Women Empowerment in Local Government in Bangladesh: A Study of Keshabpur Upazilla of Jessore District

Abstract

It is an unique case in terms of women’s participation in local government, where the prime minister and the leader of the opposition are women. Unfortunately, women are not well represented in the local government system of Bangladesh while it is believed that women’s representation is an essential step in democratization and engendering local governance. Women’s active engagement in local level plays a role in determining whether women are able to emerge as potentials actors. But there are socio-economic, political and cultural obstacles as well as structural shortcomings which are designed in favor of men that create hindrance to give women proper space for active participation.

In Bangladesh, women comprise nearly half of the total population. Both men and women are playing different roles in the society shaped by ideological, socio-economic, political and cultural determinates. However, the reality is that the same status of women is considerably lower than that of men. Most of the women are usually confined into domestic life while politics is viewed as a male dominated public activity. With the advancement of time, the fact has now been recognized that without ensuring women empowerment, that national development cannot be achieved. The national goals of social equality, development and stability cannot be realized without the active participation of women. Specially, women’s role in decision making process as well as in local government level has proven to be one of the most important and significant issues in their empowerment. Therefore, justifiably enough, the government of Bangladesh, like the government of other countries, has taken initiatives to widen the scope of women’s participation in the development process. The Local Government (Second Amendment) Act 1997 of Bangladesh, which preserved special quota for the women in local government bodies, paved the way for increased participation of women in political power structure. Yet, it seems from the recent records that the increased rate of participation is not up to the expectation. At the same time, women are encountering different types of socio-economic political and cultural barriers in making their voice heard in the decision-making process. Thus, the quota system for women participation in the local government to be not a complete solution to the problem of women empowerment. Against this backdrop, this study attempts to explore the real situation of women’s empowerment of Keshabpur Upazilla of Jessore District to pinpoint the effectiveness of the initiatives taken towards enhancing women’s participation and decision making process in local government in Bangladesh.