Analyzing the Gender Sensitivity of Rural Advisory Services in Bangladesh

Publication Year: 2017
Author: M. Wakilur Rahman, Nishith Zahan Tanny, M. Serajul Islam

Analyzing the Gender Sensitivity of Rural Advisory Services in Bangladesh, M. Wakilur Rahman, Nishith Zahan Tanny, M. Serajul Islam, 2017

Gender relations in Bangladesh have been undergoing a process of considerable transformation over the past thirty years as part of a broader process of economic transition and societal change. Women farmers made up 40 percent of the total agricultural labor force in 2010, with a 7 percent growth in women’s participation in agriculture between 2005 and 2010 (Akter et.al., 2015). Evidence shows that the wage difference between men and women in agriculture decreased from 40% to 30% for the year 2011/12 to 2013/14, which can be taken as a positive change (FPMU, 2015; BBS Monthly Bulletin, 2015), although the gap is still very high. Despite such progress, Bangladeshi women are still primarily considered to be unpaid family labor (56.3% of women in the labor force), and their contributions to agriculture are not fully recognized, neither in the household and communities nor at the national level (SFYP, 2015).