Women Empowerment in Bangladesh: A Crucial Observation

Women’s participation in work force and their overall condition have improved significantly in the last few decades in Bangladesh. Bangladesh, a developing Muslim-majority country with deep-rooted patriarchal social structure, has managed to make a substantial progress in areas related to women’s healthcare, life expectancy, education and employment. However, as various international donors have endorsed the agendas of women’s empowerment during the first two decades after the independence of Bangladesh, it has created an impression that these donors are the only key players in championing women’s empowerment – overlooking the immense role played by local NGOs, political groups, and various women’s organizations in facilitating the same. The aim of this paper is to investigate how the discourses on women’s empowerment in Bangladesh have unfolded and transformed since 2000. It further aims to explore the implication ‘women empowerment’ as used by various international agencies and domestic actors, examine the corresponding public discussions and debates, and appraise the ideas related to women’s empowerment, nature of power and the processes of empowerment prevalent among these actors. It also deals with how these varying discourses have mutually endorsed and sometimes diverged from each other and what implications they have on women’s empowerment in Bangladesh.