Longitudinal study of working women and changes in jobs in Bangladesh

Nashid Kamal, Independent University, Bangladesh
Gareth Ambler, University College London
Rumana Omar, University College London

This is a longitudinal study starting from June 2004 over a period of two years, following 300 women in the slums of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The objective of the study was to observe and document the changes in jobs of these 300 women. The women were divided into four equal groups from garment/ sex/ domestic work and a reference category of housewives who did not work formally for a living The end of 2004 signified the end of MFA agreement whereby it was predicted that many garment workers would lose their jobs and may join sex work or domestic work or get married and become a dependent. Logistic regression was used to predict change in job category (coded 1 if yes,0 otherwise) on various predictor variables. The study finds that, 95% women remained in garment work and none went to sex or domestic work, although some became housewives.