Participation and Decision Making Role of Rural Women in Economic Activities: A Comparative Study for Members and Non-Members of the Micro-Credit Organizations in Bangladesh

Yoshihito Itohara,Mahmuda Hoque

doi:10.3844/jssp.2008.229.236

Abstract

The study was aimed to know the present status of rural women's participation and decision making role in economic activities (called EAs from here) in Bangladesh. The sample of the study consisted of 92 farm women from Rampur village of Palashbari upazila under Gaibandha district. Necessary data for the study were collected with questionnaire by personal interviewing of the respondent women covering all types of farm families (i.e., landless, marginal, small, medium and large). Result showed that among the agricultural activities rural women's participation was relatively higher in various post harvest activities and livestock management activities than other agricultural activities. On the other side, their participation was almost nil in the case of aquaculture activities while few of them participate in some selected non-agricultural activities like handicrafts making, tailoring and Nakshi katha making. It was also evident from the study that farm women were contributing in household income through participating in EAs. The result of the study explored that woman's personal income, institutional participation and training received by the women are the most influential factors for increasing the extent of participation of women in EAs. Findings also showed that in most of the cases women's participation in decision making process regarding various family affairs is lower than their male counter part. However, both in participation in EAs and decision making process NGO women were in the leading edge than the Non-NGO women.

Highlights

Women have made important contributions in almost every aspects of our society from the time immemorial
Women’s participation in economic activities (EAs) and their personal income: The main objective of the study was to know the status of participation of farm women in different EAs the information related to this objective has been shown in the Table 2
From the above discussion it has been learnt that despite their poor socio-economic status the rural women of Gaibandha district actively participate in various EAs especially livestock & poultry management, various post-harvest operations and few non-agricultural activities

Summary

Introduction

Women have made important contributions in almost every aspects of our society from the time immemorial. Women in Bangladesh have an anchoring role in the management of their families as well as equal participation in different EAs like crop production, post-harvest activities, poultry rearing, management of livestock and fisheries, pisciculture and miscellaneous income generating activities[2]. In the rural areas resource poor households’ women’s participation in income generating activities is high because these households have higher number of family members in compare to lower number of capable male earning members. They are intimately involved in all phases of agricultural activities: from sowing seeds to harvesting and processing of crops. Even women from the poorest households sometimes work outside the home as paid laborers for their family survival[3]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion