Background
Global media has shown that sexual harassment can take place in any industry. The garment supply chain is no exception. The situation can change if women and men, workers and employers, join together to create work cultures of respect, where harassment is not tolerated. Around the world, this shift is starting to take place—and the garment industry can play an important role.
Companies worldwide are committing to ensuring their workers are valued, respected and free from violence in the workplace. Violence against women is a cost for national economies, industry and individual businesses. CARE’s research in Cambodia estimated the indirect costs of sexual harassment through reduced productivity, revenue loss, and missed days of work could add up to as much as USD $89 million per year.*
Intervention
We published What works? Reducing Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: A Rapid Review of Evidence to support businesses wanting to change this.
Global brands such as Levi Strauss & Co. are leading a shift to prevent and respond to harassment in their supply chains; investing in CARE’s sexual harassment prevention activities in factories they work with. We want to partner with more companies within the garment industry who wish to take steps to prevent sexual harassment in their value chains.
Learn why businesses want to work with CARE
Program achievements
So how are we supporting industry change?
- The STOP program is supporting brands and factories in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam to improve their workplace response to sexual harassment.
- Our collaboration with Better Work brought together stakeholders at the industry event The Business of Women at Work to discuss workplace harassment and is supporting development of Standard Operating Procedures for addressing sexual harassment at all levels of the garment supply chain.
- Strengthening women’s collective voice by bringing workers together is supporting them to insist action is taken against abusive supervisors.
- Our engagement with unions is increasing union negotiation and advocacy to prevent violence and harassment in factories.
- Our advocacy has helped influence national-level support for improved global legislation preventing violence and harassment at work and strengthened national labor laws.
- Our collaboration with partners such as Business Fights Poverty is ensuring companies can access best practice tools for tackling gender-based violence at work.