Grant: Operating Grant

Throughout Southeast Asia, young women, primarily rural-to-urban migrants work, often on commission, selling beer in bars, restaurants, nightclubs and other venues. In October 2009, with support of CIHR and IDRC, a group of Canadian and Southeast Asian researchers, in addition to beer sellers, and representatives from government, industry, and the NGO sector from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, met in Cambodia to identify the most pressing health issues faced by these marginalized workers. Workplace conditions intersecting with gendered roles and expectations were cited as among the most significant contributors to women's deteriorating health status. The primary objectives of this research are to document the workplace hazards faced by migrant women beer sellers in four Southeast Asian countries and to analyze the gendered dimensions of these hazards. Our secondary objectives are to develop a set of recommendations to mitigate the deleterious aspects of this work and contribute to our understanding as to how gender, work, and health intersect with other social identifiers. To address these primary objectives, we will host focus groups in Bangkok, Phnom Penh, Vientiane, and Hanoi with 24 to 30 beer sellers who work in three different types of venues; conduct four to six hours of observational sessions in each city in each type of venue; distribute a survey on workplace hazards to beer sellers employed in a variety of settings; and analyze findings both in each country and collectively with research assistants and other team members at a face-to-face meeting. To respond to our secondary objectives, we will identify potential areas of mitigation after conducting our analysis in our face-to-face meeting; share and refine recommendations at a meeting with government, industry, NGOs, and advocacy groups; and situate our findings within the broader theoretical debate about intersectional approaches to work, health and gender.