Women's empowerment

Unfortunately our social and political conditions are far from conducive to women working independently with their feminine identity. The society still nurtures discriminatory attitudes towards them although the constitution of Bangladesh has guaranteed equal status of women and men in all spheres of life under the articles 28(1) 28(2) and 28(3).

For many years women are left far behind men. Socio-cultural and religious factors are the main reasons behind this backwardness . And women are dominated by men in the society. They are discouraged to work outside. They are deprived of their rights in many ways. Because of patriarchal attitude in our society, gender situation is worse in Bangladesh than in any other South Asian country.

In working places women are often harassed by their male colleagues (physically and mentally). When a woman has entered in a new working place, whether in government, semi-government, autonomous or private sector, it may so happen if her boss is male. He may not like her and always want to dominate her. Supportive attitudes and fellow feelings among staff are often absent. Some people do believe men are born to dominate and women are to be subordinate.

But in some cases male colleagues are very co-operative and helpful. So we have to work hard to establish equal relationship between women and men in the society. We have to change the outlook of both men and women.

The concept of gender is an important analytic tool in planning, management, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes, as it requires that women are considered in relation to men in a socio-cultural setting and not as an isolated group. So we need to --
- Change the outlook of staff with gender training;
- Create an environment where women's voice on gender issues are heard and problems can be solved in the departments through open discussion with the staff;
- Take disciplinary action against staff who harass, undermine, insult and tease female staff;
- Promote supportive attitude and fellow feeling among male and female staff;

Female participation in decision making as well as in senior positions is very insignificant which implies that their voice is hardly counted in the process of policy formulation and decision making. This is not envisaged. In future we want a society where women will not be neglected and harassed by any of their male colleagues. It will take time. But we must be optimistic with our efforts.

Mahmuda Imam is a freelance writer.