Women Empowerment in Bangladesh

Women in pre-industrialist times and states played a central role in the economic system of the community. Whereas in other places when men were involved in hunting of animals and birds, women played their role as the also gathered fruits and vegetables. This signifies the importance they had in a community. In my opinion, women play an essential role in society as much as men do. They complement men, and together they work as a system (Angela, 2011). If women are left out in community activities, the whole system collapses and fails to work appropriately hence it is imperative that they are working together for the betterment of the community. However, there have been significant changes, and women have been left behind to do less economically profitable works. They are involved in washing dishes, making beds, scrubbing floors and motherly chores that are deemed to be unprofitable. I think that women do essential jobs in homesteads and need to be paid for their work. The way that people associate home chores to be economically unproductive needs to change.

Social reproduction refers to the continuous intergenerational physically and emotionally exhausting household labour that is needed to maintain life (Trotz, lecture, Jan 13, 2016). This kind of labour though is considered to be a woman’s duty. Since an economic activity happens where there is a market, social reproduction is not considered as one as it doesn’t have a visible market. Even though, it doesn’t have market value, domestic work greatly contribute to the economy (Waring, 2013). Since this work is done in homes and by women who are usually marginalized, it remains invisible and thus not considered for pay. This kind of work depends on the traditional division of labour in which women are seen as housewives while men, breadwinners. Thus, the gendering of social reproduction is a result of “doing gender,” where women’s abilities to be mothers are naturalized (Coltrane, 1989); in other words, women are made to fit into the simplistic “domestic = family = heterosexual woman = care and love” equation (Manalansan & Martin, 2008, p.2), while any man who does the caring work in a family is feminized and considered a lesser man (Coltrane, 1989).Thus, a woman’s femininity depends on her motherhood while a man’s masculinity depends on “not doing mother’s work” (Coltrane, 1989, p.473).

What are two ways women’s domestic duties are affected by those jobs performed outside the home? “Throughout history, women have made major economic contributions to their societies and families through their labor” (Lindsey, 2011, pg. 273). However, there is old rumors that state women clearly were declined the opportunities to bound in any form of clamorous work of any kind. Though, that is no longer the case today, for many women join the men in the fields, to help process the crops in order to provide much needed nutrients for their families; than ever before. “To explain the world of work for women, sociologists focus on four major types of production in which women have traditionally engaged: producing goods or services for consumption

With the beginning of the 1980's came the introduction of a debt crisis. This put extraordinary financial strain on a community that prided itself on self-reliance and providing all that ones' family needs through farming. However, with the added financial burden, farming as a sole means of survival was not a viable solution. Therefore, women were forced to take a much greater role as a provider for the family. They were able to take on this role through "selling agricultural products, and making and selling weavings, pottery, and chichi."

The resilience of women and the hardship of men were prominent during this time. However, women were still deeply grounded in their home life (Bolin, 74). Particularly women from middle-income families were left with job of being able to balance work and home life (Bolin, 74). Being a caregiver and taking care of the domestic needs of the home was very important. During this time tradition values were deeply routed in the home. Women made sure not let their home life consume them because their may focus was being a good wife and mother. This is a trend that has made its way even in today’s society. “Even now lack of adequate day-care (necessitating private baby-sitting service), low paying jobs for women, and the growth of technologies that open the door to and “electronic cottage industry”, indicate that women’s home production is a mutable but perhaps permanent response to women’s economic and social inequality under capitalism” (Hollingsworth, & Tyyska). The oppression in the past is shown to have made and imprint on society even to this day. Even though

History has proven that even in the early rural communities, along with the traditional role, women would do work outside with men on farms. At the end of the 19th century, in Canada, when factories started replacing the family as the main productive unit, women comprised of thirteen percent of the labor force (“Women in”). During WWI women replaced many men who had to join the army. After the WWII, during the great depression, women were hired to do men’s jobs (“Women in”). Even today women continue to contribute economically through their domestic and professional work. In fact, it has been found that a homemaker’s work alone is worth approximately 100,000 dollars in the job market (Moran). Their area of expertise varies from being a teacher, finance manager, cleaner, gardener, chef, driver, to personal child care provider (Moran). Women have proven their capability and shown their multi skills, but they are still the victim of gender wage

Women empowerment means to identify all kinds of oppression based on gender roles and to face it. This process has two dimensions: individual and collective. At the individual level, access to information about gender role and its social source lead women to seek for their autonomy and freedom. When they realize that the female social being is a social construction, nor a changeless reality, they can better indentify

It has been experienced from time immemorial that there has always lain a very big and noticeable gap in the roles that both women and men play in the everyday societal developments. The issue according to most of the renowned researches is more elusive to the women as they are the ones that are mostly faced by the double standards in the society and this could include very harsh challenges as far as economic and financial status is concerned. Some of the roles of women in the society and more typically, in the house-hold, were very much considered inferior as compared to that of the men who in addition, were given an upper hand

Mohanty also stated how, in India, women’s “definition as housewives make possible the definition of men as 'breadwinners'” (13). We see that in Nasarpur, India the woman’s role in society is somewhat restricted. Her restricted role of being a housewife increased the man’s status in that society as the sole provider and the hardest worker. Although this concept of men’s and women’s roles in society is not totally true in America, I still think it occurs in our society. I feel that most men accept women working outside the home in America because it has become a norm over the years, but I do not think all men are comfortable with the idea of women working outside the home. The fact that women are no longer just simply housewives makes some men feel as if they are being robbed of part of their masculinity, which is tied to being a sole provider for a family. Women have proven during the past few decades that they can be housewives and manage to handle an outside job as well. I think this proves that women are strong dependable laborers. A good worker is one who can handle multiple tasks such as managing a household and having an outside job.

Women’s unpaid labor in maintains a systems of oppression in many ways. In Susan M. Shaw and Janet Lee’s Women’s Voices Feminist Visions unpaid labor done by many women is, “undervalued as women’s formal productive paid labor in the workforce is prioritized” (Shaw & Lee, 2015, 471). Shaw and Lee are saying that women work at home is devalued because it is viewed as informal and as work that is done out of love or is natural work. Since the work being done is viewed as natural work, it further reinforces gender stereotypes by stating that women are supposed to do the household work which is deemed more as feminine. This thought process follows patriarchal thinking, where women are expected to do the

Socialization is a main cause that has influenced unequal distribution of unpaid work within a household. Throughout the chapters of Stanfoods book, it is mentioned numerous times that the majority of unpaid work including, household chores, care for young children or elderly family members (Stanford, …. p.119), is completed by women. Statistics Canada has provided statistics on unpaid work, “men reported spending on average 8.3 hours on unpaid domestic

Throughout the history of mankind, the rank of women has been extremely pivotal in the development of the humans. At present, the progress of the nation is determined by the high positions of the women in the society in terms of the employment and the work. It is said that without the contribution of the women in the political, business, social, economic and national activities, the growth of the country will stagnate. Although in the past, the women were more accustomed to working in homes and taking care of children, etc. but now they are stepping into the outside world due to advances in education for women and increasing awareness.

Conventionally, females played a very insignificant role in the paid work force of a society as many times they were expected to be home taking care of their family. Their roles at home can often include grocery shopping, meeting all the needs of her children and husband. As time moved on, our society became more accepted of sharing housework between the couples, but even so, the traditionally more feminine housework such as cooking, caring for sick children, and shopping for the entire family are mostly done by the females of the house. It is argued in a research journal Work and Occupations (Witkowski & Leicht, 1995) that in an average North American family, females take on roughly three-quarters of the housework. Even though we are in a democratic society, parenting roles in the household are assigned based on gender rather than in a democratic fashion (Winslow-Bowe, 2009). Because of the many responsibilities and obligations that are associated with the female gender, their career paths are eventually affected for the worse. According to Statistics Canada (2001), for every dollar a man earns, a single woman earns 93 cents and a married woman earns 69 cents. These statistics

Even though we say that women today should have equal rights amongst men, we still associate the word women to household activities than to men; therefore, making it just like the practice during the Anglo-Saxon period. Although, they differ in the way that today, there are already more opportunities for women to do in the society. There also equal treatment when it comes to working, wherein jobs that used to be for men only are now also open to women with potentials. Some survey shows that women of today are already known to have a higher rank than men. Some statistics show that there are also families wherein women work while men stay at home and does all the household works. Which shows that somehow, society did change its treatment towards

It is general belief in our society that role of women is restricted in four walls of home or for mainly household activities. Economy of any country can’t boom without contributing women. The growing industrialization, urbanization and social legislation and with the spread of education and awareness women have shifted from kitchen to higher level of professional activities. Today’s women are taking more and more professional and technical degrees to cope up with market need.The position of women and their position is any society is an index of its civilization. Women are to be considered as equal partner in the process of development.