National discourses on women's empowerment in Bangladesh: continuities and change

As Bangladesh turns 40, improvements in women’s wellbeing and increased agency are claimed to be some of the most significant gains in the postindependence era. Various economic and social development indicators show that in the last 20 years, Bangladesh, a poor, Muslim‐majority country in the c...

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Autori principali:	Hossain, Naomi, Nazneen, Sohela, Sultan, Maheen
Altri autori:	BRAC Development Institute (BDI), BRAC University
Natura:	Working paper
Lingua:	English
Pubblicazione:	BRAC University 2011
Soggetti:	Bangladesh women’s empowerment NGOs political parties women’s movement Donor agencies
Accesso online:	http://hdl.handle.net/10361/1532

id	10361-1532
record_format	dspace
spelling	10361-15322019-09-29T05:26:58Z National discourses on women's empowerment in Bangladesh: continuities and change Hossain, Naomi Nazneen, Sohela Sultan, Maheen BRAC Development Institute (BDI), BRAC University Bangladesh women’s empowerment NGOs political parties women’s movement Donor agencies As Bangladesh turns 40, improvements in women’s wellbeing and increased agency are claimed to be some of the most significant gains in the postindependence era. Various economic and social development indicators show that in the last 20 years, Bangladesh, a poor, Muslim‐majority country in the classic patriarchal belt, has made substantial progress in increasing women’s access to education and healthcare (including increasing life‐expectancy), and in improving women’s participation in the labour force. The actors implementing such programmes and policies and claiming to promote women’s empowerment are numerous, and they occupy a significant position within national political traditions and development discourses. In the 1970s and 1980s development ideas around women’s empowerment in Bangladesh were influenced by an overtly instrumentalist logic within the international donor sphere. This led to the women’s empowerment agenda being perceived as a donor driven project, which overlooks how domestic actors such as political parties, women’s organizations and national NGOs have influenced thinking and action around it. This paper explores how these perceptions and narratives around women’s empowerment have evolved in Bangladesh from 2000 to date. It studies the concepts of women’s empowerment in public discourse and reviews the meanings and uses of the term by selected women’s organizations, donor agencies, political parties and development NGOs. By reviewing the publicly available documents of these organizations, the paper analyses the multiple discourses on women’s empowerment, showing the different concepts associated with it and how notions such as power, domains and processes of empowerment are understood by these actors. It also highlights how these different discourses have influenced each other and where they have diverged, with an emphasis on what these divergences mean in terms of advancing women’s interests in Bangladesh. Sohela Nazneen Naomi Hossain Maheen Sultan 2011-12-11T06:33:19Z 2011-12-11T06:33:19Z 2011 2011-07 Working paper 22230114 http://hdl.handle.net/10361/1532 en Working Paper No. 03 57 pages application/pdf BRAC University
institution	Brac University
collection	Institutional Repository
language	English
topic	Bangladesh women’s empowerment NGOs political parties women’s movement Donor agencies
spellingShingle	Bangladesh women’s empowerment NGOs political parties women’s movement Donor agencies Hossain, Naomi Nazneen, Sohela Sultan, Maheen National discourses on women's empowerment in Bangladesh: continuities and change
description	As Bangladesh turns 40, improvements in women’s wellbeing and increased agency are claimed to be some of the most significant gains in the postindependence era. Various economic and social development indicators show that in the last 20 years, Bangladesh, a poor, Muslim‐majority country in the classic patriarchal belt, has made substantial progress in increasing women’s access to education and healthcare (including increasing life‐expectancy), and in improving women’s participation in the labour force. The actors implementing such programmes and policies and claiming to promote women’s empowerment are numerous, and they occupy a significant position within national political traditions and development discourses. In the 1970s and 1980s development ideas around women’s empowerment in Bangladesh were influenced by an overtly instrumentalist logic within the international donor sphere. This led to the women’s empowerment agenda being perceived as a donor driven project, which overlooks how domestic actors such as political parties, women’s organizations and national NGOs have influenced thinking and action around it. This paper explores how these perceptions and narratives around women’s empowerment have evolved in Bangladesh from 2000 to date. It studies the concepts of women’s empowerment in public discourse and reviews the meanings and uses of the term by selected women’s organizations, donor agencies, political parties and development NGOs. By reviewing the publicly available documents of these organizations, the paper analyses the multiple discourses on women’s empowerment, showing the different concepts associated with it and how notions such as power, domains and processes of empowerment are understood by these actors. It also highlights how these different discourses have influenced each other and where they have diverged, with an emphasis on what these divergences mean in terms of advancing women’s interests in Bangladesh.
author2	BRAC Development Institute (BDI), BRAC University
author_facet	BRAC Development Institute (BDI), BRAC University Hossain, Naomi Nazneen, Sohela Sultan, Maheen
format	Working paper
author	Hossain, Naomi Nazneen, Sohela Sultan, Maheen
author_sort	Hossain, Naomi
title	National discourses on women's empowerment in Bangladesh: continuities and change
title_short	National discourses on women's empowerment in Bangladesh: continuities and change
title_full	National discourses on women's empowerment in Bangladesh: continuities and change
title_fullStr	National discourses on women's empowerment in Bangladesh: continuities and change
title_full_unstemmed	National discourses on women's empowerment in Bangladesh: continuities and change
title_sort	national discourses on women's empowerment in bangladesh: continuities and change
publisher	BRAC University
publishDate	2011
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10361/1532
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_version_	1814309049607389184

National discourses on women's empowerment in Bangladesh: continuities and change

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