Abstract
AbstractThe 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh brought global visibility to the human rights abuses experienced by women workers in the garment sector. As the spotlight on this incident dims, the need to hold the fashion sector accountable remains. In this article, we suggest that greater accountability could be achieved through the application of a human rights-informed understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to promote gender justice in the sector. By drawing on international women’s rights law and sustainable fashion, we demonstrate how sustainability and gender justice are intimately connected, and illustrate what role the SDGs can play in promoting sustainable outcomes that are gender-just. The article unpacks concepts such as sustainability, the circular economy, social responsibility, and ethical fashion, and places the experiences of women workers within this context. Its principal contribution is a set of six requirements to ensure a gender perspective to the fashion industry’s role in implementing the SDGs.
Highlights
In a garment factory fire in Manhattan on 25 March 1911, over 100 people, mostly Jewish and Italian women migrants, some as young as 14, died as the factory burnt to the floor because management had locked the doors.[1]
We suggest that greater accountability could be achieved through the application of a human rights-informed understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to promote gender justice in the sector
By drawing on international women’s rights law and sustainable fashion, we demonstrate how sustainability and gender justice are intimately connected, and illustrate what role the SDGs can play in promoting sustainable outcomes that are gender-just
Summary
In a garment factory fire in Manhattan on 25 March 1911, over 100 people, mostly Jewish and Italian women migrants, some as young as 14, died as the factory burnt to the floor because management had locked the doors.[1]. The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), are considered central to fashion – the sector being the second largest polluting industry in the world.[7] The link between the SDGs, inequalities and rights at work, for example, are demonstrated in particular in Goals 1, 5, 8, 10 and 17. We use this brief analysis as a springboard for our suggestions on how to promote greater gender justice in the fashion sector through the lens of the SDGs. Section IV, which forms the core of this article and our main discussion of the SDGs, views the fashion sector through six requirements identified by the authors, which we propose are essential to deliver more gender-just and sustainable outcomes. While acknowledging the SDGs’ limitations, this article provides solutions for how the existing SDGs framework, and the significant policy and financial attention it has attracted, can be used to advance gender justice in the fashion sector
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