by Marufa Akter

Ms. Marufa Akter is Field Researcher for the Pathways of Women's Empowerment Development Studies Programme at BRAC University Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is one of the signatories of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women signed in 1993. Yet today it is known that about 47% of women in Bangladesh are being subjected to different kinds of violence by men and male relations. Bangladesh is a country in which the structure of the society strongly upholds patriarchal values, norms and traditions. Women here have been subjected to exploitation and negligence for centuries. The status of women has been ranked the lowest in the world on the basis of twenty indicators related to health, marriage, children, education, employment and social equality.¹ Women in Bangladesh are victims of inequality, abuse, oppression and exploitation, social customs and traditions, illiteracy and face a lack of employment opportunities which have hampered the total integration of women in the mainstream development activities in Bangladesh.

All these aspects have made women more vulnerable and maintained the unequal status between men and women. The value of women's unpaid work in Bangladesh needs to be critically addressed. Another area which needs to be examined is how the traditional structure of Bangladesh strongly upholds patriarchal values, norms and traditions which define the men's role as primary bread winner of the family, and restricts women's role as mothers, wives, daughters and primary care givers in the family without recognizing their other labour values (household work, community work). Without this recognition, women's contribution inside the home will remain valueless.

So, I believe the unequal status in terms of access to resources in society results in women's increased vulnerability to exploitation and violence in Bangladesh. There is a relation between access to resources - like access to money - and the vulnerability of women, and this is directly linked to the fact that the question of the 'valuation of women's unpaid labour' has not been addressed in Bangladesh. This is because; money is the means of exchange, and route to the accumulation of wealth and power.

A holistic approach in the context of Bangladesh is needed in order to identify and recognize women's reproductive role, but also to recognize the productive roles women perform for the family, society and for the country that are necessary for its economic development. This approach should contextualize issues affecting women, and stimulate proper gender planning. It is obvious that the social value of the labour effort rests on its monetary equivalence and should receive proper recognition. Ultimately, this social valuation of women would give them gives them self-reliance; internal strength as well as greater bargaining power through which they would be able to overcome sources of their vulnerability.