Women's empowerment and the development research agenda: a personal account from the Bangladesh Flood Action Plan
Hanchett, S.
Feminist Issues 15(1-2): 42-71
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0270-6679 PMID: 12321267 DOI: 10.1007/bf02860608Document Number: 326877
This article presents a discussion of the bureaucratic and social context for research related to the Bangladesh Flood Action Plan (FAP) in 1991 and 1992. The author's context was confined to meetings and information as a foreign aid program researcher. Insider information was unavailable. The research focused on the rural population, but contact was limited to a government panel of male engineers specializing in water management. These men were forced to participate in a gender study related to flooding. The author argues that her position as a woman created an important venue for opening local channels of communication about gender among a middle class elite and policymakers. Gender is a contested image within Bangladesh society. Various external and internal factors will advance or retard the progress of involving women in local planning and policy. The rigidity of the bureaucracy must be relaxed enough to allow the flow of information from powerless groups such as women to the upper levels of the political hierarchy. Policymakers can be sensitized by the workshops and conversations that occurred in the FAP and which linked powerful people with appropriate local groups. This article describes the flood problems, the first workshop discussion, an informal briefing with local people, the study team, the study findings, the implications for women of the FAP, the final workshop, and the phases of research leading to women's empowerment. Empowerment of women depends on both high-level decisions and grassroots organizing. Feminist social researchers can influence the dialogue by establishing official information gathering priorities.
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