Empowerment of women is an important aspect in the concept of both global and national development. Women’s contributions are indispensable for socio-economic development. So their participation is to be ensured in development work. In fact, empowerment of women includes the feminine rights and state recognition of women by making them self-reliant and decision maker in all inclusive aspects.
So women development is a matter of great importance. Women development and empowerment of women are the two inseparable factors that are to be guaranteed in all levels of state administration.With the on-going movement of time women folk can be turned into an asset by ensuring their active involvement. Need of women development and their involvement in the production oriented projects are recognized in all the countries. So the matter is not a national issue only.
Rather the global concept is to be considered. The UN is actively working for women development as well as empowerment. World Women’s Day was declared in 1975 and a women decade was observed between 1975-1985. The objective of women decade is women development, establishment of rights in the family, society and work fields. First World Women Conference was held in Mexico in 1975.
Need of women development and empowerment in Bangladesh has long been felt. To face gender discrimination, indifference to women’s fundamental rights and constitutional equity with males Bangladesh government formed Women Rehabilitation Board. In 1978 Women Affairs Ministry was formed to monitor the government states relating to empowerment of women.Problem DefinitionReport making is always fascinating and challenging. While making any report we find some problems and try to find out their solution. In this report we also tried to search out the problems to empower the women and also tried to set up the best possible solutions.
While working on it, we found that there are some obstacles in the way of empowerment of women. Basically the obstacles are – poverty, lack of education, superstition, traditional belief, customs, male domination, practice of dowry etc.To root out the obstacles and solve the present situation is a gigantic task. But it is a matter of inspiration that now women are becoming educated more than ever before.
So they are conscious, self-reliant, confident and modern. So the way to empowerment of women is not a far reaching goal of the society. The obstacles and solutions are broadly discussed in the later parts of this report.Objective of the StudyThe main objective of the study is to pursue the academic requirement of our MBA Program.
But along with it is also expected that we will be benefited practically and will be with the familiarity of how to match the theoretical study with the practical situation and problems.The report aims at fulfilling the following objectives :•Gather practical knowledge about problem finding •Experience about problem solving in a systematic procedure •Prospects of Empowerment of Women in Bangladesh •Need of women empowerment in today’s global advancement •Finding out the reasons of the lagging of women in our country •Why they are required to be empowered •What the role of the family, society and state should be •To fulfill the partial requirement of the course under the guidance of Md. Zahedul Alam, Lecturer, Department of Business Administration, International Islamic University Chittagong.MethodologyThe assigned study has been carried out with data collected from the available sources. The study is based on theoretical and empirical evidences.
Data pertaining to the study are collected mostly through newspapers, articles and reports of various organizations. Different statements of the institutions of the published materials are also used as data. These data have been analyzed to achieve the objective of the study. Besides these, we ourselves asked other related queries to some women in the city.
Source of data •Newspapers •Articles •Journals •Reports of various women organizations •Website and reports of Women Affairs Ministry, Bangladesh •Internet •Books about the necessity of women empowerment in Bangladesh. SECTION –CData AnalysisEmpowermentEmpowerment means giving power and authority. So by women empowerment we mean giving power and authority to the women.The process of empowerment requires transformation of structures of sub ordinance, control over material and intellectual resources, gaining decisions, making authority and reduction of gender inequality.
This requires that women must recognize their strategic needs, their social position and understand how coercive it is. The women's strategic needs are here defined as to increase the women's bargaining capacity, reduce violence against women and make them gain more influence over decision-making.Women in DevelopmentOur national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam praises women for their taking part in the advancement of the world. He says that what is good, great and prosperous in the world is done half by men and women. In fact, the contribution of women in every sphere cannot be denied.
Once upon a time, women were looked down upon. It was thought that women are born to look after children, for cooking food and for doing household work. Women were not allowed to go to schools or colleges.But with the progression of the science people’s views are also changed. They are now able to realize that women can also take part in development. They have proved their ability.
Sometimes they do better than men. Moreover, it is seen that they are more sincere than men.They have the ability to be a chief of the country. In our country both the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition party are women. And thousands of women are engaged in many important official jobs.
They are working in all sectors of life with efficiency.Women should be encouraged so that they can take part in total development of the family as well as the country. Women in BangladeshWomen in Bangladesh are in many ways inferior to and dependent on men from early childhood. When the girl reaches puberty her marriage will soon be arranged and the family will pay the husband’s family a dowry to marry off their daughter to him.
The girl will thereafter pursue the rules of Purdah and live under seclusion. Women that can obtain Purdah strictly show high social status. Only very poor women have to go outside to work (Hartman & Boyce, 1998). Violence against women is common in Bangladesh (SIDA, 2007, November, 5).Even if the constitution promotes equal rights to women, women still suffer from discrimination and violence that occurs in the home, at the workplace and on the society level as well (Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, 2008).
The women in rural Bangladesh are hard working. Foremost, they perform heavy household work throughout the days. Women’s contribution to the family income is not recognized to the same extent as men’s, but they are however involved in many activities, such as post harvest activities, farming, fuel gathering, rice husking, making and selling handicrafts, and rearing domestic animals (Islam, undated). “A woman’s work is never done”, a village woman says in the study of Hartman and Boyce (1998: 86). Although women’s work is hard and time-consuming, such work does not provide them equal status to men.A woman seldom earns money on her own, but is financially dependent on her father, then husband and thereafter her son for economic security (Hartman, Boyce, 1998).
Only one third of the women in Bangladesh can read or write, but the school attendance have increased since the past decade. To improve the literacy and education level among girls and women the school fee is removed for girls the first ten years in school, twice as many years as for boys, because the families often are reluctant to pay for their daughter’s education (Landguiden, 2008, May, 7). Women, however, constitute only 22% of the university students in Bangladesh (Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, 2008).Process of Empowerment and Practical ScenarioThe first and foremost factor for women development is education. Education is necessary for awakening consciousness in women.
Women are under the jaws of household maintenance, child rearing, child birth but they hardly get recognition of their rights. Women participate in the manual labour in the garment industrious like their male counterparts and, moreover, they work for twenty one hours a day which is more than the males. Due to family code and religious “fatowas” women’s rights and entity are defied.Status and Empowerment of Women in Administration and PoliticsAt present about 10,000 women are employed in administration and management jobs.
A few women are in secretarial posts now. In Bangladesh 25 million women are labour force, 79 percent are in agro-based sector, 9.9 percent in manufacturing and transportation sector, 2.2 percent in marketing sector and 0.
6 percent in clerical posts. In banking 01 general manager, in police department 05 women supers and 01 Brigadier woman in AMC. Out of total 85,000 women 1 percent in ministries, 16 percent in autonomous bodies and 82.5 percent in official jobs are employed.
Very small number of women are in politics and parliament.EncounteredMulti-dimensional difficulties and constraints have been encountered in the work for women's empowerment. Most of the violence towards women in Bangladesh takes place within the households. The reported cases of violence are increasing. There are two reasons for this.
First of all the increased awareness of violence against women has facilitated uncovering occurrence of violence. Secondly, rural women are at a crossroad now and have been faced with the ideology of patriarchy, which help reinforce the power hierarchies within the family.The increasing trend of violence against women should therefore be explained as the outcome of a contradiction against the ideology of patriarchy, manifested in social restrictions against women's mobility, the system of early marriage for girls, restriction on negotiation rights etc. A classic case of patriarchy is the assumption that the male must exercise control over women by limiting her mobility to the home. Such control of female sexuality is further elevated by creating an image of the mother as divine and women who do not live up to the ideal, as "fallen women".In Bangladesh the family is the breading grounds for some of the most persistent discrimination against women, such as sexual subordination of women, restriction of the mobility of women and different access to resources within the family.
The NGOs are still facing difficulties when trying to convince the women that gender inequalities are not natural but a social construction.Violence Against WomenViolence against women is one of the most wide spread and yet least recognized human problems in the world. In almost every society in the world whether it is North or South, East or West, in rich or poor countries, women share at least one element in common and that is frighteningly high proportion of violence. This proportion is high in the countries of the third world and more so in rural areas where women become victim of discrimination and violence because of their economic and traditional dependence on men.
Cause of violence: Most illiterate people of our country treat women not like human beings but like domestic animals of their family. They do not try to understand that they are the same as men in dignity and have the same right. Besides, poverty, conflicts of ideologies, misunderstanding and misinterpretation of religious doctrines have opened the way of violence against women.Role of family in violence: Sometimes, investigations show that women are primarily tortured by women themselves.
If a woman is tortured or suppressed in any way by another woman of her husband’s family she will most probably transfer that torture to another to another woman who will come to that family later on. This process goes on age after age in our rural Bangladesh.Poverty in creating violence: Women contribute a lot in income generating activities and other important familial activities. Some families depend mainly on women’s income. Yet they are not properly evaluated and rather tortured severely.
This is because poverty makes them narrow minded, unsatisfied and fragile. So small issues and conflicts can lead them to destructive quarrels. As men are by nature stronger physically than women, they physically torture women in most cases.Psychological cause: Women are not only wives but also mothers.
As they are mothers, their greater feelings and responsibilities keep them anxious all the time. This tension often makes them angry, irritative and foul-mouthed. The expression of this tension often goes against them. Consequently, they are beaten severely and sometimes to death.Lack of religious practice: The indecent behavior of some women also causes violence.
If women do not follow the rules of religion and decency, they create in men an indomitable impulse of excitement which results in violence against women. It goes without saying that ultimate consequence of free intercourse is not peaceful. This is why millions of men and women in the developed countries are suffering separatism, family breakdown, loneliness and depression.Intellectual violence: In our society, male children get more privileges than female children.
Female children have to do a lot of work in their house all through the day, but they are provided with an insufficient amount of food. Their opinion is not considered important in making any family decision. They are not provided with education. All these intellectual violence are no less important than any kind of physical violence against women. According to Constitution of BangladeshAny disparity to women is strictly prohibited due to religion, creed, place and birth. For women development and empowerment our government has founded Women Rehabilitation Board, Rehabilitation and Welfare Foundation, National Women Organization, Women Affairs Directorate and Independent Women and Children Affairs Ministry.
Women Directorate has branches in 64 districts and 136 thanas .National Women organization has mobilized its activities in 236 thanas. Government has declared female education free upto 12 class. Food grain and compensation for female student is given every month.Role of women representative in local bodies and state politics is ensured to accelerate the process of empowerment of women in Bangladesh. Reservation of 15 percent seats for women in the parliament has been made.
This provision in the constitution will enhance role of women in rural affairs.
