Empowerment of Women in Rural Bangladesh : A Study of Two Villages in Jhenaidah District

Abstract

This study entitled, "Empowerment of Women in Rural Bangladesh: A Study of Two Villages in Jhenaidah District" was conducted with the major objective to identify the nature of empowerment of women in a rural area of Bangladesh. In the present research, empowerment of women in rural Bangladesh means right to take decision in several aspects namely purchasing activities, visit to natal home, receiving health care, to be pregnant, participate in the village arbitration (salish),_ decision making in and outside the family etc. The analysis of this study is based mainly on data obtained from the 130 working women from two villages under Moheshpur Upazila in Jhenaidah district, Bangladesh. The data of present research suggests that most of the females have less right to take decision in the rural areas. Females’ ownership of land property is extremely limited. They cannot even decide to cast vote by their own. In most cases they do not posses political ideology of their own. Majority of the rural women have less opportunity to select contraceptives and majority of them are found to have no right in case of pregnancy. In most cases they are forced to conceive. Empowerment of women has been measured on the basis of education, credit, monthly income and ownership of land property etc. Barriers of empowerment have also been examined in this research. It was found that traditional economic system, religious beliefs, gender-biased socialization etc. work as barriers of empowerment in the rural areas of Bangladesh. In the light of our analysis, we would recommend that the processes we observed have important implication, both for theory and policy. It wiII also help policy-makers and program administrators in adopting measures to readjust the program strategy and implementation procedures for empowering women in rural areas.