Gender Benders in Off-Shore Production: Bangladesh-China Comparisons

Abstract

To climb the middle-income ladder and streamline the sustainable development goals (SDG) by 2030, Bangladesh’s women must be more engaged. Borrowing from China in two cases, this chapter argues, Bangladesh’s chances improve greatly: involving what Chairman Mao Zedong called ‘half of the sky’, that is, women, in the work-setting; and inducing the women-dominated RMG (ready-market-garment) sector in China to shift to lower-waged Bangladesh. Both are explored in the chapter through (a) a comparative study of working women in the two countries and (b) inducement assessments for China to shift production to Bangladesh.