In common with the majority of EPZ workers in Sri Lanka, the research participants had migrated from their rural home villages and lived collectively with fellow women in low-quality accommodation close to the Katunayake EPZ. The women’s life histories illustrate how family poverty forces women to undertake income-generating activities against the traditional gender values and roles of rural Sri Lankan society. One woman reported that it was a struggle to persuade her father, who had strong traditional patri-archal attitudes regarding his authority in decision-making in the family and in relation to women’s work: