Third world countries have been receiving the majority of the manufacturing burden of the first world for far too long. Bangladesh is a poor country that has been seeing increased demand in garment manufacturing. The mix of a large population and cheap labor makes it attractive for business. The increase of manufacturing jobs means the increase of skilled workers. Many of the skilled workers are women. Women in Bangladesh are now earning a living and becoming financially independent. The financial freedom of women is increasing. The probability of young girls attending school is up. Bangladesh is slowly going through an industrialization process. On the surface this looks like a great situation- women become independent and the corporation get its high profit margin. However, at close inspection there are fundamental flaws. For instance, what will happen when the factories shut down due to low demand in the west- how will the women retain their family structure and customs? What will be the sociological affect on their society? Right now they still retain high family values giving them emotional wealth. Will that change?
Instead, shouldn’t we encourage them to create their economies with the resources that they naturally have? Shouldn’t we teach them new ways of creating innovation within their cultural boundaries and by using traditional methods?
Many corporations destroy social structures and leave devastating holes when they pull away, leaving the population crippled with problems.
The article below has been studied for Idea Engineering and we came up with the above conclusions.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/21/garment-factories-changing-womens-roles-in-poor-countries/