Gender Inequality in Bangladesh: Analytical Essay

In the past ten years, Bangladesh has pass through intensive social changes, many of which have wedged gender inequality. Abundance rates have been halved, the gender gap in newborn incorporeity, as well as in primary and secondary schooling, has been tightened or closed altogether, the accessibility of micro-credit has enhanced the unity of women as well as their earning prospective, and large numbers of young women are leaving their villages to work in garment factories.

Though, even in those regions where development has been made, challenges still remain. Many of the upgraded gender indicators mask major economic dissimilarity. Poor women still lack acceptable access to generative health, and enrolment levels of girls in higher education remain low. There is also confirmation that the importance of girls’ education is alleged more in terms of better marriage prospects and not job aspirations. Women’s employments stages remain short, even by South Asian standards, and outdated insights about the role of women as home-makers persist.

Objectives

1. What are the factor influence gender inequality?
2. Why women are the victim most of the time?
3. How gender inequality impact socio economic system?
4. How to solve these problems?

Method

In my research I take information from secondary source that I find on google and also some information taken from the book Gender and Development and Contemporary Issues in Gender Relationship..

Methodology

In this paper I am trying to find the answer what are the factor and why women are the victim and also what are the socio impact in gender inequality. This study was conducted based on the data on various secondary sources like, Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES), Labor Force Survey (LFS) and other reports conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey (BDHS), Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS) etc.

Literature review

The factor influence gender Inequality in Bangladesh

There are some factor that influence gender inequality in many ways. My whole paper information is based on secondary data there are some factor that influence gender inequality- In my whole paper I will describe the information that I gather from internet and books.

Gender Inequality in Education

Global research has provided evidence on the critical linkage of educational status and it is being one of the key factors that prevents women from equal participation in socio economic activities with men and strengthens inequality between sexes. In Bangladesh, women are still restricted within their home from the birth with the perception that they will go away to other home after their marriage. Hence, they do not need education. Traditionally, female education has been accorded a low priority in Bangladesh due to poverty, social directives for female seclusion and the low value of girls. However, the situation is changing in recent time. Since the world Declaration for All (1990), the government introduced various measures to intensify basic education for all with particular focus on female education. Numerous affirmative actions were also introduced to enhance female literacy. However, there remains a considerable gap in enrollment literacy as well as the significantly higher proportion of female dropout from the system is still a major concern.

The percentage of literate children also varies according to the sex. The literacy of male children was 49.5 percent in 2000 at national level which has amplified to 61.12 percent in 2010 with an annual average increasing rate of 1.16 percent. Continuation of this rate indicates that the literacy rate of male children might be amplified to 65.77 percent at national level by 2014, which is 34.23 percent lower than the National Education Policy (NEP, 2010) target of 100 percent. Whereas, literacy rate of female children at national level was 40.1 percent in 2000 which has amplified to 54.8 percent in 2010 with an annual average increasing rate of 1.47 percent. Under the business as usual scenario, literacy rate of female might be 60.68 percent at national level in 2014, which is 39.32 percent lower than the National Education Policy (NEP, 2010) target of 100 percent. There are also high rural-urban variations in case of literacy rate by sex. This percentage of literacy was 45.5 percent and 64.9 percent in rural and urban area for male children in 2000 which has amplified to 56.67 percent and 73.1 percent in 2010 with an annual average increasing rate of 1.1 percent and 0.82 percent respectively. On the other hand, in 2000 literacy rate of female was 36.1 percent and 55.3 percent for rural and urban areas which has amplified to 50.21 percent and 67.67 percent in 2010 with an annual average increase rate of 1.41 percent and 1.24 percent respectively (Table 1). The annual average rate of increase in the percentage of female literacy at national, rural and urban level is comparatively higher than that of male. This might be due to the various education enhancing activities by governments and various NGOs.

Table 1: Current situation and future projection of literacy rate ( Female Male

Year National Rural Urban National Rural Urban

2000 40.1 36.1 55.3 49.5 45.5 64.9

2005 48.1 42.9 63.2 55.8 50.4 72.1

2010 54.8 50.21 67.67 61.12 56.67 73.1

2014* 60.68 55.85 72.61 65.77 61.14 76.38

Source: Authors’ calculation based on BBS data of different years

(This information taken from online source)

Despite considerable development in the percentage of literacy rate, still it is lower than the expected. However, the percentage of the literacy rate both for male and female are increasing but it is occurring at a slower rate than that of the previous year. It is observed that the annual rate of increase in the percentage of female literacy was 3.99 between 2000 and 2005 whereas it was 2.79 percent during 2005-2010. On the other hand, this increase rate for male was 2.55 percent per year during 2000-2005 and 1.91 percent during 2005-2010. Additionally, the annual rate of increase in the female literacy was 3.67, 3.91 and 2.24 percent at the national, rural and urban level respectively between 2000 and 2010. At the same tine (i.e. 2000-2010) the male literacy was increase with an annual rate of 2.35, 2.45 and 1.26 percent at national, rural and urban level respectively (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Annual growth rate in the percentage of literacy between 2000 and 2010 by sex

Source: Authors’ calculation based on BBS data of different years

Gender Inequality in Health Status

Bangladesh has extended some development in the health sector and has been successful in raising the average life expectation of its population. However, the situation of female health is still poor. The dissimilarity of child mortality between male and female is very high, where female child mortality is higher than that of their male counterparts. The child mortality in case of male was 46.7 per thousand live births in 1993-94, which has decreased to 16 per thousand live births in 2007 with an annual average decreasing rate of 2.19 per thousand live births. On the other hand, for female, it was 62.3 per thousand live births in 1993-94, which has been decreased to 20 per thousand live births in 2007 with the average decreasing rate of 3.02 per thousand live births per year. Furthermore, the development is occurring almost at the same pace as in the previous years for both male and female. Inequality prevails in the percentage of underweight children for male and female. This percentage of underweight children has decreased from 58.8 percent in 1996-1997 to 42.1 percent in 2007 with an annual average reduction rate of 1.45 percent per year for female children. At the same time, in case of male children, this percentage has decreased from 54.6 percent to 39.3 percent with an annual average reduction rate of 1.34 percent. Furthermore, the reduction rate in the percentage of underweight children has occurred at a slower rate than the previous years both for male and female children. (This information is taken by online source)

Gender Inequality in Employment

There exists a massive inequality between the male and female in Bangladesh as far as employment status is concerned. However, although there are some improvements in the recent years but it is still low than that of expected. In 1993-94, employed male population was 57.5 percent and it was 10.6 percent for female at the national level. The percentage of employed population for both male and female has reduced to 44.2 percent and 9.7 percent respectively in 1999-2000. Again, the percentage of employed male and female has amplified to 68.3 percent and 22.9 percent in 2007 from 67.5 percent and 15.2 percent in 2004 respectively at the national level. Furthermore, it is also observed that the increasing rate in the percentage of employed population has occurred with a higher rate for female than that of male. Although there is little development in the percentage of economically active population, the number of population who are unemployed are still growing. Unemployed population has improved from 1.3 million in 1995-96 to 2.7 million in 2009 with an average of 0.13 million per year. In case of male, it has amplified with an annual average of 0.06 million and for female it was 0.05 million at the same period (1995-96 to 2009). (This information taken from online source)

Reasons behind and women are the victim of Gender Discrimination in Bangladesh

Although there are some initiatives taken by the government to address the problems of gender inequality, the development in reducing gender inequality is not satisfactory due to several reasons. The society we live is patriarchal that’s why women are the victim most of the time. Our society construct such way that men is superior in every terms in women.

Structural and Social Institutions

Traditionally, women were often discouraged from participating in public life and were mainly recognized only for their reproductive role. The social forces, which are creating gender dissimilarities, are based on the age-old patriarchal traditions and values that still prevail in most of the parts of Bangladesh. Traditional perceptions about the role of women as home-makers still persist.

Lack of Explicit Policy Initiatives

There are no effective policies to ensure women’s security at home, educational institutions, road, organizations and the like. Increasing violence against women is now a grave concern. Under these circumstances, parents are more likely to keep their girls inside their home. Hence, they are not able to participate in education, health, employment or other sectors. Therefore, inequality is still persisting

Preoccupied Mind-set

There are perceptions that men are better off than women are as far as the ability to work is concerned and only men can look after their parents. That is why girls are subject to discrimination from their births. In addition, son preferences in the traditional Bangladeshi society create gender discrimination. In the case of employment, the employers in Bangladesh still tend to employ men first rather than women.

Early Marriage

Early marriage of girls is a very common phenomenon in Bangladesh. Early marriage is one of the vital barriers to women’s and girls’ education, health and employment. Early marriage has historically limited young women’s access to education and thereby to employment opportunities as well as creating a vulnerable situation to their health.

Gender inequality impact on socio economic system

Gender inequality is a result of the persistent discrimination of one group of people based upon gender and it displays itself differently according to race, culture, politics, country and economic situation. Bangladesh is under-developed country that’s why economic system is not good enough and that’s the reason create dependence in gender where male dominate women. It is still considered as a casual factor of ferocity against women. While gender discrimination occurs to both men and women in separate situations, discrimination against women is an deep-rooted, global epidemic. The world today is characterized by fast renovations in all spheres of life that is globalization. By this time of globalization, struggle for gender equality is a matter of fear also. Women’s opportunities and public involvement have changed extensively in recent decades. For example, major development has been made in closing the gender gap in school enrollments at both primary and secondary levels. The rapid growth of the garment industry has provided a large number of formal sector jobs for women. Moreover, the society belongs to us is highly patriarchal and gender discrimination is common at all levels of community. Women are dependent on men throughout the whole time of their lives. The range starts from father to husbands to sons. The constitutional affirmations of gender equality are also present in our country. However, the state lawmaking always overlooks the rights of women. From time to time, women, young girls and female children are more underprivileged than male in their access to education, employment, health care services etc. Traditionally, women are recognized only for reproductive purposes and are encouraged to do only household works other than outside works. Empowerment of women and bringing them into the mainstream economic activities and ensuring equal opportunity are the major targets of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as pursued by the government of Bangladesh. The status of women in Bangladesh is the direct result of the patriarchal values fixed in the socio-culture pattern reflecting systematic subordination and inequality of women. In Bangladesh women are dominated by a patrilineal and patriarchal kinship system, which imposes the social and economic dependence of women on men, and prescribes the relative inferior status of women. However, there has been steady development in reducing gender inequality in different sectors (education, health, employment etc.) but there exists a huge inequality in these sectors of Bangladesh and participation of women is very low compared to their male counterpart. As a least developed country, it is very difficult to accomplish the expected development without addressing gender inequality in Bangladesh. Under these circumstances, an effort is made in this report to explore the gender inequality in Bangladesh and impact of economic system is very high. Women also contribute to the economic system but their contribution do not recognize properly because the society structural system. In modern day women still face glass ceiling barrier in work place and in family. That’s why its create huge gap in economic status.

Data analysis

All my information are taken from secondary source. In my analysis I find out that the main reason behind gender discrimination is our society system. Patriarchal society is the root cause for gender inequality.

Conclusion

Although some irregular steps have been taken at the policy level to reduce gender inequality in different sectors but fruits of these steps have not been transformed into reality because of the lack of proper monitoring and implementation. Women consistently find themselves in low-status, low-paying jobs with few opportunities for development. The results of this study point out not only the degree of gender inequality in different sectors (education, health and employment) but also its shape, which should be considered in formulating effective policies. The study reveals that the development in reducing gender inequality is occurring at a slower rate than the previous years. The promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women are crucial to the development of sound population and development strategies and crucial for sustainable development. It will also be difficult to reach the MDGs targets unless serious efforts are undertaken on the part of the government. Although government trying their best but its not enough. It is quite obvious that without addressing gender inequality, the desired development may be unachievable. Traditional attitudes and gender-stereotyped roles of women often prevent society as a whole to recognize women’s equal rights in both private and public domains. The underline structural factors include not just poverty, but also a culture of acceptance, lack of effective community structures, harmful practices, inappropriate and ineffective distribution and exploitation of resources in the context of a strong patriarchal society. Women are subjected to inequalities in the family, in the community and in the work place. Discrimination against girls starts at birth and continue through the lifecycle. However, over the past few decades, much has been achieved to reduce the impediments to women’s development. The government has demonstrated strong commitment to achieve gender equality through policy reform and programed development. There have been some efforts by non-governments organizations to increase women’s participation in socio-economic activities and enhance their economic ability. While there are some developments, challenges still remain critical to accomplish substantive equality between women and men. In order to achieve the target, the government needs to be creative in renovating and revising strategies and approaches. Otherwise, the aims of achieving gender equality might remain elusive and a distant dream.