ETI Bangladesh and Fair Wear Foundation jointly organized a webinar on 20 February 2024 to discuss the preparations for celebrating International Women’s Day. The event was participated by 198 (105 male, 93 female) participants from 97 RMG factories.
International Women's Day is celebrated globally on 8 March every year. This day is significant for Bangladeshi RMG industry as most of the workers in this sector are women.
ETI Bangladesh Country Manager Abil Bin Amin and Fair Wear Foundation Country Manager Md. Bablur Rahman spoke in the webinar among others.
Nahid Anjum Kona from Fair Wear Foundation discussed the brief history of International Women’s Day. She also explained the theme of this year’s International Women’s Day –'Invest in women: Accelerate progress'.
Sunjida Khatoon from ETI Bangladesh provided an overview of ETI's initiatives to commemorate International Women's Day. The initiatives included designing and distributing posters among factories to celebrate the occasion, hosting a webinar with factories to discuss preparations for the day's celebration, visiting factories to partake in the festivities, leveraging social media channels like LinkedIn for communication, and conducting workshops with Sexual Harassment Complain Committee (SHCC).
Participants from factories outlined their plans to commemorate 8 March through rallies, video screenings, cultural programmes, dress codes, cake-cutting ceremonies, and awards recognizing outstanding female employees and leaders. Many detailed efforts to promote more women into supervisory and managerial roles.
The webinar highlighted factories' role in moving beyond gestures for International Women's Day. Factory representatives emphasized changing organizational cultures, promoting women into leadership roles, and quantifying the business impact of gender inclusivity. A participant suggested that we must incorporate gender equality into our daily operations and mindsets.
