Preventing and protesting workplace sexual harassment: Women agro-processing workers in Bangladesh

Abstract

Sexual harassment of women in the workplace is considered to be one of the reasons holding back women from entering work and a major reason for women dropping out of work in Bangladesh. However, paid work is an important pathway to empowerment. To enable and sustain women's entry into the formal sectors of the economy, it is important to understand their voice and agency in preventing workplace sexual harassment and from the obstacles they face in doing so. The article explores how language and social and gender norms constrain young women's voice and agency in response to sexual harassment. Our research asked how language, gender norms, and informality in work arrangements influence young women's voice and agency in response to sexual harassment at work. Based on case studies with factory workers in agro-processing firms in the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, 21 in-depth interviews were carried out, supplemented by participatory techniques of gender safety audits and body mapping. Findings: I show the informal nature of formal workspaces and the failure of formal institutions which create precarity for the women working there. Young women's experiences, perceptions, and articulation of sexual harassment and attempts at prevention or redress are determined by gender norms and how these norms influence the factory workspace and interactions with others in that space. I argue that sexual harassment is normalized, formal complaints mechanisms do not work, and so informal means aligned with social norms may be the only option available. The policy implications of the research include the need to recognize the informal mechanisms being used and the importance of developing a common language that will allow the “victims” to speak openly about their experiences and make complaints, increasing access to and confidence in formal complaints mechanisms and developing young women's civic and political capacities to protest harassment and seek redress.