The Power to Choose Bangladeshi Women and Labor Market Decisions in London and Dhaka

In this path-breaking study, social economist Naila Kabeer examines the lives of Bangladeshi garment workers in Bangladesh and Britain to shed light on the question of what constitutes 'fair' competition in international trade. She argues that if the unhealthy coalition of multinationals and labor movements is truly seeking to improve the working conditions for women and children in the 'Third World', as well as those of Western workers, their efforts should be directed away from an attempt to impose labor standards and towards a support for the organization of labor rights. Any attempt to devise acceptable labor standards at an international level which takes no account of the forces of inclusion and exclusion with local labor markets is, she further argues, likely to represent the interests of the powerful at the expense of those of the weak.

Naila Kabeer is a Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. She has worked extensively on issues related to gender and development in Bangladesh, India and Vietnam.