There has been considerable increase in women’s participation in the civil administration and the private sector since the present government came to power.
Behind such increase in women’s participation are several policies which conform to guidelines to adopt equality for women empowerment. Despite having equal academic qualification fewer women had opportunities of serving in the civil service while men dominated key positions from top to bottom.
The discrimination of women’s presence in the civil administration was quite evident prior to Awami League government coming to rule the nation.
Such discrimination starts at the very beginning of their recruitment process in the civil service where a table titled, ‘BCS batch and distribution by sex of candidates recommended for recruitment’ shows that in the 24th batch of Bangladesh Civil Service only 1,416 (27.1%) female candidates were recommended for government jobs in the officer ranks against a dominating figure of 3,809 (72.9%) men getting the same jobs.
The 2010 public service commission report also shows similar picture of discrimination in the 25th, 26th, 27th and in 28th batch of BCS recruitment process. The distribution of the female – male recruitment data shows 25% for female while 74% for men in the 25th BSC recruitment. The average recruitment through the next few batches saw similar low numbers for female being recruited.
The low numbers of female recruitment is well reflected in the public service from top positions to the lowest. A 2009 Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data also show similar men dominance. In 2011 around 3.9 % women were promoted to the position of secretaries, in 2006, the number was 1.6% and in 1999 the number was disappointingly just about 2 %.
Another report BBS report, Gender-Based Employment and Wage’ published in 2021 said that out of 6,310 positions of senior secretary, secretary, additional secretary, joint secretary, deputy secretary, senior assistant secretary and assistant secretary under the public administration ministry, the number of male officials is 5,072, while that of women is just 1,238.
To remove such discrimination Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government has adopted the National Policy for Women’s Advancement (NPWA) in March 1997. The revised version of the policy was declared in March, 2011 which emphasized on administrative empowerment of women and recommended some strategies with the aim of creating employment opportunities for women.
Following are some of the key policies highlighted below;
• Make provisions for contracts and lateral entry to facilitate female access to government service at the higher levels in administrative structure.
• Increase efforts for achieving 30% female population at all levels of decision-making including policy level post.
• Strengthen efforts to employ all educated and uneducated females.
• Raise female quotas and ensure its effective implementation in all spheres.
• Motivate all appointing authorities to follow government quotas and to provide equal facilities for females under the purview of government employment policy.
• Continue the quota system and increase the quota at all levels (GOB, 2011).
Such policies aimed at empowering women has had tremendous impact – in many aspects the Prime Minister emphasized on enhancing women’s leadership qualities for nation building which she strongly believes in and today her directives are well reflected on the ground.
A 2021 BBS report say that out of a total positions of 742 divisional commissioners, additional commissioners, deputy commissioners, additional deputy commissioners and upazila nirbahi officers (UNOs), 168 are women. The imbalance in gender is set to increase further.
Meanwhile, the government continues to ensure women’s overall development and active participation in the mainstream socio-economic activities and remove all the barriers and establish their rights. Many international platforms also praise Bangladesh for reducing gender gaps.
The World Economic Forum recently ranked Bangladesh fi¬rst in gender equality among the South Asia nations for the second consecutive year.
The Forum’s “Gender Gap Index of 2018” highlights Bangladesh’s success in four key areas: education, economic participation, health, and political empowerment. While no country has eliminated the gender gap completely, Bangladesh has had a steady climb in the ranking, rising to number - 48 in the world in 2018.
Bangladesh continues to outperform its neighbors - India and Pakistan on measures of gender inequality. Bangladesh has achieved MDG in regard to gender parity and on the right track in fulfilling Sustainable Development Goal -5 (Gender Equality) before 2030.
In the private sector presence of women in Bangladesh is now well noticed and praised globally. Over 80 percent women out of an estimated 4 million work in the garments industry in Bangladesh making it the largest workforce in a single industry in the world.
During 2006-2017, the increase in the women's employment opportunities in the non-farm activities (mainly - livestock and poultry) in the rural areas was mainly encouraged by microcredit programs in which women play a crucial role.
Close to 88 percent of borrowers are women and a large part of their loan money is used in economic development like poultry and livestock rearing.
A Labour Force Survey data show that a signifi¬cant portion of females are employed in the agricultural sub-sectors like growing of non-perennial crops (42.3 percent), livestock farming (9.5 percent), etc. In addition, around 43 percent of rural women now contribute to ¬fisheries-related activities. Women now make up more than 60 percent of the fish farmers.
The government, under the charismatic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, also focused on increasing access to women-friendly public services and facilitate basic services at their workplaces.
For instance, around 18,000 community clinics were established where 80 percent service seekers are women and children, 3,000 midwife positions in government jobs created. Government introduced international standard midwifery course since 2010, six months paid maternity leave for government job holders’ daycare centers in government and private sector offi¬ces.
The government also established 152 hospitals to provide 24/7 emergency obstetric care service, set up Special Adolescent Health Programme in line with Global Strategy for Women Children and Adolescent’s Health, initiated 13,000 maternity centers. And many more.
As proud citizens the countrymen also witnessed smartly dressed women security surrounding the PM during her official visits while more women are joining the defense and other key areas including head of diplomatic missions.