Rethinking the Bargains of Women Empowerment

Zarrin Tasnim Mridula :

Bangladesh has made remarkable strides in advancing women’s empowerment, guided by a series of policies that aim to translate equality from paper to practice. The Constitution itself through Articles 27, 28, and 29 guarantees equality before the law, prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, and calls for equal participation in public and private life with equal pay for equal work.

While debates continue across different schools of thought, women’s representation in parliament has been ensured as a way to strengthen their political voice. Beyond politics, Bangladesh has adopted the National Women Development Policy 2011, ratified CEDAW, endorsed the Beijing Platform for Action, and committed to SDG Goal 5 on gender equality. It has also enacted several key laws, including the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2010, the Child Marriage Restraint Act 2017, and the Dowry Prohibition Act 2018.

Together, these efforts have positioned Bangladesh as a country often cited for its formidable progress on gender equality indicators. Yet behind these statistics lies a deeper question: how much of this progress truly reaches the everyday lives of women?

The Global Gender Gap Report 2023 shows that Bangladesh has emerged as the top performer in South Asia in terms of gender parity, achieving a score of 72.2 percent and ranking 59th globally. Yet an important question remains: how are these policy measures and progress indicators being translated into the everyday realities of women: in their homes, in public spaces, in corporate offices, or in roadside shops? The distance between numerical progress and lived experience reminds us of an empowerment that comes with invisible conditions.

If we look closely at gender dynamics across social life in Bangladesh regardless of economic background we find that in this complex and heterogeneous society, a woman’s voice too often carries more weight as an offence than as a contribution. As children, if a girl asks too many questions, she is called “ill-mannered.”

If a young professional woman stands up for herself, protecting her sanity in a toxic workplace, she may be quietly removed from conversations, excluded from the boss’s list of favourites, or labelled “unfit for leadership.” Even a homemaker who dares to ask for support or understanding is dismissed as “too demanding”—after all, if she’s already in a comfort zone, what more could she possibly need?

These labels and statements cut across social hierarchies and contexts, seep through meeting walls, demand glory in handshakes with (few) men. Whether the environment is in a rural char village or a corporate boardroom in the capital city, the accents of patriarchy may differ, but their roots remain stubbornly the same.

Patriarchy in Numbers
According to the World Bank (2024), the labour force participation rate in Bangladesh among females is 44.2% and among males 80.9%. In the World Bank Enterprise Survey (2022), only 6.7% of firms had any female ownership and just stated that only 3.6% had female top managers. The Global Gender Gap Report (2024) by the World Economic Forum notes that women’s labour-force participation had risen, but the pay and job quality gaps still remain large.

In politics and governance, despite women’s long-standing symbolic presence in parliament (21% participation rate in Parliament till 2024) and positions, constitutional debates still persist over their actual proportion of seats in the parliament? this continues to raise questions about how much genuine political empowerment has been achieved within the existing political structure and to what extent, political parties are enabling spaces for women to curb gender disparity and enhance their visibility at the national political landscape.

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics survey shows, at home, women shoulder the lion’s share of unpaid care work, averaging 5.9 hours per day compared to just 0.8 hours for men. This invisible burden constrains mobility, limits opportunities, and reinforces cycles of dependency.
The Family

Families on this side of the world are a group of known faces, amidst whom the dynamics and ways of love and control often coexist uneasily. The expectations placed on women are rigid: a ‘good daughter’ is obedient, a ‘good wife’ is sacrificial, and a ‘good mother’ puts herself last. If women deviate, asking for decision-making spaces, trying to pursue an education slightly higher than the conventional level, seeking financial independence, or are assertive in their choices, familial ‘honour’ becomes the restraint.

The Limits of Token Empowerment
South Asia, and particularly Bangladesh, has seen heavy investment in women’s empowerment through microfinance, education programs, entrepreneurship training, and leadership workshops. These initiatives are essential, yet often focus narrowly on women, without challenging the patriarchal structures that threaten to overwhelm them when they are interested to sharpen their skills.

Working women are still monitored by in-laws, parents, partners and all the enthusiastic ‘social police’ who seem to know-it-all. A local female councilor sits in a reserved seat yet faces ridicule or isolation. A female bank manager may lead a branch yet be expected to bring groceries home because food decisions ‘belong’ to her role as a wife and a mother. A female university student may excel academically but still require a male acquaintance to ‘safeguard’ her journey to class.
The problem is not that women fail to participate. It is that they participate while fighting a system that refuses to transform.

What Can Be Done to Break the Paradox?
Despite extensive policy initiatives and substantial investments, progress in gender equality in Bangladesh seems to have reached broader indicators without yet transforming individual lives. This gap makes it clear that our approach needs to evolve. Along with continuing policy reforms, we now need innovative, gender-transformative initiatives that reach people at a personal and societal level. There may be no magic solution to changing deep-rooted social norms and attitudes, but it is evident that existing measures must take on new perspectives: ones capable of shifting mindsets, not just numbers.

Rethinking Empowerment Beyond the Paradox
Men, too, must be brought into the conversation, not as silent witnesses, but as participants who recognise the price they themselves pay for patriarchy. Are they truly its beneficiaries, or also its quiet sufferers, trapped within its own walls of expectation? These questions must find spaces in our daily lives- in homes, workplaces, marketplaces, and conversations over tea.

As long as men struggle to coexist with empowered women, women will remain caught in a paradox — celebrated in policy papers yet censured in practice. Empowerment must begin to feel like freedom, not a punishment for ambition.

(The writer is a Communication, Advocacy and Outreach Expert. She can be reached at [email protected])