Women, Cultural Ideology, and Change in Rural Bangladesh

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Abstract
This paper is concerned with women and empowerment. It stresses the ideological perspective of gender roles in Bangladesh and the realities of poor rural women's lives. The conceptualization of gender in Bangladesh is culturally constructed and socially organized. Ideologically, women are powerless in the economic and social arenas. Persistent poverty in the country has compelled the structure of the household to change. Now many poor rural women break the ideological norm of the society and work outside the culturally determined “private sphere” for their survival. These women gain access to a resource base and new power relations within society in general and in the household in particular. The sustainability of this gain for women lies in their empowerment, and NGOs working at the grassroots can play a crucial role in this regard. The role that NGOs have already had in Bangladesh are exemplified in this paper for a better understanding of empowerment and its implications for future development planning.

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