'Birds in a cage': institutional change and women's position in Bangladesh
Adnan, S.
Journal of Social Studies Dhaka 46: 1-34
1989
Document Number: 328353
For the majority of women in Bangladesh, their 'world' consists of the immediate family and the households of near relatives and neighbours. Very few are involved in any other social institution beyond the family. However, over the last decade, symptomatic changes have been taking place in women's position within the family and kin-group, as well as in sociopolitical arenas. The major impetus for such change has come from economic-demographic shifts arising from the differentiation of the peasantry. The pressures of survival engendered by these have left little option to the majority of households amongst the landless and assetless classes other than to permit their women to take part in market-based, income-earning activities. The options initially taken up by women were those which were more attuned to parda considerations, the cultural institution characterized by a rigidly laid down sexual division of labour, which generally allocates indoor (unpaid) work to women. However, with increasing pressure for scarce income, women have begun to break out of parda restrictions and take part in outdoor activities. Greater investment in female education, rising ages of marriage and declining fertility rates observed over the last decade are consistent with changing social perceptions of the increased value of women. While income-earning capabilities have enabled women to enhance their status and independence at the level of the family and kin-group, these have not enabled them to automatically gain entry into, or hold leadership positions in social institutions or local self-government. It is possible that the emergent trends will be associated with greater unionization if not politicization, of the women, under alternative leadership structures which represnt the interests of both men and women from the poorest classes.