Rubana Huq, Managing Director, Mohammadi Group, and the first woman to head one of Bangladesh’s biggest garment associations, BGMEA plans to boost female leadership in the country. She looks to educate women workers to secure their futures and step up to mid-managerial levels in factories. She also plans to set up a gender-based leadership program that ensures more women are empowered to take on these roles.

In Bangladesh’s 4,500 RMG factories, women have traditionally had to negotiate with male managers over pay, workplace safety and respect on the job. Haq’s election comes at a time when Bangladesh’s Supreme Court is deciding whether to shut down Accord, a factory inspection mechanism set up by European fashion labels after the Rana Plaza factory collapsed in 2013, killing 1,100 people. Huq has urged manufacturers to strengthen their own monitoring mechanisms to help the government take over from the Bangladesh Accord - signed by about 200 major brands.