Eco Fashion: Engendering Ethics and Sustainability in the Global Apparel Industry

By Lacie Goldberg '13

Thesis Advisor: Professor Paola Zamperini

Abstract: The topic of my senior honors thesis in Women’s and Gender Studies is Eco Fashion and the political, economic, and social underpinnings of the global production of apparel. My thesis investigates the human and environmental costs of the globalized fashion industry from the production phase to fashion consumption, and lastly, consumer usage and disposal phases. Analyses of the gendered dimensions of fashion production, from cultivation of cotton on the farm to the unsafe working conditions in global garment factories, are woven throughout the thesis. This angle of exploration affectively underscores the nuanced complexities of gender norms and modes of subjectivities and how they become justified and normalized in the capitalist wage-labor market. The purpose is to illustrate how the exploitative environmental and labor practices of the global fashion industry produce gendered inequalities, or amplify established socio-cultural gender norms, which are materialized and experienced differently by each sex.

My discussion of gender-based inequalities in fashion production intersects with environmental issues associated with unsustainable and unethical farming and factory practices. The environmental issues that parallel my discussion of gender inequalities specifically include exposure to pesticides, toxic chemicals/dyes, unsafe and abusive working conditions, issues associated with genetically modified (GM) crops (cotton), and water pollution. The chapter that discusses ‘The Farm’ pays special attention to the history of land rights in India specifically analyzing the gender and caste inequalities of land rights as a factor contributing to the current expansion of GM crops and the Agrarian Crisis, which is defined by a wave of mass farmer suicides (almost always male) and the females and children that are left to inherit the debt; it is a gendered crisis. My thesis underscores the gendered issues of migrant labor, which is very common in garment factories, and how gender, age, ethnicity, and even regional differences, shape the experiences of these migrant laborers. Gender plays a pivotal role in garment production since it is women that form the majority of garment laborers, and this is not a coincidence. The normalization of women’s skills in the capitalist wage-labor market is a primary component contributing to women’s concentration in certain forms of production, i.e. garment work, but it is also a factor to their exploitation as wage-workers and the subsequent lower living wages than men. The kinds of ‘feminine’ skills that are normalized and discussed in my thesis include: docility, passivity, nimble fingers, attention to detail, and submission to patriarchal authority.

My thesis unravels the gendered nuances of garment production and makes a broader analysis of the fashion industry and how occupies an ideal position to promote gender equality, empowerment for women, ethical labor practices, sustainable environmental practices, and transparency and accountability across the entire supply chain. I illustrate how designers of sustainably and ethically produced fashion (eco fashion), the synthesis of fashion and technology, and the dedication to a practice of Corporate Social Responsibility are possibly conduits by which the fashion industry can address its unethical and unsustainable practices. The actualization of positive change necessitates collaboration and change from all aspects of the fashion industry: consumers, designers, producers, manufacturers, and brands. Collaboration across industry fields is paramount for achieving a sustainable and ethical future for the fashion industry, and for design in general, as discussed in chapter five of my thesis: fashion and technology.

Conclusively, my thesis provides the historical background for the political, economic, and social development of an environmental and ethical consciousness followed by the implementation of this consciousness into policy, laws, social movements, and individual consumption practices. Fashion, as an philosophy, is always striving for change and modernity, therefore, it is no surprise that the industry is now trying to usurp the ideology of ethics and sustainability but this tenets of sustainable production and environmental and labor ethics must be turned into practice and become an industry-wide norm. This thesis, conclusively, provides a framework for why the fashion industry must change its current practices as well as how it can do so. This approach will disclose the ways in which the fashion industry can significantly reduce its carbon footprint and promote gender equality in the capitalist wage-labor market.