Women are losing ground in Bangladesh's ready-made garment (RMG) industry — once celebrated as a global model of female economic empowerment — as a combination of automation, unsafe working conditions, and factory closures accelerates their exit from the sector, according to a report by the Dhaka-based The Daily Star. The findings raise serious questions about whether the industry's growth is leaving its founding workforce behind.

A Decades-Long Decline in Female Representation

Women once dominated Bangladesh's garment floors. Data from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) shows women constituted roughly 80 per cent of the RMG workforce between 1980 and 1994. That share slid to 70 per cent by 2005, and further to approximately 53 per cent in both 2021 and 2023. The trend has been independently confirmed by studies from the Ethical Trading Initiative, GIZ, BRAC University, and the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

Automation and the Skills Gap Driving Women Out

A central driver of this displacement is a widening skills mismatch created by new machinery. As factories introduce equipment such as overlock, flat lock, and button-hole machines — increasingly central to automated production lines — women are being left behind. The 2022 FSG report found that nearly a third of female workers have no or incomplete primary education, compared with 18 per cent of male workers. Men, the report noted, can operate a wider range of machinery and are preferred when production runs around the clock, including night shifts, due to employer safety concerns about women working after dark.

Women have rarely been trained to close this skills gap, the FSG report found. They hold under 15 per cent of supervisory roles and under 5 per cent of managerial roles — a disparity rooted in a widespread perception among owners and workers alike that men work faster and produce more.

Factory Closures and Older Women Exiting the Workforce

Beyond automation, two additional forces are shrinking women's presence in the sector. First, factories are closing outright amid political uncertainty, banking and loan difficulties, and falling international orders — circumstances that, according to the report, some businesses are also exploiting as a pretext to dismiss women. Second, older women — particularly those with children — are abandoning urban factory life and returning to their villages as living conditions near industrial zones become increasingly difficult to sustain.

Harsh Working Conditions Accelerating the Exit

The FSG report described a punishing work environment: 12-hour days with limited breaks, hot and cramped factory floors packed with hundreds of workers, and recurring headaches, respiratory problems, and skin allergies among staff — none of whom are covered by employer health insurance. Verbal abuse from supervisors is reportedly common, and the report identified it as a key reason women leave the sector earlier than their male counterparts.

The report cited findings from the Icar study indicating that 80 per cent of women workers had experienced or witnessed sexual violence or harassment at work, alongside widespread psychological abuse.

Industry Growth Has Not Benefited Women Equally

Moshrefa Mishu, president of the Garments Sramik Unity Forum, was quoted as saying that workers' conditions have not improved in proportion to the industry's growth, with women remaining among its lowest-paid despite being its backbone. The RMG sector, which generates the vast majority of Bangladesh's export earnings, built its global reputation on the labour of millions of women — a legacy that critics argue is now being eroded without accountability. How Bangladesh and its global buyers respond to these findings will shape both the industry's future and the economic fate of millions of women workers.