HERrespect was an intervention in the ready-made garment sector in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It worked with workers and management to promote gender equality in the workplace through participatory training for workers and management, awareness-raising campaigns in workplaces, and review of policies and practices. HERrespect aimed to address the root causes of violence against women by shifting norms that reinforce unequal relationships between women and men, supporting improved communication and teamwork, improving management skills, and strengthening workplace systems.
The trial used a quasi-experimental design, with four intervention and four control factories. In the four intervention factories a randomly selected cohort of 400 married female line workers, a cohort of 400 male line workers, and all middle management staff received the intervention. Workers and management worked separately in single sex groups of approximately 20. It was delivered by same-sex, trained facilitators, and comprised of 6 sessions for each group of approximately 3 hours each. They also had two peer meetings of workers and management. It was developed and implemented collaboratively with Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), Change Associates (a local NGO in Dhaka) and the South African Medical Research Council, under the DFID-funded What Works to Prevent Violence Programme.
For the evaluation across the eight factories, a cohort of randomly selected female workers (n=800) and a cohort of selected management staff (n=395) were selected. Data were collected at baseline (September 2015-February 2016) and 24 months post baseline. The study protocol was published in BMC Public Health in 2018 and included a short overview of statistical methods. (Al Mamun et al. BMC Public Health (2018) 18:512 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5442-5)
