Conference Agenda

This session summarizes findings of the effects of automation in the apparel and footwear sectors, part of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC-JRC) project “Building partnerships on the future of work”.

Emloyment in apparel and footwear is highly feminized, and production processes in apparel manufacturing remain traditional and labour-intensive, particularly reliant on manual labour for sewing activities. The main goal of this research is to gain a better understanding of how processes of industrial automation and digitization interact with local social structures, cultural norms and institutional systems in the context of global supply chains (GSCs), in order to identify the drivers of the de-feminization processes that have accompanied the increase in sectoral productivity observed at the aggregate level.

Analytical dimensions include:

i) Product and production process innovations, including technologies used and changes introduced in recent years leading to increased automation;

ii) The organization of GSCs, including forms of work organization, recent and expected changes and how this is facilitated by digitization;

iii)The socio-demographic profiles of workers, working conditions, task profiles within jobs and their change as a result of automation;

iv) Assessments of the impact of recent technological changes on women’s and men’s employment and working conditions and potential impact in the near future;

v) Analyses of firms’ responses during and after the COVID-19 crisis along a number of dimensions (e.g. reshoring, process and product innovation, capital investment) and their impact on women’s and men’s employment and working conditions;

vi) Social dialogue and industrial relations, with a particular focus on its relation to recent and expected technical change and automation.

The paper addresses the impacts of technological upgrading on women’s and men’s employment and working conditions in four large factories in Indonesia, two producing apparel and two producing footwear. The research is motivating by prior econometric findings for export-oriented developing economies that technological upgrading is associated with the defeminization of employment in these industries. The case studies are based on factory visits and semi-structured face-to-face interviews with managers, technology specialists, worker representatives and – separately -- women and men production workers. The paper addresses the motivation for introducing new technologies, the reasons given for the marked gender division of labour in these factories, the extent to which new technologies change this division of labour, the extent of labour displacement at the task and factory levels, and impacts on earnings and skills, as well as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The apparel and footwear industries have played a central role in industrialization processes, providing a source of formal employment opportunities in developing countries, particularly for women, where formal jobs are limited. In Mexico, it has been estimated that women accounted for more than half of workers in apparel and footwear manufacturing combined, and nearly 65 per cent of employment in apparel specifically, before COVID-19 – overrepresented relative to their share in total and in manufacturing employment (under 40 per cent). Thus far, there is limited automation in apparel and footwear manufacturing. In this context, the extent to which technological upgrading, particularly automation and digitization, transform the industry, will have employment implications for women’s and men’s employment. More specifically, a key issue concerns the potential defeminization of the workforce which literature suggests often accompanies increases in capital intensity and productivity. The impacts of new technologies, particularly automation, on employment have been the subject of much debate. However, research is often focused on assessing to which degree certain jobs (and its subcomponents) are routine and repetitive, and thus arguably at higher risk of automation. Less research has focused on understanding what is happening on the ground, using qualitative approaches. This paper is part of a research project funded by the European Union and jointly implemented by the International Labour Organization and the European Commission Joint Research Center. The main goal of this research project has been to improve our understanding of how processes of technological upgrading, particularly automation, interact with local social structures and institutional systems in the apparel and footwear industries to impact women’s and men’s employment. This paper presents findings from in-depth, qualitative, case studies in selected manufacturing plants in Mexico. Based on interviews with employers and workers, it reflects on the experiences of four Mexican-owned factories/firms which were selected specifically for being at the forefront of technological upgrading and automation.

Apparel and footwear manufacturing have historically been instrumental in industrialization and structural transformation processes. These industries have fostered economic growth, provided entry points into the global economy and supply chains, and offered opportunities for formal jobs to workers, particularly women, in developing countries. To date, there is limited automation in apparel and footwear manufacturing, with some automation in certain operations while others, like sewing, remain largely labour intensive. In this context, the extent to which new and emerging technologies related to automation and digitization of production transform production processes has important implications for workers and countries’ development trajectories. A good deal of attention has been devoted to studying the quantitative impacts of technological upgrading and automation on employment, including those pointing that there exists a negative relationship between women’s share in manufacturing employment and labour productivity (Kucera and Tejani 2014; Tejani and Kucera 2021). Little is known however about the drivers of these stylized facts, whether it is the less importance of women’s lower wages in more capital-intensive contexts; gender stereotypes about women’s and men’s abilities; or different women’s and men’s skills sets vis a vis the requirements of new automated jobs, for example. Also unknown is the decision-making process behind these gendered outcomes, including the role of different actors and institutions in shaping them. This paper presents the findings from a two-year research project focused on the effects of technological upgrading and automation on employment in the apparel and footwear sectors, including their gender dimensions, in selected manufacturing plants in Germany, Indonesia, Mexico, Romania, and Spain. It outlines findings from in-depth qualitative case studies based on semi-structured interviews with employers, workers and other key informants, identifies commonalities and points of divergence across the case studies and countries, discusses lessons learnt and outlines questions which deserve further investigation.