IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i24p13406-d706560.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Personal Safety and Fear of Sexual Harassment among Female Garment Workers in Bangladesh

Author

Listed:
  • Muhammad Akram Uzzaman

    (Department of Psychology, Jagannath University, Dhaka 1100, Bangladesh)

  • Zamadonda Nokuthula Xulu-Kasaba

    (Discipline of Optometry, School of Health Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4001, South Africa)

  • Muhammad Ehsanul Haque

    (Graduate School of Business, MANCOSA, Durban 4001, South Africa)

Abstract

Personal safety and fear of sexual harassment may discourage women from participating at work and in public life, limiting their life opportunities. The study proposed to determine personal safety and fear of sexual harassment among female garment workers in Bangladesh. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 201 female garment workers from Dhaka and Chittagong cities. Participants were selected using snowballing sampling techniques with the data collected by using anonymised questionnaires. The Pearson product–moment correlation and analysis of variance were employed using SPSS version 27.0. Results showed that 25% of the participants perceived that they were most likely to be sexually harassed by their manager and 25% never felt safe going to work. Age and the marital status of the participants were significantly associated with personal safety and fear of sexual harassment ( p < 0.05). The correlation analysis found a significant positive correlation between personal safety and the fear of sexual harassment [r (201) = 0.85 **, p < 0.05], among the participants. A deep commitment from leadership with cooperation at all levels of the organisations is required to address these acts of violence and organisational conditions, rather than a form of unreflective compliance or a ‘gender-neutral’ approach that fails to recognise individual needs and maintain gender inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Muhammad Akram Uzzaman & Zamadonda Nokuthula Xulu-Kasaba & Muhammad Ehsanul Haque, 2021. "Personal Safety and Fear of Sexual Harassment among Female Garment Workers in Bangladesh," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-11, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:24:p:13406-:d:706560
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/24/13406/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/24/13406/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Md. Bashir Uddin Khan & Israt Jahan Shathi, 2018. "Nature of Sexual Harassment Against the Female Students of Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Study in Tangail Municipality," International Journal of Social and Administrative Sciences, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 3(2), pages 73-82.
    2. Carolyn Whitzman, 2007. "Stuck at the Front Door: Gender, Fear of Crime and the Challenge of Creating Safer Space," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 39(11), pages 2715-2732, November.
    3. Md. Bashir Uddin Khan & Israt Jahan Shathi, 2018. "Nature of Sexual Harassment Against the Female Students of Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Study in Tangail Municipality," International Journal of Social and Administrative Sciences, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 3(2), pages 73-82, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ibrahim Abiodun Oladapo & Normah Omar & Ruhaini Muda & Abdulazeez Adewuyi Abdurraheem, 2019. "The Mediating Effect of Attitude on Customers¡¯ Behavioural Intention to Participate in Islamic Banking: Empirical Evidence," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 11(5), pages 167-180, August.
    2. Patricia Huedo & María José Ruá & Laura Florez-Perez & Raquel Agost-Felip, 2021. "Inclusion of Gender Views for the Evaluation and Mitigation of Urban Vulnerability: A Case Study in Castellón," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-23, September.
    3. Jelle Brands & Tim Schwanen & Irina van Aalst, 2015. "Fear of crime and affective ambiguities in the night-time economy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(3), pages 439-455, February.
    4. Llopis Abella,Jimena & Fruttero,Anna & Tas,Emcet Oktay & Taj,Umar, 2020. "Urban Design, Public Spaces, and Social Cohesion : Evidence from a Virtual Reality Experiment," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9407, The World Bank.
    5. Vania Ceccato & Nathan Gaudelet & Gabin Graf, 2022. "Crime and safety in transit environments: a systematic review of the English and the French literature, 1970–2020," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 105-153, March.
    6. Havet, Nathalie & Bayart, Caroline & Bonnel, Patrick, 2021. "Why do Gender Differences in Daily Mobility Behaviours persist among workers?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 34-48.
    7. María Jesús Rodríguez-García & Francesca Donati, 2021. "European Integral Urban Policies from a Gender Perspective. Gender-Sensitive Measures, Transversality and Gender Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-15, August.
    8. Peter Kitchen & Allison Williams, 2010. "Quality of Life and Perceptions of Crime in Saskatoon, Canada," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 95(1), pages 33-61, January.
    9. Linda Sandberg & Malin Rönnblom, 2015. "‘I don’t think we’ll ever be finished with this’: Fear and safety in policy and practice," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(14), pages 2664-2679, November.
    10. McCray, Talia, 2009. "Engaging disadvantaged populations in transport studies: Linking modal use and perceptions of safety to activity patterns," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 3-7.
    11. Elias, Wafa & Benjamin, Julian & Shiftan, Yoram, 2015. "Gender differences in activity and travel behavior in the Arab world," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 19-27.
    12. Elizabeth L. Sweet & Sara Ortiz Escalante, 2010. "Planning Responds to Gender Violence: Evidence from Spain, Mexico and the United States," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(10), pages 2129-2147, September.
    13. Elizabeth L Sweet & Sara Ortiz Escalante, 2015. "Bringing bodies into planning: Visceral methods, fear and gender violence," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(10), pages 1826-1845, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:24:p:13406-:d:706560. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.