Jane Collins, in her book “Threads: Gender, Labor and Power in the Global Apparel Industry” emphasizes on the significance of women in the apparel industry. She notifies that the garment industries wanted women to be knowledgeable in sewing and considered women to be silent if they received any severe treatment or low wages. The industries also assumed that women must not draw enough wages to support their families. Collins also claims that women, with the help of the organizations that work towards the betterment of women workers have opposed this kind of treatment.
Women have over powered men in the textile industry globally and have also accepted the low wages given to them. In the apparel industry, where such a large percentage of the workforce is female, gender plays a crucial role in shaping the opportunities and freedom (Collins, 61). Collins informs that the apparel companies hired young unmarried women who did not have children, and later fired them when they got married, or had children, or when they turned 47. Collins interviewed many workers, managers, marketing and finance department in the companies, but most of her interaction was with the managers and she relied more on the managers rather than the workers to know about the working conditions of the women workers.
Collins uses real life examples in the book and the experiences of the workers, managers, financiers, CEO’s and organizations as printed. She also mentions many organizations such as Center for the Orientation of Women Workers (COMO), and anti-sweat shops that run many programs for female workers. A few questions that arise in me after reading the book were how would the free-market capitalism and globalization help both the genders in the apparel industry? And what is the current society or law doing about the practices in the apparel industry?
Works Cited
Collins, Jane L. Threads: Gender, Labor, and Power in the Global Apparel Industry. University
of Chicago Press (2003). Print.
