Work For Pay And Women’s Empowerment: Bangladesh

The subject of women’s paid work has been much researched and debated, with many proponents of women’s empowerment seeing it as the most important means to achieve this. However, the experience of work has been nuanced, with discrimination reproducing itself in access to work, the kinds of work available to women and the terms of their engagement. Nevertheless, paid work has a tremendous potential to bring about change sin gender relations and women’s position. This chapter looks at trends in women’s employment in Bangladesh, and the various sectors and types of women’s paid employment and at the successes and constraints in each. Policies and legislation, and movements and initiatives by workers are reviewed to understand how they have contributed to women’s empowerment. The chapter concludes with emerging issues and areas that require further research.