The Changing Gender Roles and Health Impacts among Sri Lankan Women Working in EPZ
The Changing Gender Roles and Health Impacts among Sri Lankan Women Working in EPZ
Gender roles refer to the particular types of activities that are meant for individuals based on their gender. In traditional setting, men do most of the work to provide for the family while women entirely devote their time in doing household chores. However, with the economic constrains in Sri Lanka, there has been a major paradigm change in gender roles and women are increasingly assuming new roles to address these problems.
In Sri Lanka, the change of gender roles can be attributed to the change in policies, especially the 1977 economic liberalization policies that the government passed at the request of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund under the SAP (Attanapola, 2004). The government of Sri Lanka had to respond to the requests in order to address unemployment problems and also benefit from the foreign aid. Relaxed foreign migration and export-oriented policies provided the poor women with a chance to take part in income-generating activities that were considered non-traditional such as working as domestic servants and workers in EPZs (Attanapola, 2004).
The change in gender roles have changed the traditional ideologies about women and coined a whole new meaning of women in the Sri Lankan society. For instance, young women who migrated from the rural to the Katunayake EPZ have had a change in gender roles in three main ways. Dependent daughters who always depended on their parents have become independent and the unemployed women who often took the roles in unpaid family labor have now assumed new roles as efficient and obedient workers. Young girls with good culture and moral respect have become partially urbanized although they have retained some aspects of traditional girls.
The multiple changes of gender roles in Sri Lanka has led to a situation that has significantly impacted the health of women in Sri Lankan society particularly those working in the export-processing industries. In the export-processing zones, women are exploited in so many ways through poor and unhealthy working conditions. The workloads are excessive and the wage levels are low. Supervisors often pressurize them and their rights are abused. The changes in gender roles can therefore be said to be of negative effect although the positive side of income generation has also improved the living standards of Sri Lankan women (Attanapola, 2004).
Traditionally, gender roles were defined by the kind of work done by men and women. The belief of patriarchy dominated. This implied that men were seen to be superior to women and thus women were associated to reproductive work while men were associated with productive work. Gender roles in societies have been seen to change over time and place depending on a number of factors the economic, educational, employment opportunities and non discriminatory law enforcement, among many others. In the modern societies for instance in Sri Lanka, women are allowed to take up any form of job due to the economic problems being experienced.
The fact remains that most developing societies have grown to appreciate the productive works done by women and a lot of opportunities have been opened up for women. Consequently, women have contributed greatly to the economy at the family and income levels. Today, in Sri Lanka, women and men do all types of work without considering the traditional norms and taboos. This has led to the change of perspective that men are superior to women and now women are the bread winners and decision makers (Attanapola, 2004).
Although some have argued that the idea of women working in export-processing zones is a viable idea as they help their poor families in meeting the needs of the families, the negative side of it has to be examined. It is agreeable that this change in gender roles has indeed helped to improve the social status of the woman and the living standards of the Sri Lankans in general. In some instances, it is the parents who send their daughters to work in export-processing zones immediately after completing their secondary education with the main objective of transforming them from dependent women to independent women.
A practical case to show the effect of gender roles on women health is a 23-year old Rani, working at Katunayake EPZ. Rani claims that her productive work has eased her reproductive roles and increased her overall status (Attanapola, 2004). She is the one in charge of making critical household decisions such as house extension, electrical items purchase and healthcare provision to the parents. She also claims that her parents granted her the permission to choose her own partner which would rather be difficult had she not migrated from the rural to work at the EPZ (Attanapola, 2004).
Working in factories has caused a lot of negative impacts including the health problems to the women workers including Rani. Due to the work overloads, they have developed occupational health problems such as disorders in the skeletal muscles and headaches. Women have learnt to cope without receiving proper treatment. Workers are also subjected to other harsh working conditions that subject them to skin problems, eye irritations, dizziness, breathing problems and even weight loss. These problems are further aggravated when the women workers get verbal and physical harassment at the work places (Attanapola, 2004). Supervisors yell at them and make threats to deduct their salaries if at all their demands are not met. The women are denied leaves even if when they are sick. They are expected to constantly work. They experience feelings of fear from the local men and are afraid of being robbed, rapped and even killed.
Although Rani began her career in the factory as a healthy woman, her work of cutting diamond has greatly affected her health due to poor ergonomics provided in the job place which has caused her to develop chest and back pains. The diamond she places on her chest presses her and causes her to have both the chest and back pains (Attanapola, 2004). She has constant headache and eye irritations due to too much light, dust and heat in the factory. Rani and her female workmates are not provided with routine medical checkups thus risking their lives for the sake of their income and jobs at the urban EPZ (Attanapola, 2004).
Workplace conditions are unbearable. Workers are too many causing overcrowding. The dust, heat and smell in the factory are sickening and the factory does not provide safety instruments, and enough information regarding the safety of workers at the workplace (Attanapola, 2004). Work is repetitive, monotonous and continuous. The workers live in polluted and unsanitary conditions and their employers dont seem to care about them. The sanitary problems are aggravated by the low pay that Rani and her female workers earn. They are forced to share sanitary facilities and use water from the well to wash their pots and clothes and also to bathe. This lifestyle exposes the to mosquito bites that transmit dengue virus that is endemic in the area they live, Katunayake (Attanapola, 2004).
The women at Katunayake including Rani are vulnerable to communicable diseases like cholera, diarrhea, worm diseases, skin rashes and influenza as they live in crowded environments provided in the factory boarding houses. In spite of all the negative health problems faced by Rani as a worker in the factory, her changed role makes her an independent obedient daughter able to purchase a mosquito net and promote her health. Working at the factory, Ranis self esteem has been amplified due to the increased power and status within her family, her works in the community and the respect gained from the villagers (Attanapola, 2004).
In conclusion, the gender practice and roles of women in Sri Lankan societies is fast changing as the concept of male breadwinner becomes incompatible with the reality of surviving in hard economic times. However, the changing gender roles have brought about psychological and work-related health problems blamed mainly by the poor working environments. This is also aggravated by the poor living condition, individual behaviors and family responsibilities as seen in the case of a responsible obedient daughter.
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