Women workers

Women workers across the globe, irrespective of the nature of work, contend with decent work deficits and discrimination. In this chapter we illustrate the challenges they face by discussing the domestic work and garment sectors. Both sectors employ a high proportion of women workers and are low-paid and rampant with verbal abuse and sexual harassment. Further, domestic work is subject to the care penalty and hence is undervalued. Nevertheless, women workers have organized to challenge their subjugation. In the US, domestic workers were integral to the civil rights movement; globally their mobilization led to ILO’s adoption of Domestic Workers Convention 189 in 2011. In India and Lesotho, garment workers unions campaigned against rampant gender-based workplace violence forcing legally binding agreements for accountability. We highlight the role of women workers who continue to reshape understandings of work and worker identity by coordinating demands at local, national and global levels for economic and social dignity.