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Pathway to Productivity and Leadership: Evolution of Female Garment Workers in Bangladesh

Author

Listed:
  • Mahreen Khan
  • Atonu Rabbani
  • Christopher Woodruff

Abstract

The garment sector has contributed to an increase in women’s labor force participation in Bangladesh. But while women are now a majority of the sector’s 4.2 million workers, women’s representation in management roles remains low. We conduct an evaluation of an IFC program that successfully increased the share of female line supervisors in 50 participating factories from 10 percent to 18 percent. We find that sewing machine operators supervised by the women rate them more favorably than a matched sample of male supervisors. Moreover, while productivity on the lines the women manage is lower than the matched comparison lines in the first six months following the program, women catch up to the male-managed lines after that and, indeed, significantly outperform the male-supervised lines after two years of experience.

Suggested Citation

  • Mahreen Khan & Atonu Rabbani & Christopher Woodruff, 2025. "Pathway to Productivity and Leadership: Evolution of Female Garment Workers in Bangladesh," CSAE Working Paper Series 2025-07, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    • Handle: RePEc:csa:wpaper:2025-07
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    File URL: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:32668539-f182-4fe0-95d8-3974a52487ac
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    female management; Bangladeshi garment sector; export manufacturing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions
    • M54 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Labor Management
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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