Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons^™

Transition To Adulthood Of Female Factory Workers: Some Evidence From Bangladesh, Sajeda Amin, Ian Diamond, Ruchira Tabassum Naved, Margaret Newby

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The rapidly expanding sector of garment manufacturing for export is unusual for Bangladesh in that it employs young, unmarried women in large numbers. This paper examines data from a study on garment workers in Bangladesh to explore the implications of work for the early socialization of young women. For the first time young women are given an alternative to lives where they move directly from childhood into adulthood through early marriage and childbearing. Work creates a period of transition as contrasted with the abrupt assumption of adult roles at very young ages that marriage and childbearing mandate. It is argued …