Strategies of Subjective Well-Being: Experiences of Married Female Garment Workers in Bangladesh

The garment industry has been strongly contributing to the national economy and development by creating many employment opportunities in Bangladesh.Among the employees, the majority is female, and one-fourth of them are married.In this research, married female garment indicates the married female garment workers who have children.Their current wages and income, housing conditions, and other basic needs are insufficient.Literature shows that they face many problems in fulfilling their own and family needs.In contrast, they feel happy or satisfied (subjectively well).Likewise, the literature does not identify how female garment workers keep themselves subjectively well.Therefore, the main research question of the study was, what strategies make the female garment workers subjectively well despite the problems?The study was done with a qualitative approach.The sustainable livelihood approach was followed to identify the subjective well-being strategies.12 married female garment workers were selected from the Gazipur district in Bangladesh for in-depth interviews.The results of the study show that married female workers use various strategies for subjective well-being for instance, borrowing, sharing, and bartering; good relationships with seniors; keeping photos of children in their wallets/ID cards; sharing with families and children; keeping themselves busy; having faith in religions; urban freedom.This is a good indication that the participants are subjectively well but they are taking various strategies.It is high time to increase the facilities of the married female garment workers by which they can be subjectively well without any strategies.