Women’s Representation and Participation in Local Government in Bangladesh: New Openings and Remaining Barriers

Abstract

This paper seeks to provide an in-depth analysis of women’s experience in local government and their ability to exercise political agency to negotiate local-level politics and various barriers. Despite the wealth of literature on the impact of quotas and direct elections on women’s representation at the local level and various program evaluation studies, there is a lack of nuanced and context-grounded scholarship on what are the different pathways through which women gain access to political power at the local level and what enhances women’s political agency (i.e., being effective representatives). This chapter aims to address this gap. The findings of the study show that the quality and processes of women’s engagement in the local-level bodies have changed, their awareness and knowledge about political and community affairs as well as about their rights and entitlements have increased, and they are increasingly independent actors in their own right.