Women can do it all. But should women do it all?

When a woman becomes a mother, multiple roles fall upon her. Besides caregiving, nursing and multitasking, society expects her to excel at her academics and career as well. These roles come at a time when she is recovering from childbirth having lost more than half a litre of blood, an organ called the placenta and healing from several layers of stitches that may never fully heal at all. 

The culture and beliefs that do not support women through the inconceivable mental and physical traumas of becoming a mother, and the journey that ensues, remains unquestioned and uncontested. If at all, these questions are answered with a simple overriding statement "women can do it all", which is repeated to the point of becoming the truth. 

Indeed, women can do it all. But should women do it all?

Rural to urban shift for working mothers

According to the latest labour force survey by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS),  female labour force participation has reached 42.68% in 2022, which is a significant increase from five years from now, which was around 36.3%. 

Concurrently, a recent study by the Asian Centre for Development titled 'Socio-economic Profile of Garment Workers of Bangladesh', shows that the number of women in the ready-made garments industry is declining. 

The latest report in 2020 shows that around 59% of the total four million workers in the RMG industry is female, whereas this number was 65% in 2015. However, the RMG industry still formally employs one of the largest numbers of working women in urban Bangladesh. 

Bangladesh is still a largely agrarian society with more than 60% of the population living in the rural areas. In rural areas it is a common scene to find women incorporating numerous tasks  into their daily lives in their role as a mother. Toddlers in villages play around open areas in the uthans while mothers cook or rear the farm animals nearby.  In recent decades, due to dwindling real household income and the promise of a better future, millions of working women have been migrating to urban areas.

In an elaborate study by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2020 on women's experience in the RMG industry, many women pointed out their concern that sitting in a sewing position for long intervals of time during peak production season increases the risk of miscarriage. 

On top of it all, women shared that they felt compelled to leave their work during pregnancy as the work environment often did not support their unique maternal health needs. Consequently, women in the garment industry are often seen either delaying pregnancy or settling in their rural areas temporarily, despite socio-economic needs for better household income. 

These drawbacks for a large number of working mothers are overshadowed by the larger production goals of factories. While women in rural areas are somewhat able to mesh their motherhood and agriculture work roles, women in urban areas are not. The workers who contribute significantly to the economic growth of Bangladesh are consequently compelled to leave their job at some point.

The ones who do not leave their jobs may opt for leaving their children back in their rural village with grandmothers, an arrangement that is undesirable for both the mother and her child. Either way, mothers in the manufacturing sector face overwhelming hurdles. 

Maternity rights still an elusive concept

Against the backdrop of increasing women's participation in the manufacturing sector during and after the first world war, the Maternity Protection Convention of 1919 formulated by the International Labour Organization (ILO) after World War I, detailed out a minimum of 12 weeks of maternity leave for working mothers as well as nursing breaks and facilities after childbirth. 

In the famous article titled "The forgotten origins of paid family leave" in The New York Times, Mona L Siegel highlights this convention that made history in working mothers' maternal journey. 

It is widely agreed upon that working mothers need an adequate leave period and the liberty to bring their newborn child to work and keep them in a safe place while they work. The International Labour Organization (ILO) specifies these details of maternity benefits in Convention No. 183. 

Around four months or 14 weeks of maternity leave is mentioned in this convention, which is to be paid with cash benefits. It is alarming that more than 100 years since then, Bangladesh along with several other countries of the world is still offering limited weeks of paid leave to mothers post-birth. Ensuring job security after returning to work is also not fully implemented as per law. 

Maternity leave in Bangladesh

As per the Bangladesh Service Rules, permanent government employees are allowed to take six months of maternity leave with pay. However, for the rest of the working women who come under the amended Labour Rules, 2015, Bangladesh law sets the time for paid maternity leave to eight weeks of prenatal leave and eight weeks of postnatal leave. The time of leave postnatal is to be adjusted depending upon the time of delivery. 

This amounts to only around two months of leave for working mothers after giving birth - an inadequate period of time that should raise alarms. Most of the companies in the tertiary service sector allow around six months of maternity leave on their own accord. Consequently, it is the working mothers in the manufacturing sector employing millions of working women who face the most worrying of circumstances. 

The burden of taking leave and soliciting the paid benefits often entirely falls upon the millions of women who venture to work in Bangladesh. Maternity leave is still not a welcome concept for most establishments. Considering the fact that it takes at least three months for a woman's body to recover enough after a cesarean section and the recommended time of breastfeeding is at least six months, the two months of postnatal maternity leave as purported in the law of Bangladesh is insensitive to millions of workers' needs. 

It is agreed upon by economists and development workers alike, that a mother's reproductive role has a significant contribution to the long term welfare of the economy. The short-term productivity and profit of the industry also no doubt rests upon the blood and sweat of millions of women as well. But staying quiet and accepting their predicament as fate while shouldering the can-do-it-all tag – how long should working mothers keep wearing the nice girl hat?

Tashfia Rawnak Anika is an aspiring development worker, writer and social research enthusiast.