ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1580709
This article is part of the Research TopicSexual and Gender-Based Violence among Adolescents and Young Women: New Evidence and Call for ActionView all articles
Prevalence and risk factors of sexual harassment in the workplace by female readymade garment (RMG) workers in Bangladesh
Provisionally accepted
- University of New England, Armidale, Australia
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Objectives: Bangladeshi female readymade garment (RMG) workers' experience of sexual harassment in the workplace raises concerns about is a serious concern that questions the overall working conditions of the garment sector. Female workers' feelings of being unsafe and threatened in the workplace have been considered an alarming issue for international buyers/brands who aim to ensure sexual harassment-free workplaces as a condition of sourcing clothing items. We hypothesise that the frequent experience of sexual harassment among Bangladeshi female RMG workers tends to be associated with i) age, ii) marital status, iii) night shift (working during night time), iv) non-existence of anti-sexual harassment cells (a formal body/committee works against sexual harassment incidence in the workplace), v) trade union activity, and vi) factory location and types. To our knowledge, there has been no previous research on the experience of sexual harassment by female garment workers and its connections to such a variety of occupational and geographical factors. By addressing this gap, the present study aimed to investigate the prevalence and risk factors associated with female garment workers' experience of sexual harassment.Methods: Cross-sectional data were collected from 332 (mean age=26.10 years; SD=6.54 years) currently employed female garment workers in Bangladesh, between February and July 2018. Data were analysed using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression modelling. In the past six months, nearly one-quarter (22.0%) of workers reported experiencing frequent sexual harassment inside the factory, mainly by male co-workers (37.0%), supervisors (32.9%), security guards (27.4%), and factory owners (2.7%). Workers from the factories located in Chattogram (a peripheral region compared to Dhaka) reported a higher frequency of sexual harassment than those working in factories located in Dhaka (the capital city of Bangladesh). Overall, the percentages of unmarried and young female workers who experienced sexual harassment were almost double compared to married and aged female workers. Workers' frequent experience of sexual harassment at the workplace was associated with factory location (β 0.67, 95%CI 1.02, 3.76), night shift (β 2.58 95%CI 6.92, 25.18), and non-existence of an anti-sexual harassment cell inside the factory (β 0.62 95%CI 0.97, 3.55).
Keywords: Sexual Harassment, Mental Health, Female workers, Readymade garment sector, Bangladesh, quantitative
Received: 21 Feb 2025; Accepted: 05 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kabir, Maple and Usher. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Humayun Kabir, University of New England, Armidale, Australia
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