Fashion and Its Gendered Agendas

2018 ◽  
pp. 412-425
Author(s):  
Ashley Mears
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Garment Industry ◽  
Wage Gaps ◽  
Global Industry ◽  
Fashion Models ◽  
Urban Branding

This chapter unpacks the multiple definitions of fashion as social process, status dynamic, practice, and industry. The chapter begins with an overview of the historical emergence and spread of fashion, mapping the changing associations of fashion from frivolity and femininity to major global industry and urban branding mechanism. To understand fashion as simultaneously a concept, behavior, and market, the chapter employs a gendered lens. Gender, as well as class, is central to understanding fashion from both lenses of consumption and production, illustrated with two cases of gendered fashion labor: women fashion models and their paradoxical wage gaps, and women workers in the garment industry.

The Jewish Working Class in America

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Walkowitz
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Women Workers ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Consumer Good ◽  
The United States ◽  
Garment Industry ◽  
Industrial Sector ◽  
Jewish Settlement ◽  
Jewish Immigrants

Between 1881 and 1924, when federal immigration restrictions were introduced, two and half million Jews from East Europe entered the United States. Approximately half of them settled in New York City where they soon comprised the largest Jewish settlement in the world. The Lower East Side, where families crowded into tenements, became the densest place on the globe. Possessing few skills, Jewish immigrants took jobs with which they had some prior familiarity as peddlers and as workers in the burgeoning garment and textile industries. With the rise of clothing as a mass consumer good, the garment industry emerged as the leading industrial sector in the city. Jewish workers predominated in it. But conditions of sweated labor in shops and factories propelled worker protest. A Jewish labor movement sprung up, energized by the arrival of socialist radicals in the labor Bund. Women workers played a major role in organizing the Jewish working class, spearheading a series of major strikes between 1909 and 1911. These women also staged “meat riots” over inflated beef prices in 1902 and “rent wars” in the early 1930s. To be sure, garment work and the labor movement also shaped the experience of Jewish immigrants in cities such as Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston. Jews notably worked in other apparel industries, but the alternative for many (especially in small cities without a garment industry) was peddling and shopkeeping. Self-employed, but situated within and integrated in the working-class community, both sectors reflected the nontraditional nature of the Jewish working class. Jewish peddlers and petty shopkeepers increasingly morphed in a second generation into a middle class in higher status white-collar work. But despite this mobility, Yiddishkeit, a vibrant Jewish working-class culture of Jewish proletarian theater, folk choruses, journalism, education, housing, and recreation, which was particularly nourished by Bundists, flourished and carried a rich legacy forward in the postwar era.

Ethiopian garment exports are poised to grow

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Comparative Advantage ◽  
Rural Women ◽  
Foreign Currency ◽  
Garment Industry ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Government ◽  
Export Revenue

Subject Ethiopia's garment industry. Significance The garment sector is growing in Ethiopia. The government has invested in six industrial garment parks in collaboration with global garment retail, manufacturing and input supplier companies, along with supporting infrastructure. Educational institutions are also aiming to meet demand, offering degrees in garment engineering and merchandising. Impacts Employment in the garment sector could reach 200,000 jobs by 2018, comprising predominantly rural women workers. Clothing exports will expand significantly in the coming years, boosting export revenue and foreign currency reserves. Eco-friendly production sites will attract investors with environmental concerns, offering a comparative advantage.

A scale to measure organizational stress among women workers in the garment industry

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lavina Sharma ◽  
Mallika Srivastava
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Women Workers ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Garment Industry ◽  
Organizational Stress ◽  
Related Factor ◽  
Manufacturing Companies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Garment Manufacturing

Purpose Stress has been a common phenomenon among the working professionals. The stress has been known to affect the job satisfaction level, health outcomes, affect burnout through the physiological, emotional, behavioral and cognitive processes resulting in to low performance. This study aims to identify the factors determining organizational stress among women workers in the garment industry in India and to develop and validate a contextual scale for organizational stress among women workers in the garment industry in India. Design/methodology/approach This study consisted of women workers who were employed in garment manufacturing companies. The data has been collected through a structured questionnaire, which identifies the factors leading to stress. The respondents of the study included women workers employed in the garment manufacturing units in and around Bangalore. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted and the model fit was tested using confirmatory factor analysis. Findings The measurement scale for the organization stress of women workers in the garment industry was found to be highly reliable and valid for conducting the study in any Indian garment industry. The analysis identified the factors as follows: job-related factor, organization-related factor, social factor and personal factor. Research limitations/implications Due to limited access to the population, which is the women workers, the authors have not been able to collect a large sample data. The sample size is the limitation of the study. Practical implications Organizational stress have has been shown to have a detrimental effect on the health and well-being of employees. Organizations need to step up their effort to integrate emotional well-being, conducive work environment, workloads and job responsibilities, social connectedness and job satisfaction with their efforts to support the physical health and mental health of the workers. Originality/value The study is one of its kind with a focus on women workers in the garment industry in India. The study highlights the factors that result in stress among women workers who have not been studied in past research studies. The strategies to cope with organizational stress in such a work requirement is different and very challenging, making it unique for practitioners.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document