"Studies on free trade zones (FTZ) work contend that employment at transnational factories does not empower women in the long term. While I agreed that the economic and social power attained seem to diminish once women stop working, I wondered what happened to the oppositional consciousness, new knowledge, and changed sense of self women workers had acquired in the FTZ once they returned to their villages. Moving beyond the factory and the FTZ areas in Sri Lanka, this book explores how now-married former garment factory ...
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"Studies on free trade zones (FTZ) work contend that employment at transnational factories does not empower women in the long term. While I agreed that the economic and social power attained seem to diminish once women stop working, I wondered what happened to the oppositional consciousness, new knowledge, and changed sense of self women workers had acquired in the FTZ once they returned to their villages. Moving beyond the factory and the FTZ areas in Sri Lanka, this book explores how now-married former garment factory workers negotiate new lives and identities in their husbands' villages. How do women respond to the constraints of village life with their newfound sense of self? What aspects of their acquired knowledge do they share with other village women? Do they go to work in village factories or use their FTZ savings to start home-based income- generating activities? Do they yearn for the colorful, transgressive years they experienced at the FTZ and, if so, how do they manage to keep such memories alive? Are they able to inspire any changes in village social norms or power relations?"-- Provided by publisher.
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