Women's Employment in Urban Bangladesh: A Challenge to Gender Identity?
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present empirical evidence regarding the impact of work participation on poor women's lives in urban Bangladesh and find that working women are more likely to manage money, shop for household provisions and move about outside the home than non-working women.
Abstract: Drawing on survey and ethnographic data, this article presents empirical evidence regarding the impact of work participation on poor women's lives in urban Bangladesh. Working for pay is common among poor, married women in Dhaka and working women commonly make an important contribution to household income. There is evidence that working women are more likely to manage money, shop for household provisions and move about outside the home than non-working women. Working women also appear better able to accumulate personal assets and take steps to secure their own well-being. Despite such signs of challenge to ‘traditional’ gender identity, social and economic structures continue to be heavily weighted against women, limiting the impact of employment on other dimensions of their lives. In the acutely insecure urban setting, women (and men) are found to pursue multiple strategies aimed at both securing ‘centrality’ within their families, as well as protecting personal interests should familial entitlements prove unreliable.
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TL;DR: This paper found that women with low bargaining power face increased risk of domestic violence upon entering the labor force as their husbands seek to counteract their increased bargaining power, and that policies that increase women's baseline bargaining power will decrease the risk that they face domestic violence on entering work.
163 citations
01 Sep 2011
133 citations
Cites background from "Women's Employment in Urban Banglad..."
...Earlier research has already supported the importance of material resources to women’s empowerment in the context of Bangladesh (Salway et al. 2005; Kabeer 2000, 1998)....
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TL;DR: In this paper, full-text articles assessed for eligibility (n = 3498) records excluded (n= 3136) Full-text documents excluded for eligibility, with reasons, were screened for qualitative and quantitative synthesis.
Abstract: s screened (n = 3498) Records excluded (n = 3136) Full-text articles assessed for eligibility (n = 362) Full-text articles excluded, with reasons (n = 257) Studies included in qualitative synthesis (n = 11) Studies included in quantitative synthesis (n = 23) Refined screening of remaining 107 full-text articles; 74 excluded with reasons
128 citations
01 Mar 2008
TL;DR: Bangladesh stands out as the shining new example in South Asia of a poor country achieving impressive gains in gender equality as discussed by the authors, where women are leaving their villages to work in garment factories where in earlier generations young women were rarely seen outside their homes.
Abstract: Bangladesh stands out as the shining new example in South Asia of a poor country achieving impressive gains in gender equality. After Sri Lanka and the Indian state of Kerala here is a country that had been famously written off by Henry Kissinger as a "basket case" which now dwarfs India and Pakistan in many areas. Between 1971 and 2004 Bangladesh halved its fertility rates. In much of the country today girls secondary school attendance exceeds that of boys. The gender gap in infant mortality has been closed. The micro-credit revolution continues to boost womens solidarity groups and earning potential and vast numbers of young women are leaving their villages to work in garment factories where in earlier generations young women were rarely seen outside their homes. Bangladeshs success has been widely celebrated and analyzed - even posed as a puzzle. For how could a country with such low per capita income achieve such heights? All this achieved moreover in a cultural context widely believed to be repressive to women. While there remains more to be done in terms of increasing womens labor force participation reducing and punishing violence increasing political participation and visibility in leadership positions we also need to understand how these gains came about. In particular we need to appreciate how policies and opportunities can change behaviors and norms widely perceived to emphasize seclusion and to relegate women to the home. (excerpt)
118 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the main states of India are broadly grouped into two demographic regimes, i.e., northern kinship/low female autonomy and southern kinship /high female autonomy, and the analysis suggests that family social status is probably the most important element in comprehending Indias demographic situation.
Abstract: The main states of India are broadly grouped into 2 demographic regimes. In contrast to states in the north southern states are characterized by lower marital fertility later age at marriage lower infant and child mortality and comparatively low ratios of female to male infant and child mortality. The division between the 2 regimes broadly coincides with the division areas of northern kinship/low female autonomy and southern kinship/high female autonomy. The analysis suggests that family social status is probably the most important element in comprehending Indias demographic situation. Women in the south tend to be more active in the labor force are more likely to take innovative action in adopting fertility control and are more apt to utilize health services for themselves and their children. Changes in India are also compared to those other South Asian countries. (authors modified) (summaries in ENG FRE SPA)
1,502 citations
TL;DR: Increased education, higher socioeconomic status, non-Muslim religion, and extended family residence are found to be associated with lower risks of violence in two rural areas of Bangladesh.
Abstract: We explore the determinants of domestic violence in two rural areas of Bangladesh. We found increased education, higher socioeconomic status, non-Muslim religion, and extended family residence to be associated with lower risks of violence. The effects of women's status on violence was found to be highly context-specific. In the more culturally conservative area, higher individual-level women's autonomy and short-term membership in savings and credit groups were both associated with significantly elevated risks of violence, and community-level variables were unrelated to violence. In the less culturally conservative area, in contrast, individual-level women's status indicators were unrelated to the risk of violence, and community-level measures of women's status were associated with significantly lower risks of violence, presumably by reinforcing nascent normative changes in gender relations.
665 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors distinguish between static and dynamic, and micro-and macro-efficiency, and argue that labor market regulation has an important role to play in the institutional transformation needed to reconcile goals of efficiency and equality.
489 citations
TL;DR: Findings are that participation in both of the credit programs studied, those of Grameen Bank and Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), is positively associated with women's level of empowerment and a positive effect on contraceptive use is discernible among both participants and nonparticipants in GrAMEen Bank villages.
Abstract: This article presents findings of research addressing the question of how women's status affects fertility. The effects on contraceptive use of women's participation in rural credit programs and on their status or level of empowerment were examined. A woman's level of empowerment is defined here as a function of her relative physical mobility, economic security, ability to make various purchases on her own, freedom from domination and violence within her family, political and legal awareness, and participation in public protests and political campaigning. The main finding is that participation in both of the credit programs studied, those of Grameen Bank and Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), is positively associated with women's level of empowerment. A positive effect on contraceptive use is discernible among both participants and nonparticipants in Grameen Bank villages. Participation in BRAC does not appear to affect contraceptive use.
451 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explain why the feminist critique of inequalities within the family poses a serious challenge to conventional economic theories of the household, arguing that the bargaining power models being developed by some neoclassical theorist are complementary to Marxist influenced structural accounts.
415 citations