Can Economic Development Steer Women’s Empowerment in Rural Bangladesh?: A Feminist Perspective

This study explores the nexus between economic development and women’s empowerment in rural areas in Bangladesh. The role of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in reducing poverty and empowering rural women through income-generating activities is well acknowledged. By creating income-generating opportunities, NGOs play a significant role in getting women involved in the decision-making process as well as in becoming confident, strong leaders. NGOs have success stories but all these stories do not have a consistent trend. Though NGOs have made considerable socio-economic changes, they have not paid attention to the deep-rooted patriarchal social structure that hinders women’s status and empowerment process in rural society.

In this paper, the author revisits the same villages that she studied 22 years ago, to investigate if socio-economic development has impacted women’s lives in any other way in the selected villages. Qualitative methods were employed for data collection, with the help of a set of guidelines, 15 case studies were constructed, using in-depth interviews and participant observation. Qualitative analysis was used to draw broad inferences with minimal use of statistical techniques. The revisit observed some significant changes such as the physical appearance of the villages (roads and buildings etc.), diversification of livelihoods, and migration of both men and women, which has changed the dynamics of household relationships. Feminist discourse has long argued that without the empowerment of women, real development is not possible. Despite this fact, feminist scholars critically argue that culture and religion portray an expectation of the ideal role of a 'good woman' in society. More importantly, discriminatory laws and violence against women proved to be a hegemonic masculine culture in Bangladesh. Hence, the author of this paper contends that in the context of globalization and women's empowerment -economic progress does not necessarily usher in women’s agency in rural Bangladesh.