Female garment workers more likely to make financial decisions consulting family: Study

Female garment workers are more likely than male workers to make financial decisions in consultation with other family or household members, according to a survey assessing the impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic on the overall working and living conditions of garment workers in Bangladesh.

Conversely, male garment workers are more likely than female workers to make financial decisions on their own, the survey shows.

The study, which was conducted by South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) in partnership with Microfinance Opportunities (MFO), has looked into aspects of salary management, expenditure, savings and education decisions.

According to the survey, 44 per cent of garment workers manage their salaries on their own. However, in that case, it is only 39 per cent of women compared to 62 per cent of men who reported that they make salary decisions on their own. 36 per cent of garment workers reported that in making decisions about their salary earnings, someone else is involved.

Following are the detailed findings of the survey:

Salary managers

• When asked who is in charge of managing their salary, 44 per cent of garment workers reported that they make decisions on their own
• 39 per cent of women compared to 62 per cent of men reported making salary decisions on their own
• 36 per cent of garment workers reported that they themselves in addition to others make a decision together as to what to do with their salary earnings
• 39 per cent of women reported sharing decision-making responsibilities, compared to 23 per cent for men
• 14 per cent of garment workers take what they need and hand over the rest
• 15 per cent of the women and 11 per cent of the men interviewed reported doing this
• Six per cent of garment workers reported handing their salary over for someone else to decide what to do with their salary earnings
• Seven per cent of women reported handing over their salary compared to four per cent of men

Additionally, only six per cent of garment workers reported that the decision maker had changed since the beginning of April. Despite the small number of data, when a change was reported the data suggest it was because of a change in who in the household was (or wasn’t) working at the time.

Spending money

• When asked who makes the decisions on spending money, 29 per cent of garment workers reported that they make spending decisions on their own
• 24 per cent of women compared to 45 per cent of men reported that they are solely in charge of making spending decisions
• 61 per cent of garment workers reported that they themselves in addition to their family members help decide how to spend money
• 65 per cent of women compared to 46 per cent of men said that spending decisions are taken by the whole family
• The remaining 10 per cent reported it was someone else who decides how to spend their money
• 10 per cent of the women and eight per cent of the men interviewed reported this

Only four per cent of garment workers reported that the decision maker for spending money had changed since April.

Saving money

• When asked who makes the decisions on savings, 35 per cent of garment workers reported that they make savings decisions on their own
• Women were less likely to report that they make savings decisions on their own, at 30 per cent compared to 49 per cent for men
• 55 per cent of garment workers reported that savings decisions are made with the entire family, themselves included
• 59 per cent of women reported making savings decisions with the whole family, compared to 42 per cent for men
• Eight per cent of garment workers reported someone else as the person making decisions on savings and two per cent opted to not answer the question.

Following the same pattern, very few garment workers, just two per cent, reported that there had been any change to the savings decision maker since April 2020.

Education decisions

• When asked who makes the decisions on their children’s education, 26 per cent of garment workers reported that they make education decisions on their own
• 23 per cent of women reported making children’s education decisions on their own, compared to 38 per cent for men
• 67 per cent of garment workers said that decision making for children’s education was shared with the entire family
• 70 per cent of those sharing education decision making responsibilities with the family were women, compared to 55 per cent for men
• Seven per cent of respondents chose ‘someone else’ as the person in charge of their children’s education decisions.

Again, only one per cent of respondents reported any change to decision-making responsibilities concerning children’s education since April.

A total of 1367 workers from factories in Chittagong, Dhaka City, Gazipur, Narayanganj, and Savar — over three quarters of whom are women — participated in the survey.