human behavior is purposeful, and it is an action

taken to accomplish a certain purpose (Ryan, 2018). This means human behavior is based on the

social network of meaning, and their behavior is given meaning by other people in the same

meaning system. In other words, explanatory researchers embrace the subjective world of the

people they study and try to observe this world through their eyes (Saunders et al., 2016).

Interpretivism is the better fit for this research because it aims to reveal H&M’s changes in

corporate’s values and stakeholder framework under the influence of intersectional feminism:

their initiatives regarding gender issues and intentional factors affecting the decision-making

process, which need to emphasize perception and interpretation.

In this research, when analyzing the content provided by interviewers in-depth, it is necessary to

use qualitative comments to extract the added value for gender equality and female

representation in different stakeholder’s aspects. This means that this study will rely on

qualitative methods of participant observation and qualitative interviews. Essentially, qualitative

research focuses on the discussion of the characteristics and nature of specific social phenomena,

as well as a subjective interpretation of specific phenomena. Through the subjective description

of specific phenomena, general conclusions can be derived from a specific situation (Patton,

2005). Therefore, since this research contains positions of various natures and different

comments from many participants and stakeholders, a highly flexible analysis is required. As a

result, qualitative research is more in line with the flexibility and particularity of this research.

This also indicates the research followed the abductive approach, as it helps the researcher better

combine the qualitative empirical data with the existing theoretical base (Saunders et al., 2016).

The well-established theory of feminism has set a moral ground for corporations to improve their

stakeholder governance. In this case, this thesis aims to fill in the research gap by using existing

theoretical background, to investigate how corporations in the RMG sector can combine the

intersectional feminism ethics with their stakeholder governance and further adjust their

sustainable actions to better support female garments worker empowerment into gender equality.

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4.2 Research Design

4.2.1. Case Study

A single holistic case study is taken in this study as the thesis aims to look at how the

implementation of sustainable initiatives related to gender issues in developing countries in

order to make female garment workers more prominent stakeholders in the RMG value chain and

the observation of different stakeholder's sides. And the advantages of a case analysis in this

research are rather obvious as it can explain the social background of this phenomenon more

comprehensively. Besides, a case study can provide more subjective details that statistical data

cannot provide (Stake, 1995). More precisely, case studies are particularly focused on studying a

limited number of events and situations and their interrelationships. When scholars need to

discuss a relatively small group of samples comprehensively and in-depth, a case study is an

ideal method (Feagin, Orum, & Sjoberg, 1991). On the other hand, it must be emphasized that

the case study aims to present details from the perspective of the participants by using multiple

data sources. The case study is a multi-perspective analysis, which means that researchers must

consider not only the actors’ voices and opinions but also the actors’ related groups and

interactions (Tellis,1997). This type of research collects relevant data extensively and

understands, organizes, and analyzes the process of the generation and development of the

research object, internal and external factors and their interrelationship in detail, so as to form an

in-depth and comprehensive understanding and conclusions on related issues (Yin, 1993) What

Yin has illustrated proves once again why the case study is very suitable for this research, as the

research aims to incorporate all the actor involved in the decision-making process of gender issue

initiatives in Bangladesh.

4.2.2. H&M as Research Case

Because the business model of fashion brands in the global supply chain is based on a highly

unequal power structure, it directly leads to the poor wages and working environment of female

garment workers (Shen, 2014). The Swedish fast-fashion brand H&M promotes sustainability in

their supply chain with great fanfare every year, but whether H&M really takes effective

measures to improve the poor production conditions of labor and protect women’s garment

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workers' rights, is still a controversial topic (Remy et al., 2016). The ‘sustainable’ production

models proposed and controlled by H&M is not based on what labor groups and unions want for

female garment workers (Global Labour Justice, 2018). But at the same time, from H&M’s

corporate side, they insist that they adopt various sustainable measures through cooperation and

partnership between H&M foundation and local actors and NGOs to improve the rights and

interests of female garment workers and make them more prominent stakeholders (H&M

foundation 2020). Faced with such a large information fragmentation from all parties in society,

we have become very interested in their measures in order to change the status quo. Taking a

company where there is a substantial number of women in their value chain and have found

themselves involved in many gender-related issues in the garment sector and among buyers,

makes this research very intriguing. In this case, H&M's feminism framework is unique in many

ways, thus cannot be applied to a broader extent, such as other multinational corporations in the

RMG sector. The case study method attaches great importance to the unique characteristics of

each case and emphasizes that each phenomenon or action being studied has its own uniqueness

(Stake,1995). Therefore, as a researcher, the purpose of this research must be to deeply

understand the situation, event, and the reason behind it, but it does not advocate inferring the

research phenomenon to other situations.

4.3. Data collection

4.3.1. Interview

Ten semi-structured interviews with current stakeholders involved in the H&M gender support

project were conducted to collect the primary data. In this research, the participants

(stakeholders) are: H&M foundation; NGOs and special organizations involved in this project

including WaterAid, CARE Bangladesh, Save The Children (STC), The Asian Foundation,

BRAC, Stimmy Technologies, and the 3 factory owners from the RMG supplier side. The

interviews were taken in the form of elite interviews, as we aim to involve as many decision-

makers to reveal the intentional reason behind the sustainable initiatives adjustment process, and

the partnership establishes principles. More information regarding interviewees can be found in

Appendix.1. The semi-structured interview is a data collection method between structured and

unstructured interviews. (Saunders et al., 2016). Before conducting the interview, the researcher

25

must design an interview outline based on the research question and purpose as the interview

guideline. However, the interviewer can also make flexible adjustments to the interview

questions according to the actual situation (Drever, 1995). Besides, for researchers who adopt

semi-structured interviews, the interview outline is designed to make the interview more fluent.

The introductory questions will be followed by open explanatory questions to ask the

interviewee’s perceptions, making it possible to adopt a more open attitude towards specific

topics for data collection (Schmidt, 2004). Since the interviewees are the key actors from

different perspectives in the H&M gender issues project, the question can be adjusted depending

on their position and interest in the project. This allows researchers to prepare questions that

promote answers regarding female employees' attitudes and decision-making process, which

aligns with the research questions. For more detail of the interview protocol, please check the

appendix. 2.3 and 4.

Below are the interviewees and participant number we used in the later analysis:

Nr. Organization Name Interviewee Name

Interviewee Designation

Interview Date

1. H&M Foundation Charlotte Brunnström

PR Manager 5/12/21

2. WaterAid Dr. Fadia Sultana

Project Manager 4/21/21

3. The Asia Foundation Samin Kashmy Project Coordinator

4/29/21

4. Shimmy Technologies Hasan Iqbal Country Head 4/29/21

5. Save the Children (STC) Mujib-ul Hasan Project Coordinator

5/2/21

6. CARE Bangladesh Abdul Hossain Country Lead 5/5/21

7. BRAC Interviewee A Project Lead 5/7/21

8. RMG Supplier Interviewee B MD/Owner of RMG factory

4/22/21

9. RMG Supplier Interviewee C MD/Owner of 5/4/21

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RMG factory

10. RMG Supplier Interviewee D MD/Owner of RMG Factory

5/7/21

4.3.2. Online data collection

Online data collection was used as the supplementary for the interview approach to gathering the

secondary data. The study period was 2020-2021 and the data used was incorporating data from

both H&M Foundations' official website info and articles published online by the organizations

(CARE Bangladesh, Shimmy Tech etc.) involved in this project. And the reason for analyzing

those reports is that we are very interested in how the company itself describes and motivates its

feminist projects, and the H&M Foundation's website is naturally a place to find any

stakeholders interested in H&M's gender-related projects. Besides, the statement on their website

constitutes a fruitful reference point, however, companies' official statements cannot be the only

trusted data resource as their reputation is constantly being challenged (Garcia-Torres, 2017).

Therefore, this data collection method was mainly for preliminary search and supplementary for

the interview from both organization and factory side to provide a more comprehensive aspect of

their initiatives.

4.4. Data Analysis

The analysis was done in 3 steps. In the initial stage of the analysis, we need to transcribe the ten

semi-structured interviews we have done into text. We use the professional transcription

software Trint to assist our process. This process was very time-consuming, yet also a very

important process to familiarize yourself with the content. During the process of reading and

sorting, there were some ideas, identification of possible patterns gradually formed (Saunders et

al., 2016) In the second step, we performed a preliminary coding of the transcribed data, during

this process, data were summarized and coded into various themes, which may either derive from

theories or collected data. (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). We combined both inductive coding and

deductive coding, which was more conducive for us to be familiar with the data and to move

back and forth between the theoretical framework and the interview data. After the second

interview, which is the early stage of data collection, we began preliminary analysis and tried to

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summarize the content into different categories, and adjusted our interview outline in real-time to

adapt to the interview concept (Dubois & Gadde, 2002). In the third stage, we further refine and

name the themes provided for analysis and analyze the data. To do this, we as researchers need

to rearrange the data excerpts for each topic and organize them into a coherent, internally

consistent narrative. It is important not only to rewrite the content of the presented data

summaries but also to determine why they are interesting for this research (Saunders et al.,2016).

In addition to determining the story that each topic tells, it is important to consider how it relates

to our research question to ensure that there is not much overlap between the topics. Therefore,

we need to consider the topics themselves and the relationship between each theme.

The theme we have decided upon are:

● Empirical project storyline

● Identify the problem among female garment workers: before the initiatives

● Multi-Sectoral initiatives: relevance of this entire project

● Urgent needs: COVID-19 support ● Passive to active supports ● Challenges and contrast during implementation

4.5. Ethical consideration

For this study, ethical considerations have been taken into account throughout the interview

process. We as researchers took responsibility to inform all interviewees in advance regarding

the research purpose and how data will be processed from the interview material. From the pre-

study experience, we have been aware the interview result can be biased due to the contrast of

interest. To solve this problem to some extent, we will adopt the form of an anonymous

interview for the factory supplier side and hide the privacy-related parts of the participants to

avoid any potential contrast of interest.

5. Empirical story As researchers we first want to highlight some of the challenges we faced trying to conduct this

research. Due to COVID-19 and classes going entirely online Areeba, based in Bangladesh, and

Ivy, based in Sweden wrote this thesis during lockdown and in two different time zones. We are

28

both interested in Asia and the RMG sector, and given the geographical access that Areeba had

in Bangladesh, we would like to take advantage of the situation and find a topic where we could

speak with local actors. Our initial idea of interviewing female garment workers did not work out

as the second lockdown was imposed in Bangladesh at the end of March. With one and half

months away from our thesis submission, we quickly had to change the scope of our research.

After we had a preliminary search on H&M Foundation’s official website, we came across the

initiative partnering up with organizations based in Dhaka. In their official page we found the

contact details for Malin Björne, Communications Manager for H&M Foundation. We contacted

her with our thesis brief and requested if the project coordinator, Charlotte Brunnström, of this

initiative could give us time for an interview. After we found the remaining 6 organizations we

contacted their offices for an interview. Ivy reached out to Wateraid Sweden who put us in touch

with Dr. Fadia Sultana in Dhaka. Areeba reached Kazi Faisal Seraj, country head of The Asia

Foundation (TAF), who put us in touch with the project coordinator Samin Kashmy. Thus began

our tireless pursuit of constantly calling, texting and emailing all the stakeholders involved in the

initiative. Since TAF was the intermediary organization, project coordinator Ms. Samin Kashmy

was able to put us in touch with the remaining organization’s project leads. The suppliers who

agreed to anonymously sit down for interviews were participants who were put in touch with

Areeba through her colleagues and mutual sources. As challenging as it was co-writing a paper

in different parts of the world, convincing these very prominent stakeholders to find time in their

schedule to agree for an interview was even harder. But we both felt the fruits of our labor was

worth every sleepless night as these interviews brought forth rich and useful information that was

vital to understand the plight of female garment workers in Bangladesh.

According to H&M foundation’s program manager, Charlotte (#1), “In terms of driving an

initiative with a collective impact approach, it’s key to find partners that understand that social

challenges do not exist in silos, but in complex systems. It can be challenging to find partners

that are willing to leave the safe and traditional way of working instead commit to a common

agenda agreed to by all partners in the ecosystem. (#1)” Thus, we decided to contact WaterAid

first, as they have had a long-term partnership with H&M Foundation since 2013. Professor

Fadia Sultana agreed to have the interview with us, who has been working for WaterAid

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Bangladesh for the last five years and is currently the project manager leading one of the largest

programs in the field for water sanitation hygiene to support garment workers with H&M

Foundation. She explained to us that besides the internal responsibilities, she is also responsible

for guiding the team as well as partner and coordinating with the donor and other organizations

involved in the project in order to manage in a broader context. What she mentioned later

immediately drove our attention.

“[...], we call this project PEACE Project, even though WaterAid mainly focuses on

hygiene response, all the organization will do the situation analysis together,

understanding the system in the context of the communities and linking them together

which means a joint effort.” (#2)

Dr. Fadia (#2) then further shared to us that in this holistic project, the Asia Foundation (TAF) is

the local collaborative agency on behalf of the H&M Foundation that provides contact

information to them. In order to have a comprehensive view of this project and understand their

role in the implementation process, we reached out to Samin Kashmy, the project lead in TAF,

who is responsible for coordinating external communication with expertise on behalf of the

H&M Foundation and to monitor, create market intelligence and knowledge management. She

first defined TAF in this entire project as a “mediator who always has a neutral point of view.”

(#3), she explained that TAF is a crucial factor in the management context, if a structural

collaboration needs to be formed, someone needs to lead the meeting, who is not directly

implementing the initiatives but has the monitoring capacities. And TAF’s advantage, in this

case, was rather obvious as Samin told us, “TAF’s programs are mostly contextualized in the

countries we work with which can get more local involvement to H&M Foundation.” (#3) After

introducing her role, she starts to emphasize the collaboration between them and local actors.”

“The ASIA foundation actually planned to launch a program that would follow a collective

impact approach [...] It's a structural collaboration model between different stakeholders

and service providers. So, we believe we need to involve many different organizations to

help with different perspectives” (#3)

To achieve this goal, they actively select organizations they want to involve in this project, and if

there are any organizations that want to apply for the partnership. They would collectively

review those proposals and come to a decision together with the HQ of the H&M Foundation. In

addition, during decision-making, their methodology is to have a very open discussion with

30

every stakeholder. Samin highlighted that they have a strong collaboration with all stakeholders

including WaterAid, CARE, BRAC, Save the Children, and Shimmy Tech. Just like she said:

“We collaborate with big organizations who have their own values and cultures and their

own major priorities. [...], So as a coordination organization, We want to have open

discourse so that all can come to a holistic problem solution.” (#3)

After the interview with Samin from TAF, we understood the holistic characteristics of the entire

project. They put the joint effort on the background analysis to address female garment workers’

problem due to their complex social identities, which perfectly aligned with our theory of putting

intersectional feminist lens into stakeholder theory. Each local actor prioritizes different

perspectives of female garment workers and proceeds with different sustainable initiatives aimed

to conclude a comprehensive solution.

According to the interviews from H&M Foundation is the main constructor (#1), The Asia

Foundation as mediator (#3), and all other local actors, the project can be concluded into two

phases:

I. Urgent COVID care needs include cash assistance for food, medication, and other

necessities, health care, and hygiene material and COVID-19 testing mainly supported by

WaterAid (#2), work on raising awareness and addressing children protection and education, and

gender-based violence which has increased due to the pandemic mainly supported by Save the

Children. (#5)

II. The long-term plan, namely the future of the work project, is to continue involving

actors from different sectors to establish a systemic long-lasting change for female textile

workers in Bangladesh through education, skills training, digital literacy, and promote

entrepreneurship. This long-term plan currently conducted 2 pilot programs.

● Pilot One: Skilling Program: Three local actors associated with this phase. The first is

Shimmy Technologies will provide hard-skill training through video games-based

skill training which will help the women garment workers enhance their skills to

become multi-machine operators and digital design workers. (#4) The second is

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CARE, who will provide soft-skill training to teach these women gender-responsive

HR management practices along with problem-solving and organization skills to

support their current and future needs. (#6) Third, is BBC Media Action who aims to

create an improved perception of reduced levels of bias among factory owners and

executives. They want to promote increased levels of self-confidence among female

garment workers and supportive attitudes within the communities as more women

enter the machine operator and supervisory role.

● Pilot two: spurring impact through innovation. The second stage of the project will

be set up in Spring 2021 with the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee

(BRAC), which is the largest NGO in the world, will arrange a global virtual

conference bringing together all the relevant stakeholders in the RMG sector to bring

better communication, collaboration, and co-creation. (#7)

6. Empirical analysis

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Figure 2: Identifying core problems for women garment workers in Bangladesh. Own illustration

6.1. Identify the problem

6.1.1. Cultural & Socio-Economic Oppression

As mentioned earlier, intersectional feminism emphasizes that the historical context of gender

discrimination plays a big role and it is imperative to take cultural and socio-economic factors

into consideration when addressing issues of inequality for women garment workers in

Bangladesh. All the local actors have formed several situational analyses together trying to

identify the core reasons behind the struggles before they started to design the initiative and how

to implement the plan. Islam et al. (2018) argues that there is strong cultural prejudice in

the South Asian countries that men are naturally born as leaders. From our interviews the

recurring cause for women’s oppression in Bangladesh has been due to cultural implications (#1,

#4, #6, #7,#8), religious (#8, #9) and socio-economic factors(#2, #3, #5,#7). As Hasan from

Shimmy Technologies and Interviewee A express “[...] the traditional mindset we have in

Bangladesh is really the number one challenge.” (#4). “We live in a very patriarchal culture,

male breadwinner model is the biggest thing in the supplier community. So they believe that it's

better to give a job to a male counterpart because they're a breadwinner, they think that they're

doing a good thing by doing that.” (#7). Based on what they are trying to explain, the gendered

norms, which heavily influence society, also affect how women are employed. Even though

female garment workers comprise the majority of the RMG workforce, they are systematically

oppressed by only being assigned to repetitive, menial jobs. Along with their employment,

women are also expected to be in charge of domestic responsibilities.

Due to the socio-economic background in which these garment workers are born, higher

education or skills development is uncommon and rarely encouraged. Supplier A gives us the

educational demographic of women in factories, “Most of our female garment workers have not

finished secondary school. They left school early on due to various reasons, sometimes family

pressures to earn, sometimes lack support, sometimes issues accessing good education”. (#8)

Their social identity is tied with the gendered norms. Islam (2016) elaborates that there has been

a “ long-standing and widespread beliefs and attitudes about differences between the sexes,

33

grounded in Bengali sociocultural values, tend to perpetuate the status quo by the persistence of

multiple gender discriminations” (Islam, 2016).

Another interesting aspect regarding this oppression is the discrimination among women

themselves. Since they are raised in an oppressive environment oftentimes they do not see the

necessity of further educating and training themselves so they can come out from their

impoverished state. Even encouragement within the female garment workers themselves

becomes an issue as Supplier B (#9) explains how, “.[...] there's animosity and tension among

the workers themselves, because when someone tries to sign up for training for manager

positions they sometimes get a lot of backlash and discouragement from other women. (#9)

Unfortunately the oppression not only exists from the patriarchal side, but the cultural mindset

has hindered the women from understanding what they deserve. The systematic suppression has

left them with no source of empowerment to understand their own self-worth. The intervention

needs to happen in attitudes and perceptions in order to change this cultural structure and also

needs to include women themselves. (#1)

6.1.2. Underrepresentation in Managerial Roles

The underrepresentation in managerial roles has led to very few women standing up and

demanding higher positions such as General Manager, Line Manager, Quality Manager,

Production Manager. In Bangladeshi organizations, the lack of women in leadership positions

exists due to “negative socio-cultural perception regarding female leadership, lack of

management support in organizations, bias performance appraisal, male domination in high

management team, lack of flexibility” (Islam & Jantan, 2017). This situation has been confirmed

by Samin and Charlotte during our interview, as they pointed out that “Despite accounting for

more than sixty percent of the total workforce, only a very low proportion of the women in the

readymade garments industry are working in higher-paying roles. In fact, women represent less

than one percent of managers.” (#1) and “The percentage of female workers who get upper-

position is only less than 5% in the factories, sometimes even 0%.” (#3) Samin seemed frustrated

to share this disheartening statistic. By far, the powerful positions or decision-makers are not

female, which is definitely the problem statement and issue they aim to solve, so that women

RMG workers can have more representation in the upper management positions. Even if an

34

enabling environment was created to train these women for better-paid positions, due to their

domestic responsibilities they do not have the time or flexibility to pursue training or higher

education. The poverty level forces the RMG workers to get low-skilled jobs as they do not see

the long-term benefit of attaining more skills or see themselves staying in the industry for very

long. Due to this reason, the involvement or engagement of female garment workers becomes

less. Just as Interviewee A from BRAC told us, “They see their involvement with the RMG

sector to be more like a mercenary pact in a way [...] they never see their involvement in that

sector to go beyond five or six years.” (#7).

6.1.3.Lack of Education and Training

Based on the information from Hasan and Abdul’s observation as project leads, they were very

concerned about the job loss situation of female garment workers as there is a new technological

revolution in the RMG sector. As automation increases, the number of women without technical

skills will decrease in the workforce, creating a large number of displaced workers with very

limited marketable skills. With no technical competency or soft skills, these women are now at

risk of not finding a job in any other sector. Charlotte expresses her concern that “The lack of

education is one explanation for this. But inherent biases and socio-cultural norms are also

reasons to why women´s ability to benefit from the opportunities offered by the digital revolution

are currently limited (#1). This point of view was further reinforced by Samin as she explains to

us that, “they're coming from an impoverished literary background, so they have minimal

education. So if you think about technological advancement, you definitely need a level of

educational background to adapt to the changes; however, the female garment workers don’t

have such benefits. So whenever factories are going to take up advanced techniques, the women

are the first to have the high possibility of losing their jobs.” (#3) Hasan from Shimmy

Technologies talks about a survey conducted by The Centre for Policy Dialogue (2018) in

Bangladesh, which shows that there has been a significant decline in the ratio of female garment

workers and that there is a major skill gap between male and female workers. The study states

that factory employees in Bangladesh believe that females lack the skills to become effective

supervisors, especially in understanding machines and organizing resources (Uddin, CPD, 2018)

What they were trying to determine through this survey is that there is an urgent need to upskill

female garment workers in order for them to adapt with new technology and get higher and

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better-paid positions. And this is the main reason behind Shimmy’s involvement in this project.

Also from the factory side, Interviewee B expressed his concern about this issue by saying “This

definitely be an issue as women are less likely to keep up with newer technology and machines

and this will not change unless they are trained.” (#8) The other two suppliers also had a very

supportive attitude towards the training because they are facing the technology transformation.

6.1.4. Gendered Impact of COVID-19

As Sakamoto et al. (2020) explains, the pandemic made the situation for women RMG workers

even worse than it already was. These women were already susceptible to diseases, injuries, long

working hours, poor nutrition, lack of hygiene knowledge, COVID-19 further highlighted these

gaps. Dr. Fadia, identifies these gendered impacts by explaining their poor living conditions:

“The garment worker has been identified as the most vulnerable factor in this case [...] The

communities where most garment workers live, there are very few toilets that they have to

share[...] And most of the wash facilities are unhygienic and broken.” (#2) Abdul Hossain from

the CARE Bangladesh then further illustrated how female garment workers are affected by

COVID due to finance and gender-based violence, “Women who were working previously lost

their jobs and came back to the house, and they were victims of their gender-based violence

because they are not supportive to the family anymore financially.” (#6). Even Though most of

these women had a major financial contribution in the household, now due to their income being

disrupted and/or their husband’s income also being cut off, caused domestic unrest. Some even

feared having to leave the city to go back to their villages with no job security or support (#5).

Their children also being stuck at home during lockdown caused an additional responsibility for

these women, which added to their psychological distress. (#7). As the pandemic hit while H&M

foundation was on the cusp of launching their Future Work Program they realized that they

needed to minimize the negative impacts of COVID-19 on the lives and jobs of millions of

female garment workers before implementing their training initiaitve. (#1).

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6.2. Multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral initiative: Relevance of this entire project

6.2.1. Multi-stakeholder

“The growing demands for worker safety, the congenial atmosphere in the factory, and worker

rights have led international buyers, readymade garment industry (RMG) factory owners,

government, and many non-government organizations (NGOs) to play vital roles in improving

the overall factory working conditions and worker rights in the RMG industry in Bangladesh”

(Mausumi & Rahman, 2018). From H&M foundation’s interview, they firmly believe that

through multi-sectoral collaboration, companies are able to design policies to create meaningful

improvements for the relevant stakeholders. Charlotte explains that “social challenges do not

exist in silos, but in complex systems, and the solutions need to be holistic[...] as The project

aims to build a holistic cross-sector partnership between civil society, the textile industry, social

enterprises, and the private sector” (#1) The multi-stakeholder initiative was designed by project

leads with experts from various sectors to provide assistance and fill the gap. Since the problems

faced by these women are a multi-faceted systematic issue it needs to be addressed through

various aspects of their lives. As Samin elaborates,

“[It] is not a single problem. It always has a larger interrelationship with other problems

[…]organizations only focused on a single aspect cannot solve the problems. For

different stakeholders to join their hands who are experts in their particular area.[...]

and those experts will then again join hands together to solve a larger problem.So the

reason I'm talking about this, because you are also talking about stakeholder theory; the

Asia foundation believes that for any problem’s solution, all the stakeholders that come

under the same umbrella are actually helping to get more efficient solutions for the

problem.”(#3)

One of the challenges faced while launching a multi-stakeholder project was agreeing to mutual

decisions and make “every stakeholder come and join and be convinced that this is something

we need to do” (#3). However, this can be seen as a positive challenge because involving

organizations that are experts in their fields can have a collaboratively higher impact (#6).

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6.2.2. Multi-sectoral

Assistance for RMG workers needs to have a consolidated and comprehensive approach through

different sectors. Together they believe they can build the proper infrastructure, technology,

databases to come up with tangible and measurable results (#7). This consolidated approach can

gradually change the system into building inclusive and sustainable initiatives for these women

(#2). The different organizations involved in this initiative provided assistance from different

sectors. For COVID, sanitation & hygiene materials were provided from WaterAid (#2), mental

health and psycho-social support from CARE (#6), child care assistance due to lockdown from

Save the Children (#5), long term soft skills training from CARE (#6), and digital skills and

literacy through Shimmy Technologies (#4). Even though the H&M foundation is the donor they

selected a third party, The Asia Foundation, was the local intermediary organization to

coordinate “this structural collaboration between all the organizations” (#3). Preliminary results

from this pilot project will then be shown to international buyers and suppliers in a conference

organized by BRAC (#7). Because as an intermediary organization the Asia Foundation believes

that,

“[...]if we continue the planning process to get that joint decision making

implementation, plan together, at the same time reviewing the process, understand the

challenges and lessons we can learn to adapt and mitigate and bring innovation within

the project.”(#3).

6.2.3. Intersectional femist lens on multi-stakeholder initiative

Intersectional feminism focuses on the voices of people whose experiences overlap and exist

simultaneously in oppressive forms to understand their depth-inequality, the problems, the

reason behind and inequalities are overlapping, thus we need comprehensive solutions.

Their issues faced by these women are more than gender issues(Carastathis, 2014) As Fadia

explains,

“It is respecting the diversity in women's experiences, their background, and their identities.

There might be differences in knowledge, capacity, and strength to empower. Women are

important stakeholders and we have to establish actual human rights. [...] the feminist lens we

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took here is to advocate the opportunity, as they are facing struggles of not getting equal

treatment [...] They also cannot get enough aptitude to participate in social and community

representation, because they cannot get leadership position” (#2)

To fully understand the overlapping issues that keep these women in an impoverished state, an

extensive approach can be taken by experts from different sectors (#3). Based on our interviews

their organization’s mission, vision and values were aligned with the challenges this initiative

seeks to address (#2, #4, #6, #7). CARE and BRAC identify themselves as “a feminsit

organization”(#6) and a “women-first organization (#7) where women’s equal rights and

opportunities is in the center because all other systematic issues, such as poverty or hunger,

cannot be addressed is everyone does not have equal rights and opportunities (#7). These

organizations bring in their expertise from their specific sector where some have had experience

working with women over 20 years, (#6, #7), while others are new

6.3 Urgent needs - COVID support

6.3.1. Health and Hygiene

Due to COVID-19, H&M foundation’s initial pilot project of upskilling and reskilling female

workers had to be delayed (#4). Samin expressed she and her team didn’t see the effectiveness of

providing these women hard and soft skills if they are struggling with basic needs. “The industry

needed emergency support, especially in terms of hygiene, sanitation, because COVID is

something nobody was prepared for. (#2) That is when as a coordinating agency the Asia

Foundation decided to extend the collaboration and provide immediate COVID response support

to these women, calling it the PEACE project, by partnering up with Wateraid, Care, and Save

the Children. Due to their lack of education and the poor environment in which these garment

workers live, Dr. Fadia said that it was imperative to understand all the challenges these women

face before launching their aid through multiple channels. They had to disseminate hygiene

materials, set up wash stations and facilities, set up pictorial messages about hygiene practices

and launched ads on local television (#2). Although for the initial pilot project a total of 1200

workers were selected for the training program, for COVID support they were able to reach over

3000 garment workers and their household members, in total over 100,000 people within the

community receiving COVID-19 supplies, but she also emphasized that the process included

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involvement from the community and from different stakeholders for the process to implement,

and continue this phase of the initiative (#2).

6.3.2. Childcare Services

“Another unique feature of the COVID-19 crisis is the enormous impact on households with

children due to school and nursery closures necessitated by lockdowns and social distancing.

Households with children must find ways to combine paid work with the time-intensive work of

providing care and home-schooling. Much of this falls to women, due to social norms” (Cook et

al as cited in Blaskó et al. 2020). Mujib talks about how since the lockdown started in March

2020 in Bangladesh, schools have been shut down. After some deliberation with the H & M

foundation, they decided STC's contribution would be from a Child Protection Program angle.

As there was so much uncertainty with lockdown, they had an initial phase from June 2020 to

December 2020 and then had to continue another phase of this project from January 2021 to May

2021. The challenge they faced from STC was building a relationship with the mothers in order

to get access to their actual beneficiaries, the children of the RMG workers.

“Initially we had to have long exercises to get the access, establish trust among the

beneficiaries, get to know them, and to select beneficiaries. Also, we had robust exercises on

vulnerability mapping for all children that we are supporting, especially our child protection

component because we are not providing case management support to all children. Only the

children who are most vulnerable or who are in critical need. So we are providing them support

through the case management process” (#5).

Mujib elaborates that along with providing educational services and preparing schools to be

ready once lockdown ends, STC also provided training for female RMG workers, to raise

awareness as mothers to not only address the issues they are going through but also the distress

their children are experiencing. Although the primary beneficiary for STC are children, one of

the main stakeholders they had to work with extensively for this project were the female garment

workers (#5).

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6.3.3. Psycho-social Support

The third organization who was involved in the initial COVID response phase was CARE. They

were involved in both projects, PEACE project and Future Work. For their immediate support

Abul says in the beginning of the lockdown many orders were canceled, which led to many

factories laying off a huge number of workers. “So there was job loss in the sector and our

initial target was to have those who actually lost their job and to help them transition with our

assistance.” (#6). They set up centers where these women could come and seek mental health

support, as well as provide leads for job openings in the sector. As Kabir et al (2020) reaffirms

that although job loss has been experienced across all sectors, RMG workers being a vulnerable

group, it majorly impacts their mental health. In order to effectively provide immediate support

for garment workers, it is essential to collaborate with local stakeholders and communities.

6.4. Passive to active support

6.4.1. Technical Skills Enhancement Besides the urgent needs for COVID response, the H&M Foundation has also conducted a long-

term project aimed at upskilling the workers from various aspects. Thus, we conducted 2

interviews with the country head of Shimmy Technologies who is responsible for hard skills, and

Abul Hossain from CARE Bangladesh who is assisting the workers with their soft skills.

Hasan from Shimmy gave us a detailed introduction of the whole project. They call it “the future

of work” (#4, #6). In this project, Shimmy is trying to help female garment workers to become

more digitally literate. During the interview, he repeatedly stressed the necessity of carrying out

this project: “this is to help them not only survive in the changing industry environment but also

to grow within. Currently, the RMG sector is the only semi-automated in Bangladesh, so there is

enough time and room to develop a program to upskill and reskill workers to fill in the technical

skill gaps'' (#4) Since the program is to educate the workers digitally, they believe that this

upskilling project will enable the female workers to become multi-skilled operators and gain

more competencies at work. Before they started the process, they conducted pre-study research,

through skills requirements and skill metrics, on 30 factories in collaboration with the ILO, to

better understand what the missing skill link in the garment industry in Bangladesh is,

particularly in relation to automation. This initiative also highlights how automation and the

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increasing digital technology in the industry creates a great risk of unemployment for millions of

Bangladeshis, especially women as they represent the majority of the workforce. There is an

urgent need to create skilled female workers and create new employment opportunities. Hasan

argues that this training not only makes them competent for this sector but they can transfer their

digital literacy to other sectors.

Since this is a pilot project, H&M Foundation selected 4 visionary factories to implement this

project. Their unique methodology is worth mentioning, as Hasan further expressed regarding

the pilot project:

“[...]The knowledge retention rate is very, very high among the trainees, which is very different from traditional classroom training. They normally cannot remember most of the components for a long time, But Shimmy was a bit different because their training methodology is very different. You can see our methodology as a kind of a video game. It’s just a kind of animation, and people can remember all those things about video games and movies.” (#4)

Based on the pre-study to identify worker’s features, Shimmy was fully aware that most female

garment workers have poor educational backgrounds that cannot properly read or write. They,

therefore, have designed a vivid way to deliver the training that is through animation and video

games. Compared to the traditional training, this kind of method design gave workers more

interaction and involvement, which is much more efficient for them to adapt knowledge. Besides

the upskill at workers level, Shimmy also claimed that through this project, not only the workers

but the factories will also receive huge benefits, since the project also assists the factories so that

they can be better prepared by building in-house capacities and reducing the skills gaps created

due to automation.

6.4.2. Soft Skill Enhancement

Along with the technical skills enhancement, CARE Bangladesh wanted to involve soft skills

training into the initiative. Although as mentioned above they have prioritized the first phase due

to the COVID situation, they still see the second phase of the project as a vital component in the

industry. During the interview, Abul told us that their focus was always on vulnerable women

and girls because they believe that “ we cannot overcome poverty until all people have equal

42

rights and opportunities.”(#6) As he further elaborated, given that these women don’t see a

future in leadership positions in the sector their purpose for this employment becomes solely

about earning some money. They see this income as a way to earn for a few years and keep

sending back the money to their villages. They are discouraged as are too many obstacles to

overcome for leadership positions. (#6) As a solution CARE will provide managerial skills

training as it is an important tool to help them become leaders in higher positions. Thus, their

objective for this particular project was to help women take leadership roles and prepare for the

possible next industrial revolution which might make their jobs obsolete. So both projects are

really important in this sector as they are planning for a longer-term project integrating both

initiatives under one umbrella. They are setting up one project that will actually help women in

the longer run. (#6) As Hasan explained, “We are setting training sessions for female garment

workers for managerial training and HR skills. [...], we actually work in several countries, in

other countries of the world with the garment sector to ensure that the women who are working

in the RMG sector are included and have social justice, they are not subject to need gender-

based violence and they are going to the next leadership step despite all the odds against

them”(#6) Also as BRAC mentioned regarding the soft-skill training, it has driven our attention

as well. They interviewed a few garment workers to assess and see their perspective on training.

The women were quite nervous about assuming managerial roles even though they have little

technical abilities and “it's more stressful as they need to perhaps depend on their cognitive or

cerebral functions [...] It's a clear confidence issue.”(#7) Thus, this training does not only

enhance the technical skills but also enhance their confidence levels so that they will be ready to

apply for higher-paid positions.

6.4.3.Conference for Future Work and Innovation Challenge

Our last interview was with BRAC. They are currently arranging an innovation challenge and a

conference on the on-topic of future work. They want to invite global north brands and buyers

like Primark, H&M, Puma, and bring them all together into this conference. The two main topics

the conference will cover are: the future for work and how to efficiently work with the women

garment workers. And the second is how can suppliers use this opportunity to better position

themselves so they can gain some competitive advantage down the line. He then elaborated to

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us:'' Maybe this sounds a bit politically incorrect, this industry is a bit rigid and bureaucratic,

also not open to new innovations because they've mostly focused on gross margin

maintenance.”(#7) However, now that the scenario is shifting, the suppliers are feeling the

pressure to be a bit more future-oriented, the industry would be in jeopardy and “the women

garment workers would be the first head in front of the guillotine”(#7). That's why BRAC wants

to create this open forum. To further illustrates the collaboration with H&M foundation, he said:

“The H&M foundation wants to create an innovative hub in Bangladesh so that we can take a closer look into the future work and how we can safeguard the livelihoods of the women garment workers. By organizing the virtual conference, we can all pledge together to essentially sign off on a prosperous future and communicate that urgency, we need to take automation and digitization seriously and keep the safeguard and livelihood of these women seriously.” (#7)

According to BRAC (#7), this has been a co-design process, H&M Foundation wanted to create

a dialog to communicate the urgency. And after a few rounds of co-creation they landed on this

conference, which has the mandate to run an innovation, challenge, and dialogue series.

As for the innovation challenge, BRAC wants to bring forward local and global innovations here

in Bangladesh by giving them a bit of seed money, about 20000 to 30000 U.S. dollars. The

essential reason they are doing this challenge is that they believe that there is a bigger innovation

component that can incubate some good in terms of building databases and doing some good for

women RMG workers. He also tried to explain why their focus is on supplier not directly face to

the workers: “The one key focus of our project is it’s mainly focused on suppliers so that they

understand the value of the innovation and pass that to the woman RMG workers.”(#7)

However, a need assessment was conducted among the RMG workers at the initial stage to

identify their understanding level about the automation and digitization where we can bring

forward innovation according to the garment workers. Through this method, garment workers

could be managing that innovation from the beginning, and they will own that innovation,

manage that innovation, and disseminate that innovation among other women garment workers.

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7. Discussion: Challenges & Contrast Through all the interviews from the foundation side to the NGOs and for-profit organizations, we

have discovered several contrasts that we would like to further discuss. Among them, the

different mindset from the supplier side and local organization side is an aspect worth

mentioning. When Shimmy Technologies talked about the biggest challenges they faced during

implementation, Hasan explained that the employers or the factory owners are not interested in

investing a lot of money to upskill their workers. When they try to make the case to factories, the

owners do not see the added value of upskilling their workers. When they see that Shimmy is a

for-profit organization they become apprehensive about paying for the training out of their own

pocket. (#4) This tough situation was actually confirmed by multiple suppliers (#9,#10) From the

factory owner Interviewee C, he elaborates that: “ Currently we do not have training in place. As

a manager, unfortunately my priority from the workers side is safety and wages. As long as I am

giving them fair wages, keeping a safe environment while meeting my manufacturing quota I feel

good about my operations. Also, any training for these women would have to come out of my

pocket, hence I am not sure if this is an additional cost I am willing to bear right now.” (#9)

Considering the profitable features of Shimmy Technologies, they charge money for their

services, which unfortunately heavily limits the enthusiasm of manufacturers to actively

participate in projects like this. The other issue regarding this aspect is that there are some mind-

behavioral gaps among the suppliers. Even though all the suppliers we have interviewed have a

positive attitude toward upskilling the garment workers, they are also aware of the urgency of

workers adapting to the digital transition. They are arguing that “female garment workers will be

left behind as newer technology and machines come in and this will not change unless they get

trained.” (#8) Still, when it comes to funds, they are quite hesitant whether they really need to

invest in this training, or they might wait for development agencies or donors to provide them

with funds or subsidies so that they won’t have to invest any of their own money. Besides the

supplier's mindset, there is also a contrast of self awareness among different female garment

workers. From what we have concluded from the factory side (#8,#9), the issue is even factories

are open-minded about training these women for better positions but they are a bit hesitant

themselves.

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Also, there's animosity and tension among the workers themselves because when someone tries

to sign up for training for manager positions they sometimes get a lot of backlash and

discouragement from other women.

The main challenge we found after conducting all our interviews and extensive research in

Bangladesh's RMG sector is the major knowledge and information gap that exists among female

garment workers. This entire initiative, unfortunately, highlighted the major gap in their

knowledge. The gap in knowledge about health and hygiene when it came to COVID-19

precautionary practices, a gap about extensive childcare as most were stuck at home due to

lockdown, a gap in knowledge about soft skills for managerial positions, a gap in technical skills

that is essential as many sectors are becoming automated, and lastly gap in knowledge about

their own self-worth. As expressed by BRAC, convincing suppliers about the necessity of skills

training or even providing these women with the expertise becomes moot if they do not possess

the knowledge or the enabling environment to understand their self-worth and capabilities (#7).

Hossain et al. (2012) that “there is an adverse relationship between the level of education and job

turnover.” They argue that literate workers are more aware of their job rights and future

opportunities. As Fadia explains in order for RMG workers to contribute to the decision-making

process within the sector the barriers that stand between their capabilities, skills, education,

language barriers need to be addressed (#2).

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8. Conclusion

Figure 3. Identifying problems through H&M’s initiative. Own illustration

During our research, we have carefully investigated the sustainable project started by H&M

Foundation with both short-term and long-term initiatives. We can conclude that the projects are

overall taking an effective approach to address the current and potential needs of female garment

workers and adjust their initiatives respectively. In such an approach, everyone is working

within their own field of expertise but making sure the activities all push towards the common

goals. The project also aims to raise the female garment worker representation in various ways.

As Wateraid had explained to us “ Garment workers are very important stakeholders in the

RMG sector, And if they are involved in the planning process, the manufacturing process will be

improved. And if they can also be involved in the decision-making process the RMG sector can

be benefited.” (#2) This methodology involves workers' voices in the planning process and

leading the active participation of all sectors. Workers can help in the planning process of how

they can work, what kind of skills are important, how they can be supervised, how their capacity

can be enhanced, and how to enhance their productivity data. This project has been highly

47

aligned with the UN sustainable development goal, which are goal 4: Quality Education, goal 5:

Gender Equality, goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation , goal 8: Decent Work and Economic

Growth, goal 10 : Reduced Inequalities and goal 17: Partnerships.

For other fashion brands it may be difficult to replicate this exact initiative exactly due to the fact

that H&M foundation is its own entity solely in charge of socially responsible projects. Their

financial and resource capacity, both locally and globally, is much higher than a lot of companies

which puts them at an advantage. However, as Hasan told us that “this project, in the long run,

will be seen as a milestone for making systemic changes'' (#4). Tangible results and benefits

from this initial pilot project from these 4 factories will set the tone for advocating the idea of

mass reskilling and upskilling of their RMG workforce to both buyers and suppliers. The training

component shouldn’t only include soft skills or the digital revolution, but also address the

attitudinal barriers that exist within the country. Charlotte tries to relay the urgency by

expressing that, “The aim is to shift the “tech is for boys'' narrative that often guides women’s

interests and professional aspirations'' (#1).

However, as researchers, we had to keep in mind that although this project initiated by H&M

Foundation has done a great job reaching thousands of female garment workers, there is a bit of a

gap in how the business proceedings usually go among buyers and suppliers themselves. Even if

the structural mindset is changed within the suppliers to provide training and follow compliance

orders, ex-BGMEA President Rubana Huq expresses her frustration that buyers won’t raise their

product prices to meet the additional expenses accrued by suppliers (TBS, 2021). There has to be

mutual agreement on the urgency to upskilling female garment workers from all primary

stakeholders in the RMG value chain: buyers, suppliers, and female garment workers.

8.1 Answering the question

1. How intersectional feminism lens on stakeholder theory can be used to gear the sustainability initiatives better supporting female garment workers?

As we early mentioned, feminist theories could make practical contributions to the

communication between different stakeholders (Wicks et al., 1994). In this case study, H&M

48

foundation and other parties use communication as a crucial tool to address the attitudinal

barriers and focus on perception changes among female garment workers. Existing research on

applying feminism to stakeholder theory is inspiring on the issue of whom to care for, while

there are relatively few studies on how to care and how to empower others (Machold et al.,

2008). This requires well-designed ecosystems, mutual goals, and a holistic approach –

addressing the broken systems that underlie social issues and breaking barriers for innovative

solutions. The H&M Foundation believes that change is best achieved when a diverse group of

people join forces and commit to a common agenda to solve complex challenges. The feminism

theory can help the H & M Foundation to identify the vulnerable group under the imbalanced

power structure in the supply chain, while taking an intersectional lens can shed light on how to

better support them. By taking their social background into account, the initiative is always

needs-based, which can lead to a collective impact on intervention in the long term.

2. How can sustainability initiatives be geared towards making female garment workers from passive beneficiaries to active stakeholders in the RMG sector and/or value chain?

The support the garment workers have received from the initial phase of this project is a good

start to provide them with holistic support through various sectors during a pandemic. But the

second phase, which was the original project plan, addresses the larger issue of raising the level

of skills among the female workforce. Sustainability initiatives should not only be supporting

them but creating systemic change in order to help them go from passive beneficiaries to active

members in the RMG value chain (Yu, 2009). Sustainability initiatives should not make female

workers more dependent on the assistance provided by corporates and NGOs, but make them

participating and active members of these initiatives in order to emancipate them from cultural,

gender, and socio-economic barriers. Their prominence and salience as stakeholders can be

realigned in order to prioritize their needs through an intersectional feminist lens. As Yural-

Davis (2006) explains, the intersectional approach can help analyze issues of disempowerment of

marginalized and vulnerable women, and policies, acts or initiatives can be structured to address

the muti-faceted complex issues.

When we first started off our research we knew about the rapid digitalization and automation in

the RMG sector that is taking place but now further, the hard-skill training is not only important

for this particular project, but for the entire RMG sector, for female garment workers to grow

49

within the industry. The soft-skills and innovation training can provide more opportunities for

them to grow self-awareness and confidence, and find self value in the value chain.

8.2. Limitations of this Study Due to COVID-19 we were not able to pursue our original scope of research which was

interviewing female garment workers themselves. We had to rely solely on the decision-makers

in the RMG sector and conduct interviews via Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet. Another

limitation we faced was that since we interviewed organizations that were directly or indirectly

involved with H&M foundation, being the primary donor, it was hard to get a response

completely unbiased without causing a conflict of interest between the donor organization and

the local actors. The challenges faced by the stakeholders in this initiative did not include any

issues from the buyer’s side, which in this case is H&M foundation. Any frustration expressed

about buyers was seen from the supplier’s side, who strictly emphasized remaining anonymous.

Last but not the least, time constraints would also be a limitation since we have only 3 months’

time to investigate the project, the future of work projects are currently in the pilot phase. As

H&M Foundation mentioned that they will have a one-year follow-up to track the process of the

mass implementation, we believe that this study will be more comprehensive if we can do the

follow-up research, however that’s not possible under the thesis constraints.

8.3. Future Direction of Study In terms of future study for academia who are interested in the field, quantitative study to

visualize the technology adoption can be further displayed, which means through direct surveys

of the female garment worker. Quantitative data collected from the digital literacy program

Shimmy is providing can be an interesting scope of research. Finding quantifiable data on how

receptive the women are of this training can be a good indicator of its success. Another can be

from the supplier’s perspective, what are the hurdles they face while trying to implement training

programs, their perceptions and attitudinal behaviour and analyze how to overcome them. The

solutions offered by this initiative is not the only method through which women RMG workers

can be supported. We look forward to finding future studies conducted about female garment

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workers analyzed through different lenses, with the hope that one day these groups of women are

in a state in which they can and deserve to be: empowered and independent.

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made garment industry in Bangladesh: A qualitative exploration. Women’s Health, 15, 174550651989130. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745506519891302

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Appendix 1.

Interviewees introduction and responsible brief

H&M Foundation: Charlotte Brunnström. Strategy Lead, H&M Foundation.

She is the program Manager and focuses on Inclusive Societies at the non-profit H&M

Foundation. With a background in the development sector as well as the social sustainability area

within commercial companies, she joined the H&M Foundation in 2013. As the third person in

the team it was exciting for her to be part of building something completely new. She and her tea

met with potential partners all over the world and had so many fruitful conversations about

driving positive change.

The Asia Foundation: Samin Kashmy. Project Manager and Consultant

She manages the H&M Foundations Future Work Collective Impact Initiative for RMG female

workers in Bangladesh under which several projects are being implemented by organizations like

CARE, WaterAid, Save the Children, BBC Media Action, and many more.

WaterAid: Dr. Fadia Sultana. Project Manager

She has been with WaterAid for 5 years and currently the project manager for the COVID

response project. She has had previous work experience with UNICEF, USAID, Save the

Children, and other organizations. She is maintaining coordination, communication with the

donor organization and other stakeholders to ensure everything is launched and mobilized in an

orderly and timely manner.

Shimmy Technologies, Hasan Iqbal, Country Head

He is working as the country lead in Shimmy Technologies and his key responsibilities for this

project is stakeholder management and exploring opportunities and identifying potential

intervention, designing methodologies and how to facilitate the training program.

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Save the Children: -Mojib-Ul-Hasan Senior Manager

He is the Senior Manager in the Child Protection Sector with his key role as program operations.

Mojib and his team are providing support to the mothers in the RMG sector by creating an

enabling and safe family environment to protect and support their children through child

protective and participation services.

CARE: Abdul Hossain, Project Coordinator

He joined CARE Bangladesh 6 months ago as a coordinator working in capacity building and

knowledge management. He is overlooking the two projects, the first is disaster risk reduction

and the second is Future Work.

BRAC: Interviewee A

Interviewee A provides consultancies towards internal and external social enterprises with

business design functionalities. They assist in finding which development goals to focus on and

do research before a project is launched. They do internal consultancies but in this project they

are working as one of the project coordinators to launch the Conference through BRAC.

H&M Supplier/Garment Owner

Supplier B

Supplier C

Supplier D

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Appendix 2.

Questions for H&M Foundation (Donor Organization) - Primary Stakeholder

- Could you introduce yourself and your job and role in the H & M Foundation?

- Could you give us a short introduction about the project?

- How do you see the relevance of this project in relation to the challenges it seeks to address?

- How does H&M the company and H&M foundation decide which projects to implement?

- To which extent do you collaborate with H&M’s operational side in Bangladesh (or any

country)

for projects?

- How would you define the social responsibility of a fashion brand?

- How do you define feminism in the H & M Foundation?

- What are some of the biggest challenges you faced while implementing this initiative?

- What are the challenges faced by garment workers you seek to address?

- How do you see the added value for gender equality or female representation in the value

chain?

- What influences your decision-making?

- Will the same NGOs and local actors stay involved or will more organizations be participating?

- Will the beneficiaries (female garment workers) be the same women chosen in the beginning of

this initiative or new workers be selected?

- How do you see female garment workers as stakeholders in the RMG sector?

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Appendix 3.

Questions for WaterAid, CARE, Save the Children, The Asia Foundation, Shimmy

Technologies, BRAC (Secondary Stakeholders)

-Could you introduce yourself and your job and role in [organization name]?

- Could you give us a short introduction about the project?

- How do you see the relevance of this project in relation to the challenges it seeks to address?

- How does [organization name] decide which projects to collaborate with?

- To what extent does this initiative coincide with [organization’s name] mission, vision, and

goals?

- How would you define the social responsibility of an NGO?

- How do you define feminism in [organization name]?

- What are some of the biggest challenges you faced while implementing this initiative?

- How do you see the added value for gender equality or female representation in the value

chain?

- What influences your decision-making?

- How do you see female garment workers as stakeholders in the RMG sector?

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Appendix 4.

Questions for Suppliers (Primary Stakeholders)

Questions for RMG supplier (Keeping supplier name and company anonymous)

-Could you tell us the number of women employed in your factory?

-What is the average age range of the women in your factory?

-What is their average education level?

-How many women are in managerial and supervisor roles in your factory? -Are there

currently any training or educational courses in place to enhance these women’s skills?

-As RMG operations become more automated do you think less jobs are available for these

women in the sector?

-How has the working condition for women in the RMG sector shifted in the last few years?

-What measures are taken in your factory to ensure these women’s safety in terms of

workplace harassment or discrimination?

- How has the pandemic affected your operations?

-How has COVID impacted female garment workers in your factory?

-How do you see female garment workers as stakeholders in the RMG value chain?