Gender and

Politics

POLITICAL PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN

BANGLADESH

Introduction

The overall development of a country depends upon the

maximum deployment of her people, both men and women. In

Bangladesh, women consist of nearly half of the total population

it proved from 2011 consensus primary report by BIDS. However,

the status of women is much lower than that of men in every

scope of life. With the progression of time, the facts have now

been recognized that without ensuring women development,

the national development cannot be achieved and or not

sustainable. Women’s equal participation in political life plays a

pivotal role in the general process of the advancement of

women. like the other government in the world, the government

of Bangladesh has initiated efforts to widen the scope of women

for participation in the development process.

Operational

definition of Women

A “woman” is a mature female human being, as analogized to

men, a grownup male, and a teenager, a female child. The term

woman used to entitle biological sex differences, ethnic gender

role divisions, or both. Women constitute about half of the total

population of the country proved by 2011 primary data source of

BIBS. Separately from the domestic accomplishments, they are

contributing significantly to the domestic economy. Bangladesh

is one of the first developing countries to establish a Ministry of

Women’s Affairs in 1978, three years after the First World

Conference on Women in Mexico. In spite of these attainments,

the popular of women in Bangladesh have yet to be empowered

to join actively in the social, cultural, economic, and political life

of the country. Gender discrimination is common in all domains.

Why Women

Should be in

Politics

Participation is a development approach, which recognizes the

need to involve disadvantaged segments of the population in

the design and implementation of policies concerning their

wellbeing. The strengthening of women’s participation in all

provinces of life has become a major issue in the development

discourse. Socio-economic development cannot be fully

achieved without the active participation of women. They have

always been obviously working as a vital agent of social

cohesion and development in all societies of women at the

decision making level in society. Even though they make up

half of the adult population often contributing to society within

and outside the family they are frequently excluded from the

position of power.

Local Government

Local government is an organized social entity with a feeling of

oneness. In political terms, it is concerned with the governance

of a specific local area, constituting a political sub-division of a

nation, state or other major political unit. In the performance of

its functions, it acts as the agent of the state. In other words, the

local government is an integral part of the political mechanism

for governance in a country. According to the article 59(1) ofthe Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, “LocalGovernment in every administrative unit of the Republic shallbe entrusted to bodies, composed of persons elected inaccordance with law” (GOB, 1993:43).

Union Parishad is the lowest tier of administrative unit in

Bangladesh. In addition, Union Parishad is the second tier of rural

local government from below. As per the statutes at present

Bangladesh contains a four-tier local government structure.

However, in compliance to the constitutional provision an

elected local government body exists only at the union level.

According to LG (UP) Ordinance, 1983, ‘union’ means ‘a rural

area’ declared a union under section 3 (Declaration of union

and alteration of limits thereof) [GOB, 1990:2-3)]. It is entrusted

with forty functions. The main functions include public welfare,

maintenance of law and order, revenue collection,

development and adjudication.

Women Involvement

in Local Government of Bangladesh

Women were first time elected to local bodies in 1973. The

Union Parishad Election of 1997 is a milestone in the history of

political empowerment of women in Bangladesh. The

Government of Bangladesh enacted a law for direct elections

to reserve seats for women in local level elections. In 1997

through an Act, the Government reserved three seats for

women in the union Parishad where women members are

elected from each of the three respective wards. Apart from

the reserved seats, women can also contest for any of the

general seats. Previously, the process of selection of the

women representatives was based on nominations and/or

indirect election. Around 12,828 women were elected as

members in the 1997 local level elections..

ConstitutionalProvision

Related articles of the constitution regarding women’s

participation may be seen in the following sentences

Article 9: The State shall encourage local government institutions

composed of representatives of the areas concerned and in

such institutions special representation shall be given, as far as

possible, to peasants, workers, and women.

Article 10: Steps shall be taken to ensure participation of women

in all spheres of national life.

Article 19 (1): The State shall endeavor to ensure equality of

opportunity to all citizens.

Article 27: All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to

equal protection of law.

Article 28

(1): The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on

grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth.

(2): Women shall have equal rights with men in all spheres of the

State and of public life.

(4): Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making

special provision in favor of women or children or for the

advancement of any backward section of citizens.

The constitution gives guarantee of equal rights to women and

makes special provision for providing all necessary protections

to backward sections of the society.

Low participation of

women in

Bangladesh politics

In local level context the participation in local government and

politics are now on traditional situation also . There having many

causes which are the impediments to participate of women in

Bangladesh politics . One of the main reason is proper

education . Besides there also others causes ,Conservative

religious mind , Family background, Unwillingness to politics and

there are many other reasons for not to participate the women

in politics in Bangladesh. However nowadays in Bangladeshi

politics women participations are increasing than that of before

because of Women are becoming conscious about their rights ,

Getting educated , Changing conservative mind and Getting

good position in politics.

Some obstacles to women’s participation in Parliament: At the

beginning of the 21st century over 95 percent of all countries in

the world have granted women the two most important

fundamental Democratic rights ; the right to vote and the right to

stand for election . However in our country context ,we identify

some of the strategies to over come these obstacles and

analyse what woman can do once they enter Parliament . The

obstacles are given as bellow- (1)Political obstacles-Men

dominate the political arena. Men formulate the rules of the

political game . The existence of this male dominated model

results in women either rejecting politics although or rejecting

male style politics.(1)political life is organized according to

male norms and values.(2)Lack of party support.(3)Cooperation

with women's organization.(4) Electoral system.

Socio-economic obstacle:

There having many socio-economic reasons (1)feminization of

poverty and unemployment(2) The dual burden (3)Education

and training.

Ideological and psychological hindrances : The reasons are-

(1)traditional roles(2)lack of confidence(3)The perception of

politics as Dirty (4) the role of mass media . So to the end ,the

following of the most significant mechanisms which have been

used to overcome many of the obstacles to women's legislative

representation .So now it is needless to say that our women are

slowly participating in local and national level politics day by

day and it is really positive for women , their participation and

better for changing their mentality.

Cabinet and Public

Services

Although two women Prime Ministers have headed the

Government during the last six years and the leaders of the

opposition in Parliament were women, this does not reflect the

gender composition of participation and decision making at the

highest policy level. At the ministerial level, women’s

representation has never risen above 3 percent. Before 1996,

women were never given full responsibility over any important

ministry. Apart from being Prime Minister, others were state or

deputy ministers responsible for insignificant ministries such as

Culture, Social Welfare, and Women. Currently one woman

Minister, who had become a Member of Parliament in 1991 and

1996 through direct elections, is responsible for a ministry.

Another woman minister is responsible for the Ministry of Forest

and Environment.

Women’s Participation in

Union Parishad Elections

(1973-2003)

Elections’

Year

Chairman Member Chairman Member

1st 1973 1 - - -

2nd 1977 19 19 4 7

3rd 1984 - - 6 -

4th 1988 79 863 1 -

5th 1992 115 1135 8 20

6th 1997 102 43969/456* 20+3 12882/110*

7th 2003 232 43764/617* 22 12684/79*

Glass Ceiling

The phrase glass ceiling refers to an invisible barrier that prevent

someone from achieving further success.it is most often heard in

the context of women who can not advance to the highest

levels of power in the workplace. an invisible upper limit in

corporate and other organizations, above which it is difficult or

impossible for women to rise in the ranks. it is glass because its

not usually a visible barrier , and a women not be aware of its

existence until she hits the barrier.in other words, its not an

explicit practice. the term was popularized in 1980.over the past

few years women participation in the workforce h as

significantly increased in Bangladesh. but it is commonly

believed that women have less carrier advancement

opportunities than do men. Some of the reason of this problem

for women in their career are clearly connected to the idea of a

glass ceiling. the disparity between between male and female

representation in public and private sector is wide in most of the

third word countries. women have little or unequal access to

employment. an insignificant number of women occupy by key

decision making position. Women have been unable to exert

power over economic structure in their societies as they are

virtually absent from or are poorly represented in economicdecision making.

Conclusion

Women have acquired a legitimate space in rural political

institutions that can raise their marginalized position, though they

are still a minority. Merely having women on councils does not

automatically mean that the interests of women in the

community are represented. Without women’s needs and

interests being taken into account, without opportunity for them

to participate in and influence decision-making, development

interventions and planning sustainable results will not come. Yet,

having women in these leadership positions is an important step

in changing the male-dominated political agenda.

At least they have the opportunity to attend the meetings,

interact with officials and take part in important discussions. It

also ensures their mobility across the social hierarchy. The 33%

quota for women is indeed an important impetus to women’s

empowerment in rural Bangladesh. Finally, it can be said that

provision of inclusion of directly elected women members have

created a new avenue to participate in the decision-making

process in the only democratic institution at the grass root level.