Career progression of women workers in the readymade garment industry is extremely limited, according to a recent report.
An estimated 86% of workers who joined factories as helpers, while 66% left as operators and 1% as supervisors, read the study report.
The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), GIZ and Brac University jointly carried out the research styled "Declining Number of Women Workers in the Bangladesh RMG Industry".
The Sustainable Textile Initiative: Together for Change (Stitch) funded the research done with support from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
None of the surveyed former workers noted lack of career progression or upward mobility as a reason for leaving the RMG industry.
Women have accepted the norm that they can only work as helpers or operators reporting to male line managers and supervisors, despite the data showing that women supervisors had higher productivity levels compared to men, the report cited.
They disclosed that male workers found it difficult to accept the fact that a woman is their supervisor.
Male line chiefs cannot come to terms with working with a women supervisor, as they cannot reprimand her, it said.
Females cannot work long hours required for these roles, as they need to go to their families back home.
Even women workers also do not want to work under female supervisors, according to the findings.
Supervisor salaries are fixed, whereas operators can work overtime and earn more which also limits the upward mobility of female workers.
The report looked at entry into and exit from garment units, the reasons both for entry and exit by female workers and the implications of these changes for women's participation in the $42 billion RMG sector.
The ETI study, however, brought out the reasons behind the declining trend that cited caring for children as the main reason for leaving the industry followed by pregnancy and discrimination for being pregnant.
Other reasons included age appropriateness, difficulty in balancing work and home responsibilities and working conditions including harassment, violence, long working hours and low salaries.
The study made a number of recommendations for factory managements, brands and buyers, government, trade unions/workers' representatives and civil society and NGOs on how RMG factories stop the exit of women from the sector, retain skilled women workers and continue to attract more of them in future.