Macroeconomics Term Paper

Course no: 3508

Topic: Women Empowerment & Economic Development of Bangladesh.

Submitted To:
Dr. Talukder Golam Rabby

Adjunct Faculty

FBS, Bangladesh University of Professionals

Submitted By:
Nusrat Jahan

ID: B1506085

SEC: A

BBA (GEN)-2015

Date of Submission: 16.04.2017

Table of Content
SL NO Topic Page No

1 Chapter: 1-Introduction 3-4

1.1 Motivation of the study
1.2 Background of the study
1.3 Problem of the study
1.3.1 (objectives of the study)
1.3.2 (research questions)
2 Chapter: 2-Literaturen review 5-6

3 Chapter: 3- Research Methodology 7-8

3.1 Data collection
3.2 Data analysis
3.3 Limitations of the study
4 Chapter: 4-Finding of the study 9-13

5 Chapter: 5-Discussion 14-15

6 Chapter: 6-Recommendation and Conclusion 16-17

References 17

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 Chapter: 1
Introduction

Motivation Of the study

Bangladesh is a developing country and almost half of our population is women. But they dont
get enough authority from our society. From centuries, our societies have been trying to develop
without giving women their rights. But in reality, Society cannot be made without the great
contribution of women. Women have obstacles in every steps of work. Even in some of the
societies which have tried great to work in gender equality, women are still consistently paid
less, dont get financial support to start their own business, expected to be only housewife,
expected to cook, clean, etc. On the other hand, they are disproportionately the victims of rape
and domestic abuse among many other inequalities. In our less forward societies, women cannot
drive, run for office, and leave the house without a man. Clearly women are not treated equally
in our country though they are equally important as men. But if we think deeply, we will see that
entire nations, businesses, communities and groups can be benefited from the implementation of
programs and policies that adopt the notion of women empowerment. As such empowerment is
clearly needed for the economic development of our country.

Background of the study

Women empowerment refers to increasing and improving the social, economic, political and
legal status of the women, to ensure equal-right to women, and to make them confident enough
to claim their rights, such as:

1. freely enjoy their life with a sense of self-worth, respect and dignity,
2. have total control of their life, both within and outside of their house and workplace,
3. to develop their own choices and decisions,
4. have same rights to take part in social, religious and public activities,
5. have equal social status in their society,
6. have equal rights to get social and economic justice,
7. to choice financial and economic choices,
8. get equal scope for education,
9. get equal employment opportunity without any gender bias,
10. get safe and comfortable working environment,

There is broad agreement that achieving gender equality in the world is a major challenge. Of the
1.6 billion people who live in extreme poverty, the majority are women. Every day, almost
thousands of women and girls are victims of different violence, including sexual abuse,
trafficking and early and forced marriage. The health of women also remains a global challenge.
In 2010, 287,000 women died during or shortly after childbirth. Developing countries in sub-

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Saharan Africa and South Asia had the largest share of these deaths. In many developing
countries, there are far fewer girls than boys to be found in secondary schools and it is therefore
harder for them to find good jobs.

Problem statement:
Objective of the study

1. To explore the factors those obstruct the empowerment of female.

2. To draw the importance of women empowerment for economic development.
3. To formulate appropriate policies those would be helpful for the female to be empowered.

Research questions

1. What are the factors which obstruct the empowerment of female?

2. How much important women empowerment for economic development of Bangladesh?
3. What are the appropriate policies which would be helpful for the female to be
empowered?

Chapter 2:

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Literature Review:
For economic development of our country, women must have a better job, a positive business
environment, a secured job that will support them fully, and access to different financial sector
that will fulfill their needs. One important elements of empowerment is making sure that the
voices of women are heard and it will also protect legal rights of women (Women's economic
empowerment, n.d.). Women empowerment helps not only to achieve women rights but also
energizes development goals such as economic growth, poverty reduction, health, education and
welfare. National economies suffer badly when they start to discriminate against women. Women
having powerful skills and opportunities help businesses. Women those are economically
empowered have more contribution to their families, societies and national economies than other
women. For the betterment of any country women should be provided skills, resources and equal
access to economic institutions. Women should have been given the power to make and act on
economic decisions (Golla, A. M., Malhotra, A., Nanda, P., & Mehra, R., 2011). Economic
empowerment helps women to provide access to resources and opportunities in the whole
economy (DAC Network on Gender Equality, 2011). Education is an important resource that
women can get easily as compared to other resources which will lead to their development. In
Underdeveloped countries, uneducated women are fully depended on men and as a result they
experience bad conditions (Isiugo-Abanihe I.M, 1996). Gender inequality in education prevents
economic growth. There are some societies that dont want to invest in women have to pay a cost
for it like less income and passive growth (Dollar, D., & Gatti, R., 1999). Women should
empower themselves. Organizations those are already developed support women empowerment
including health, education, reproductive rights, political participation, and microcredit (Oxaal,
Z., & Baden, S., 1997). In previous condition, women were fully depended upon men but
empowering women through job opportunities has released them from this state and now they
are the economic actors. It is women earnings and bargaining power that lead to higher
investment in education, health and nutrition of children which results in economic growth in the
long-run. In 1997 women share in jobs was 43%, which increased to 47% in 2007.Africas
overall agricultural production could rise by 25% when women have same access to the inputs of
agriculture as men have. . GDP of India would increase by 10% when ratio of female/male
workers grew by 12%. In the world, Businesses run by women are about 40% of all low level
corporate businesses. In Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, women entrepreneurs
are increasing which directly affects job opportunities and poverty elimination (UK DFID,
2010). UNDP develops womens economic empowerment by: increasing identification and
reducing unpaid work of women; Supporting access of women to land and their participation in
decision-making; Providing training, skills, management of business and functional knowledge
to women entrepreneurs; Certifying businesses that support workplace equality; Supporting
property rights of women (Women's economic empowerment, n.d.). Fernandez, R., (2009) shows
the relationship between women rights and economic development and focuses on a basic
economic right for women i.e. property right. Men as husband favor patriarchal system in which
women have few rights but fathers do not support this system. Basically economic development

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refers to capital accumulation and declining fertility. Between economic development and
women empowerment, we can see two directional relationships. Unequal situation between men
and women should be reduced because development and women empowerment may lead to
further development. To acquire gender equality Policy action is compulsory. In this way,
virtuous circle will be started (Duflo, E., 2011). Better health, education and public safety of
women have to be supported by factory owners and they need to change practices to enrich
output of talented women workers. We can increase productivity by providing women workers
their rights, skills, safety and respect (Hossain, N., 2012). By ensuring gender equality we can
promote economic growth. Poverty can be reduced by giving proper employment and education
opportunities to women. Women should be given proper access to economic resources so that
they can contribute to the growth of our economy. Participation of women labor force is low and
focusing in the gender segmented labor markets which lead to gender inequality. Women those
are the half of our total population are always provided with less education and training, little or
no access to credit, uncertainty to own their property, hard business registration procedures, and
no entry in business networks (Kabeer, N., 2012).Economic empowerment of women can be
enlarged through better women health such as providing access to important information,
decrease in early marriages, helping women in getting degree and poverty reduction (Aid,I.,
2010). According to a growth context, the progress in some elements of gender equality will
present a win-win situation but from a gender equity view, there is 215 uncertainties that growth
will present critical elements of gender equality (Kabeer, N., & Natali, L., 2013). The World
Bank Action Plan (2006) Gender Equality as Smart Economics discusses that Economic
empowerment is establishing markets for women and empowering them to compete in these
markets. Markets have many types; the Action Plan aims four important markets: land, labor,
capital and product. We should reform institutions to give same rights and opportunities to men
and women. For equal resources and opportunities economic development should be encouraged.
We should take active policy measures to reduce gender disparity (World Bank, 2001). To
increase women awareness about gender inequality, their rights, and their access to community
resources, strategies must be made (Jejeebhoy, S. J., et al., 2001). Some NGOs provide training
of professional skills. They are also raising awareness about women rights and legal protections
available. (Kabeer, N., et al., 2011).

Chapter: 3
Research Methodology

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 For my research, I collected data by using primary source. A qualitative method was used. The
participants were females working in Banking, Education, Transport sectors and some were the
owners of different boutique shop and beauty parlor. Participants were selected from various
sectors to bring variation in sample. Twenty women were selected as a sample of the study.
Twenty questionnaires were completed by women working across four different sectors. Five
women were selected from each sector i.e. banking, education, and transport and from self
employment sector. Participants were contacted through telephone and face book to determine
their eagerness to complete questionnaires. All questionnaires were completed by the participants
in their houses and offices. The questionnaires consisted of demographic characteristics of
participants and open-ended questions that were asked of all participants. Questions were:

1. Do you agree that women should be empowered?

2. What do you think are the main hindrances in empowering women?
3. Do you think that women empowerment leads to the development of economy? What
suggestions do you have regarding women empowerment?

The participants belong to different employment sectors and their job titles also vary. The
participants experience in their field ranges from 5 to 20 years.

Data analysis:

In the research of this term paper, I used both qualitative and quantitative variables. The data I
collected mainly was qualitative in category (Yes/No). Some quantitative data was also used to
find out the income scenario of the participants.

There are two ways in which data can be statistically analyzed:

1. With Descriptive Statistics

2. With Inferential Statistics

The data in this report has been analyzed by descriptive method. To find out different data like
average income of the participants I used measure of central tendency (mean, median and
sometimes mode). In my research I found that, the total GDP of the country has increased due to
the contribution of women income and their standard of living has also been increased.

Limitation of the research methodology:

Small sample size was the main limitation of this study because of time constraints and
availability of respondents. Firstly some participants were not interested to talk against their

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families and in laws. After many requests finally they had started to share their problems and
obstacles with me. They couldnt give me enough information which was necessary to present
statistical issues. Even I didnt find enough secondary data in internet related to my topic. Further
research is required to remove the limitation of the small and narrow sample reported in this
study. Future research using both qualitative and quantitative research methods applying larger
samples than this study would provide benefit.

Chapter: 4
Research Findings:

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 Results showed that no women was 25 years or younger. Only three women were aged between
26-30 years. Ten women were aged between 30-40 years and only seven were above forty years.
Fifteen women were married and two were unmarried. One was divorced, two was separated.
The women were well educated with four having masters degree or above education. Seven had
completed bachelors and five were having intermediate degrees and four couldnt complete their
intermediate degrees because of their early marriage. Women were asked about their overtime
work, seven out of twenty responded that they sit for overtime sometimes but not regularly and
thirteen said that they do not work overtime. Women who sit for overtime reported that they are
not paid for overtime. Among fifteen job holder seven women reported that they got promotions
in their job careers and eight said that they were not promoted ever. Among five self employed
women three said that they didnt get any mental or financial support from their families to start
their parlor and boutique

Age Below or equal 26-30 30-40 Above 40 years

25 years years years
3 10 7

Marital Status Married Unmarrie Divorced/ Separated

d
15 2 3

Education Masters or Above Bachelor Intermediate Under intermediate

4 7 5 4

Overtime Yes No
Worked
7 13
Promotion Yes No
7 8
Mental or Yes No
Financial
support 3 2

Table 1: Demographic Characteristics of Responds

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 Age

15%
Below or equal 25 years35% 26-30 30-40 Above 40 years

50%

Maretial Status

15%
Maried Unmaried Divorced or Separeted
10%

75%

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 Education
Masters or Above Bachelor
Intermediate Under Intermediate

20% 20%

25%
35%

Twenty participants were given questionnaires to complete them. Five participants were selected
from banking sector, five from education, five from transport sector and five was self employed.

Sector Frequency Percentage (%)

Banking 05 25
Education 05 25
Transport 05 25
Self 05 25
employment
Total 20 100
Table 2: Sectors of the Participants

Women were asked about their mothers education. Findings showed that five were uneducated,
thirteen were under SSC or SSC and two completed their intermediate. The women were asked
about their parents salaries and their contribution to the family income. On average, women
contributed 43% to the total income of their family. Six women were earning 100% of their
family income. These results show the importance of women salaries to their family income.
Fourteen women reported that they give money to their families and six reported that did not
give money to their families. Women were contributing financially to their families and society,
this presents that they were being empowered economically, which may lead to economic

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development. On average, women earned more salaries as compare to their parents. Women were
asked about their mothers work and results were that sixteen mothers did not earn any income
and four mothers were earning income only. Mothers who were earning income two of them
were teacher, one was nurse and one was doctor. Three fathers were not earning any income.
Seventeen fathers were earning income. Eleven women reported that they save money and nine
said that they do not have savings at all. Eight women reported of being insulted by their
managers because of different reasons. Six women reported experience of being disgraced in the
society because of their gender. No one reported experience of sexual harassment at work. As
these questions were sensitive there were the chances that people will report less to it. These
questions might be under-reported.

Income Scale PKR No of participants

35000-40000 2
30000-35000 0
25000-30000 2
20000-25000 3
15000-20000 4
10000-15000 5
5000-10000 4
Table 3: Monthly Income

The average monthly salary of women was Rs. 17,500. The maximum salary earned was Rs.
40,000 and minimum salary earned was Rs.8000. All the respondents agreed that women should
be provided with the rights of education, jobs, health, security, and decision making power. The
major constraint in empowering women is male dominated society reported by twelve
respondents. Men dont want women to progress. They feel insecure if women start taking
charge of things or family so this thinking wont allow women to empower. Respondents stated
that hindrances in Bangladesh are family structure, expectations from women for family roles,
cultural constraints, harassment at work place and most importantly many people think that if
women will start work may be they start superseding and dominating males. Male ego and lack
of education in women are the barriers in getting women empowerment reported by another
participant. It was reported that the main hindrance in our society is the belief that the role of
women is only to look after kids and home while men has to fulfill all financial needs but
actually both men and women should play their role equally in all aspects to keep balance in the
society and share responsibility for all good or bad. Its the basic human right for women to
work. They should stand free of all biased selection and discrimination at work place, which is
the basic hindrance. If men and women both work side by side towards the economic and social

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development of the country, it will surely bring a sufficient amount of stability in the prevailing
conditions of our economy. Empowering women is compulsory for the development of economy.
Respondents viewed that women have the brains and are capable of doing the same work done
by men. Hurdle to women empowerment is actually in the minds of people. Women know that
wrong is being done but feel that its useless to speak against men. Women accept that they
belong to a lower class than men. The first basic concept of women empowerment is educating
women and giving them ample training for their desired fields. Without education, there can be
no empowerment or stability. Participants responded that we keep women too much protected
that she starts to feel insecure and also gets extra attention in our society that shatters her
confidence and freedom to share her innovative ideas. Things have changed over the past few
years but still the mentality of whole society towards women is quite the same.

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 Chapter: 5

Discussion:
Women are almost half of the total population of Bangladesh but because of social norms one
third of them stay at home. Though they have professional education, they cant play their role
towards economic development of our country. Now female students have outclassed and
outnumbered with every passing year but still after education either they stay at home or do some
part time job. While in Europe and other developed countries women are frequently playing their
important role by exploiting their potentials and as a result we can see that those countries are
developed. It is clear that we cant expect a country to grow by keeping half of their population
at home only to raise kids and not to think what they are actually capable of. For the economic
development of any country every individual has to play his/her role otherwise situation would
be like most of Muslim countries. If we create proper chances for women they also can play vital
role for economic growth as there are more than 49% women in Bangladesh, so their economic
contribution can make a difference in GDP of our country. Even females have some unique
skills, those if capitalize it can be a strong outcome in the form of effective human capital.
Participants were of the view that women must pursue higher education and career. Male
dominancy need to be reduced to let women grow further. A healthy society should be made
where our women are equally empowered on doing their stuff. It is so common in our society
that men dont want to see women grow, they take them non-seriously. In such a situation our
women should speak for their own rights and equality. Women skills should be given a proper
platform. Women abilities should be shown in a developing country like Bangladesh, having
burden of billions of loan to repay. To become a developed nation both men and women efforts
are required. Women those are doing jobs are not respected in comparison to women holding
only domestic activities. Different Strategies must be implemented so that women can raise their
potentials at both indoor and outdoor level for the economic development of our country. Even
house wives need to be encouraged to increase their potential by involving themselves in various
creative activities like crafting or any arts instead of wasting their time in funky gossips.
Different indoor crafting made by women can be a great source of themselves even for exports
by making contacts at international level. Women those are willing to do job outside home
should be encouraged and given security and esteem in our society instead of making them
confused. Our society never wants to invest on women for their development and success as
compared to men because of the thinking that women only have to take care of their family so
investing on them will be such a waste of money. By giving equal opportunities to both men and
women we will see a big impact on our economy. There is a necessity to change the attitude of
our society towards women gradually. We should not treat them as they re nothing without men.
Empowerment in today's era is all about the enlargement of education and technology so for the
empowerment of women we have to take different steps to invest on our women and give them

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equal chance to be part of any field which they want rather than restrict them to specific fields.
Empowerment of women is providing women with the rights of education, skills, health, and job
opportunities which eliminate poverty. Societies that dont want to invest on women, in future
have to pay for it in the form of very slow economic growth. It is high time to think that women
those are empowered in the economy have more contribution to their families and societies and
they are also contributing in their family income. Our working women are more confident about
them and can make proper decisions for their family members. Undoubtedly, women
empowerment is a powerful weapon to bring positive change in the development of economy.
When women will get their proper rights of knowledge, education, skills, health and jobs, their
hidden abilities will be utilized and both males and females will work together in the society. In
this way, our country will prosper and develop.

Chapter: 6
Recommendation and Conclusion

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Recommendations:

Following are some suggestions those would be helpful for empowering our women:

Women should have access to economic resources which leads to the economic growth.
Media and NGOs should raise awareness about women rights.
Women should be provided with the education and job opportunities.
Women should have the right to own their property.
Women must have simple business registration procedures.
Institutions should be developed for providing equal resources to men and women.
Male dominancy should be handled in a right way.
Equal amount of payment should be given for the same amount of work to both men and
women.
There should be no discrimination in assigning work to people based on gender. Both
men and women should be given equal opportunities.
Safe working conditions should be provided to both men and women.
Women should be granted loans at lower interest rates so that they are encouraged and
their skills are developed.
Women should be encouraged to join the fields of work which have been considered as
fields for men.
Various policy actions should be taken to reduce gender inequality.

Conclusion:

In our society women are always ignored. Society cannot develop without the contribution of
women. But women always face obstacles in every aspect of life. By achieving women
empowerment we can get dual benefits, first to the women and second to the society. When we
start to empower a woman, actually we are empowering her family. In empowering women
education plays a vital role. Getting proper education is the basic right of women. But our men

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dont want to see women to get educated and make their career. Male dominancy should be
minimized because its compulsory for empowering women. Women should get their higher
education and career opportunities. Women should fight for their own rights because no one will
speak for women. Women wont get their rights if they remain silent. Women those have rights
are more confident, have better living standard and they can take their own decisions. For the
economic development women and men both should work together and women should improve
their skills. Women should utilize their hidden abilities. Women empowerment can reduce
poverty from the society because they can spend more on their families and dont depend on
others. A society cant be developed without giving women their rights. For the same nature of
work same wages and salaries should be given to men and women. No gender discrimination
should take place at work place. For women empowerment first thing to do is to change the
thinking of the people. Women must have access to all resources and credits.

References:

https://www.oecd.org/dac/povertyreduction/50157530.pdf

https://www.jstor.org/stable/23644911

https://dspace.mit.edu/openaccess-disseminate/1721.1/82663

https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/17702.html

www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/economic-empowerment/facts-and-figures

https://www.oecd.org/dac/povertyreduction/50157530.pdf

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