Pathways to Women’s Empowerment in Bangladesh

The present work is the out come of the field study by the writer on the role of Grameen microcredit in changing the life patterns of rural women of Monigram, Bangladesh. She conducted her field study in a remote rural area. Namely, Monigram union in Bagha Upazila under Rajshahi District. It was a part of her M. Phil. Research study in gender and development at the University of Bergen, Norway. Her research interest was not to evaluate GB’s policy on loan disbursement, but to study the effect of collateral free Grameen microcredit on the daily life patterns of the GB borrower ladies of Monigram, who were in all respects treated as chattels in their in law’s house. She made a somewhat elaborate discussion on the theoretical issues on empowerment and presented the interesting transformation from the WID (Women in Development) approach to GAD (Gender and Development) approach passing through the WAD (Women and Development) approach. She employed to important data collection strategies to collect data: participatory observation and in-depth interview. Empowerment, according to the writer, is to be taken in a special contextual sense in the case of the rural Bangladeshi societies, which are dominated by strict patriarchal ideals. A mollified version of empowerment is the view the author suggests and she presented certain indicators to define such an empowerment. She holds that in her study area, the empowerment of women has just begun and women can be considered as being on.