IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/eurjdr/v30y2018i2d10.1057_s41287-017-0119-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Contested Relationship Between Paid Work and Women’s Empowerment: Empirical Analysis from Bangladesh

Author

Listed:
  • Naila Kabeer

    (London School of Economics and Political Science)

  • Simeen Mahmud

    (BRAC Institute of Governance and Development)

  • Sakiba Tasneem

    (BRAC Centre)

Abstract

The debate about the empowerment potential of women’s access to labour market opportunities is a long-standing one but it has taken on fresh lease of life with the increased feminization of paid work in the context of economic liberalization. Contradictory viewpoints reflect differences in how empowerment itself is understood as well as variations in the cultural meanings and social acceptability of different kinds of paid work. Research on this issue in the Bangladesh context has not been able to address these questions because it tends to use very restricted definitions of work and narrow conceptualizations of empowerment. This paper uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative data from Bangladesh to explore this debate, distinguishing between different categories of work and using measures of women’s empowerment which have been explicitly designed to capture the specificities of local patriarchal constraints.

Suggested Citation

  • Naila Kabeer & Simeen Mahmud & Sakiba Tasneem, 2018. "The Contested Relationship Between Paid Work and Women’s Empowerment: Empirical Analysis from Bangladesh," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 30(2), pages 235-251, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:30:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1057_s41287-017-0119-y
    DOI: 10.1057/s41287-017-0119-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41287-017-0119-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41287-017-0119-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Bank, 2008. "Whispers to Voices," World Bank Publications - Reports 26334, The World Bank Group.
    2. Robert Jensen & Emily Oster, 2009. "The Power of TV: Cable Television and Women's Status in India," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(3), pages 1057-1094.
    3. N. Kabeer, 2001. "Ideas, Economics and 'the Sociology of Supply': Explanations for Fertility Decline in Bangladesh," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(1), pages 29-70.
    4. Anderson, Siwan & Eswaran, Mukesh, 2009. "What determines female autonomy? Evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 179-191, November.
    5. Hashemi, Syed M. & Schuler, Sidney Ruth & Riley, Ann P., 1996. "Rural credit programs and women's empowerment in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 635-653, April.
    6. Heath, Rachel, 2014. "Women’s Access to Labor Market Opportunities, Control of Household Resources, and Domestic Violence: Evidence from Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 32-46.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Donato Romano & Silvio Traverso, 2020. "Disentangling the Impact of International Migration on Food and Nutrition Security of Left-Behind Households: Evidence from Bangladesh," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 32(4), pages 783-811, September.
    2. Finlay, Jocelyn E., 2021. "Women’s reproductive health and economic activity: A narrative review," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    3. Muhammad Qasim Rana & Angela Lee & José Fernando Rodrigues Bezerra & Guilherme Hissa Villas Boas, 2024. "Empowerment and Sustainability: Investigating Barriers to Women’s Transition from Higher Education to Empowerment in Brazil," Societies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-19, November.
    4. Karimli, Leyla & Lecoutere, Els & Wells, Christine R. & Ismayilova, Leyla, 2021. "More assets, more decision-making power? Mediation model in a cluster-randomized controlled trial evaluating the effect of the graduation program on women's empowerment in Burkina Faso," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    5. Nahar, Habiba Lilun, 2024. "Addressing the silence: A study on the underreporting of sexual violence among female garment workers in Bangladesh," GLU Working Papers 64, Global Labour University (GLU).
    6. Farhana Ferdousi & Parveen Mahmud, 2019. "Role of social business in women entrepreneurship development in Bangladesh: perspectives from Nobin Udyokta projects of Grameen Telecom Trust," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 9(1), pages 1-21, December.
    7. Prasheela Karan & Jung-Sook Lee & Richard Hugman, 2021. "Combatting Gender Oppression: Applying Intersectionality in Microfinance Self-help Groups," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(6), pages 1649-1665, December.
    8. Faisal Bin Islam & Madhuri Sharma, 2021. "Gendered Dimensions of Unpaid Activities: An Empirical Insight into Rural Bangladesh Households," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-12, June.
    9. Rahima Akter & Julian Teicher & Quamrul Alam, 2024. "Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in Bangladesh’s Ready-Made Garments (RMG) Industry: Exploring Workplace Well-Being Issues in Policy and Practice," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-23, March.
    10. Murshedul Arafin & Jubayer Ahmed, 2023. "Use of Anthropology in Developing Sustainable Projects," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(11), pages 855-871, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Supriya Garikipati & Susan Johnson & Isabelle Guérin & Ariane Szafarz, 2017. "Microfinance and Gender: Issues, Challenges and The Road Ahead," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(5), pages 641-648, May.
    2. Bargain, Olivier & Boutin, Delphine & Champeaux, Hugues, 2019. "Women's political participation and intrahousehold empowerment: Evidence from the Egyptian Arab Spring," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    3. Catherine Bros & Véronique Gille & François Maniquet, 2023. "Female labour, status and decision power," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(358), pages 453-476, April.
    4. Hossain, Mahbub & Asadullah, M. Niaz & Kambhampati, Uma, 2019. "Empowerment and life satisfaction: Evidence from Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 170-183.
    5. Roy, Shalini & Hidrobo, Melissa & Hoddinott, John F. & Ahmed, Akhter, 2021. "Transfers, behavior change communication, and intimate partner violence: Post-program evidence from rural Bangladesh," IFPRI book chapters, in: Securing food for all in Bangladesh, chapter 15, pages 549-590, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. O'Hara, Corey & Clement, Floriane, 2018. "Power as agency: A critical reflection on the measurement of women’s empowerment in the development sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 111-123.
    7. Sofia Amaral & Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay & Rudra Sensarma, 2015. "Public Work Programs and Gender-based Violence: The Case of NREGA in India," Discussion Papers 15-09, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    8. Ashraf, Nava & Karlan, Dean & Yin, Wesley, 2010. "Female Empowerment: Impact of a Commitment Savings Product in the Philippines," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 333-344, March.
    9. Nilakantan, Rahul & Datta, Saurabh C & Sinha, Priyanjali & Datta, Samar K, 2013. "The impact of microfinance on women empowerment: Evidence from Eastern India," International Journal of Development and Conflict, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, vol. 3(1), pages 27-40.
    10. Tanika Chakraborty & Prabal K. De, 2017. "Mother’s autonomy and child’s secondary schooling enrollment in Mexico," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 1037-1053, September.
    11. Strulik, Holger, 2019. "Desire And Development," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(7), pages 2717-2747, October.
    12. Tagat, Anirudh, 2020. "Female matters: Impact of a workfare program on intra-household female decision-making in rural India," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    13. Neetu A. John & Kirsten Stoebenau & Samantha Ritter & Jeffrey Edmeades & Nikola Balvin & UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti, 2017. "Gender Socialization during Adolescence in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Conceptualization, influences and outcomes," Papers indipa885, Innocenti Discussion Papers.
    14. Canessa, Eugenia & Giannelli, Gianna Claudia, 2021. "Women's Employment and Natural Shocks," IZA Discussion Papers 14055, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Sofia Amaral, 2015. "Do Improved Property Rights Decrease Violence Against Women in India?," Discussion Papers 15-10, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    16. Karlan, Dean & Zinman, Jonathan, 2018. "Price and control elasticities of demand for savings," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 145-159.
    17. Panu Poutvaara & Maximilian Schwefer, 2018. "Husbands’ and wives’ diverging perceptions on who decides," ifo Working Paper Series 279, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich.
    18. Youjin Hahn & Asadul Islam & Kanti Nuzhat & Russell Smyth & Hee-Seung Yang, 2018. "Education, Marriage, and Fertility: Long-Term Evidence from a Female Stipend Program in Bangladesh," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66(2), pages 383-415.
    19. Mahmud Minhaj & Otsuka Keijiro & Sawada Yasuyuki & Tanaka Mari & Tanaka Tomomi, 2017. "Women Empowerment in Bangladesh: Household Decisions under Development of Non-Farm Sectors and Microfinance Institutions," Working Papers 154, JICA Research Institute.
    20. Aparajita Dasgupta & Anahita Karandikar & Devvrat Raghav, 2024. "Road Access, Fertility, and Child Health in Rural India," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 50(1), pages 117-147, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:30:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1057_s41287-017-0119-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.