Abstract:
Women’s empowerment has become a major concern of both
developed and developing countries across the world. Women are often largely
marginalized from economic, political, and familial spheres because they tend to
have limited access to economic resources, health care, and education and suffer
disproportionately from the effects of poverty, discriminatory laws, practices,
attitudes and gender stereotypes, and so forth. This study assesses the level of
women’s empowerment by scrutinizing economic, political, and interpersonal and
familial factors in rural Bangladesh. The study employed qualitative interviews
and focus group discussions to determine the contribution of a food for work
program that was not designed to empower women, to women’s perception of
empowerment. The study interviewed 305 respondents in two districts and ten
subdistricts using a purposive sampling procedure. The study showed some
evidence of enhanced economic empowerment, strong evidence of increased
local political empowerment, and evidence of interpersonal empowerment among
women participating in the program.
