54 SOCIAL SCIENTIST have always been men, there is no tradition of female '"seamstresses". Further we rely on woven garments even today. The segregation is accompli'shed by the concentration of women in the more centralized, bigger units. This might be the result partly of imitation of South East Asian models. The purpose seems to be to avoid union struggles. On their part the women workers' inability to claim better terms is not entirely because of a special feminine docility alone but because of several situa-tional pressures such as the following : (a) unionization is difficult when closures are frequent; (b) decentralization makes a federation unlikely; (c) the employers9 need for secrecy to hide fraudulent practices encourages them to prefer temporary labour and scattered, subcontracting units; (d) management power is stronger then labour in general; loss of jobs is an ever present threat; (e) insecure employment conditions make whatever is available a worthwhile proposition. The nature of the market, organization of production and technology together create strong pressures that generate a special set of vulnerabilities for men and women but to a little more extent for women because women are not yet regarded as equal paiticipants in the labour market. 1. Maithreyi Krishna Raj, Socio Economic Condition of Women Workers in the Garment Industry in Bombay, ICSSR, unpublished, 1983. 2. Rukmini Rao and Sahba Hussain, Invisible Hands : Women Working in the Garment Industry, New Delhi, ICSSR, unpublished, 1983. 3. U. Kalpagam, "Female Labour in Small Industry—The Case of Export Garments", Madras Institute of Development Studies, Working Paper, 1981. 4. Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Readymade Garment Industry in Maha-rashtra—A Study of Problems and Prospects, 1977. 5. Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Readymade Garment Industry in Maha-rashtra—A Study in Export Prospects^ 1977. 6. The Indian National Textile Workers Federation, Problems of Clothing Inustry in India—A Trade Union View, Ambedkar Institute of Labour Studies, 1980. 7. M. Narayanaswamy and Y. Ram, The Garment Industry in^India, Economic and ScientiBc Research Foundation, New Delhi, 1972. 8. Annual Factory Returns, Bombay 1974-81. 9. Annual Survey of Industries, Maharashfra, 1974-81,