Change and persistence in rural Bangladeshi women's roles
Ai Sugie (Nagoya University)
Shakil Khan (Chubu Manufacturing)agnes2aisha@gmail.com / khanshakil2014jp@gmail.com
Bangladesh has experienced a rapid decline of the total fertility rate (TFR) since the independenceof the country (1971) and almost achieved population replacement in 2017 (Figure 1). This
presentation seeks to examine how rural Bangladeshi women’s roles have changed along with thedecline of TRF. It focuses on participation in education, productive and reproductive work and life
course choices with paying attention not only to difference between men and women but also todifference within women particularly in the respect of social class. The presenter has conducted
fieldwork in villages in the Southern part of Tangail district, located about 80 km northwest of
Dhaka and since 2007. The survey method is unstructured interview and participate observation.
Bangladesh is a Muslim majority country (more than 90 percent of the population is Muslims) but
basically patriarchal society irrespective of religion and ethnicity. In case of Muslims, all sonsinherits equally and all daughters also have share in inheritance. But they usually transfer theirinheritance right to their brothers or the other paternal relatives. Nowadays we can see the increaseof love marriage but arranged marriage is dominant and considered legitimate. The bride is usuallytaken into the groom's family. The nuclear family is commonly observed today because extreme
impoverishment in rural area until the middle of the 1980s had caused the breakdown of joint familysystem.
As a whole, social and economic environment surrounding women has drastically changed sincethe late 1980s in Bangladesh. The enrollment ratio had rapidly increased in the middle of the 1990s(Figure 2). Female enrollment ratio was improved by the government’s policy; it has provided
scholarship all female students in the secondary school since 1993. This policy aims not only to
spread girls education but also to reduce fertility. One of the conditions for receiving scholarship is
not to marry until passing the exam of SSC (Secondary School Certificate).
The idea that men earn outside and women do housework is still common although female spatialand social mobility has increased. Women who had to maintain herself and her family used to haveno way without being domestic servants, agricultural labors or beggars once. Garment sector has
became one of most important industries in Bangladesh particularly since the end of 1990s. About
60% of employees in garment factory has been female since then. However, desirable work forhigher educated women has been still very limited and not available without connection and ability
to pay high amount of bribe. The quality gap in education has also caused a sharp difference betweensocial classes in female labor force participation. Under such a situation, female educational
qualification is generally considered to a kind of social status to marry a high status husband, rather
than a means of support.
Thus, female roles have been diversified like becoming students or breadwinners as garment
factory workers. But their roles as wives and mothers have never changed. For most women,
marriage is the only available and accepted option in their lives in the respect of social norms as wellas practical problems for survival. It is hard to live alone for a woman without her husband, even she
is a victim of domestic violence, because of economic and social pressure. Only upper class womenin urban area may be able to choose single life. There is a huge gap between upper class women withprestige and the others, the vast proportion of women.
The tendency of son preference as well as social pressure to women who have no child is also
extremely high. Infertility is regarded as abnormal and the fault of women even husband is sterile.
Some demographers who emphasize female education’s contribution to the fertility decline tend toplainly consider that higher educated women can make a decision on reproduction moreautonomously. However, it is very challenging to change the social norm of gazing women as ‘thechildbearing sex’. It does not become easier for women to oppose the social norm, just because theyreceive higher education. We guess that the tendency that women marry and bear one or twochildren will not easily change in rural Bangladesh.

Figure 1 Total fertility rate in Bangladesh, 1971-2017
Notes) Each datum of 1971-1975 and 1994-1988 is by 1975 Bangladesh Fertility Survey (BFS) and 1989 BFS. The
datum of 1989-1991 is by 1991 Contraceptive Prevalence Survey (CPS). Each datum of 1991-93, 1994-96, 19971999, 2001-2003 and 2004-2006 is by 1993-1994 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS), 1996-1997
BDHS, 1999-2000 BDHS, 2004 BDHS, and 2007 BDHS. See the source for more details.
Source) National Institute of Population Research and Training (NIPORT), Mitra and Associates, and Macro
International. 2009. Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2007. Dhaka, Bangladesh and Calverton, Maryland,
USA: National Institute of Population Research and Training, Mitra and Associates, and Macro International, p. 50.
https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FR207/FR207[April-10-2009].pdf, CIA World Factbook.
https://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?v=31&c=bg&l=en

Figure 2 Gross enrolment ratio in secondary schools, 1973-2017
Notes: Each datum from 1973 to 2004 is by the World Bank. Each datum from 2008-2017 is bySource: The World Bank, Education Statistics. https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/dataset/education-statistics
UNESCO, Date for the sustainable development goals. http://uis.unesco.org/country/BD#slideoutmenu
BANBEIS 2017. Bangladesh Education Statistics 2017. Dhaka: BANBEIS. http://data.banbeis.gov.bd/