Fiji's women garment workers: negotiating constraints in employment and beyond

Abstract

The entry of large numbers of women into the Fiji garment industry since the 1980s is part of a global trend whereby labour-intensive manufacturing has relocated from the advanced industrialised countries to the less developed countries where labour is cheaper. Women constitute the bulk of the workforce in these labour-intensive, manufacturing industries and their strategies to negotiate the processes of global industrial restructuring merit closer attention. This article considers how women workers in Fiji exercise agency through the garment industry and struggle to shape the direction of their lives. Women’s attempts to realise their current and future goals through negotiation of the subjective and structural forces constraining their experiences are explored. Fiji’s women garment workers are shown to actively negotiate the forces of capital, the state, patriarchy, and the labour market, along with societal ideologies about women’s appropriate roles. Show more