Apparel Exports and Education: How Developing nations Encourage Women’s Schooling

This was by William C. Gruben and Darryl McLeod. From Economic Letter (Dallas Fed). Vol. 1 No. 3, March 2006.

“We find that clothing and shoe production requires more education than the average woman has attained in many developing nations (3).”

“In Bangladesh and other major apparel-exporting nations, to qualify for these jobs, more women stay longer in school (3).”

“Female workers’ commitment to seek more education delays child-bearing and lowers the incidence of child labor (3).”

“In short, the maligned suppliers of Nike, Gap and Wal-mart encourage governments to educate women, give women a reason to stay in school and pay them well by local standards (3).”

“For the average country, a doubling of exports as a share of GDP raises female secondary-school attendance by 20 to 25 percent (5).”

“If you make Nikes, you earn more. The shoe company’s Indonesian shop-floor workers on average earn more than four-fifths the working population. In Bangladesh, garment export firms generally pay more than firms not oriented to selling outside the country (7).”