Boosting women’s labour force participation: Opportunities and challenges in Bangladesh

Editor’s note: This article is the first in a series of posts reflecting on how the evidence from VoxDevLits applies to specific contexts. This post explores how evidence on Female Labour Force Participation relates to Bangladesh.

Increasing women’s labour force participation is essential for promoting their empowerment and ensuring equitable growth and prosperity. It also contributes to human capital development, particularly through the investments working mothers make in their children’s education and nutrition, with a greater impact on girls (Qian 2008, Atkin 2009).

Gender norms and the economic and social realities of Bangladeshi women 

Currently, less than half (43%) of working-age Bangladeshi women participate in the labour market, compared to 80% of men (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics [BBS] 2023a). While Bangladeshi women fare better than their counterparts in most South Asian and Arabic-speaking countries, they remain significantly behind on a global scale (World Bank Gender Data Portal n.d.). Most working women in Bangladesh are engaged in informal employment (96.6%) (BBS 2023a), which is usually home-based, seasonal, and low-paying. Therefore, a critical policy problem in the country is to simultaneously increase both women’s labour force participation rate and the quality of their employment.

Several supply- and demand-side challenges impede Bangladeshi women’s labour market participation, many of which stem from entrenched gender norms and values. In a patriarchal and conservative society like Bangladesh, there is strong social disapproval of women’s work, especially outside the home. A 2022 national perception survey by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) and The Asia Foundation (TAF) revealed that nearly 43% of male and 22% of female respondents opposed women working outside the home. Moreover, when asked whether men should be prioritised over women in employment, two-thirds of male and 56% of female respondents expressed their support for this view, reflecting the widespread belief in traditional gender roles, with men seen as breadwinners and women as primary caregivers and homemakers (Rahemin 2023). As a result, Bangladeshi women spend an average of 5.8 hours a day on household and care work, compared to just 0.8 hours spent by men (BBS 2023b)—restricting women’s mobility and severely limiting their opportunities for education, skill-building, and employment.

The same gender norms and values negatively affect the demand for female labour. Discrimination is a key demand-side constraint. While global evidence on gender discrimination in specific jobs and levels is limited—including in Bangladesh (Sultan et al. 2016)—women generally face significant discrimination throughout the entire hiring process (Heath et al. 2024). What constitutes an “appropriate” job for women—what they can and should do—is dictated by social norms and values, limiting the demand for female labour in many job sectors. Discrimination can also be paternalistic, for example, stemming from the belief that certain jobs are dangerous for women (Buchmann et al. 2023). In Bangladesh, a large number of jobs remain virtually off-limits for women, such as driving, plumbing, appliance servicing, and construction work, and jobs considered “feminine” tend to be low-paying.

Education is not translating into jobs for women in Bangladesh

The fertility rate in Bangladesh is below the replacement rate (1.9) (World Bank Data Portal n.d.), and free education and stipends for women up to the higher secondary level have ensured that most Bangladeshi women (98.65%)  have at least some educations (BBS 2023a). Yet, their labour market participation remains underwhelming. In fact, it appears that education is not correlated with their participation, largely due to both societal norms and values and a lack of opportunities.

Higher education can improve women’s labour market outcomes, but only if it leads to better job opportunities. A mixed-method study by Kabeer et al. (2021) finds that most Bangladeshi women prefer home-based economic activities, as outside options come with steep challenges posed by family and society. Indeed, household-based work is the largest source of employment for Bangladeshi working women, with 37% of them engaged in such work compared to 14% of men (BBS 2023a). Women can only break the societal and familial barriers to join the labour force when they find “respectable,” as defined by society, and better-paying job opportunities (Kabeer et al. 2021), like that of a teacher or a government officer.

However, the reality is that better-paying, formal job opportunities are limited in economies like Bangladesh. That is why even though only 6% of Bangladeshi women and 10% of men have tertiary (graduate-level) education, their labour market participation rates are worse than those with primary (grades 1–5) or secondary (grades 6–10) education (BBS 2023a). Graduate degree holders have the highest unemployment rates, almost double the national rate for men and nearly six times the rate for women (BBS 2023a). Of those employed, only 44% of men and 26% of women successfully secure formal employment (BBS 2023a). While there are strong arguments about the skills mismatch and low quality of education among the country’s graduates, there are simply not enough formal jobs to begin with, and women with graduate degrees are at a clear disadvantage compared to their male counterparts in securing one.

Women with higher secondary-level education (grades 11–12) are also instructive in understanding the role of norms; this group has by far the lowest labour market participation rate relative to any other educational group—far below those with tertiary, secondary, or primary education (BBS 2023a). One reason could be that they tend to be better off than women with lower education levels, and thus, their financial incentive to work may not be strong enough to overcome familial and societal barriers. And since their education does not significantly improve their chances of finding better jobs, two-thirds of working-age women in this group are not in the labour force (BBS 2023a).

In this context, vocational education programmes have emerged as a potential policy solution for creating productive employment for youths in developing countries, many of which focus on women. While there is extensive evidence of their effect on women’s employment outcomes, this impact is usually modest and diminishes over time due to the other substantial obstacles women face (Heath et al. 2024). Bangladesh’s experience corroborates this finding. BRAC’s Skills Development Programme (SDP), which provides vocational and entrepreneurship training to disadvantaged youths, struggles to retain female trainees in employment, especially after they get married. A randomised controlled trial (RCT) on a vocational skills training programme of SDP found that the impacts on female participants’ employment and earnings diminish over time, and married women experience smaller short-term impacts and larger long-term reductions than their unmarried counterparts (Das 2021).

Changing norms and values requires a big push

Norms and values tend to be sticky, which continues to obstruct women’s economic empowerment. Some existing evidence suggests that providing information to correct misconceptions—for example, about the nature of the workplace and the level of societal disapproval of women’s work—can improve their short-term employment prospects. However, long-term, significant desired shifts in norms and values are more likely to follow from concrete opportunities and empowerment (Field et al. 2021, Ho et al. 2023). The Bangladeshi ready-made garments (RMG) industry is a case in point, which created formal employment for millions of women with limited education and, in the process, has improved societal attitudes towards women working outside the home (Rahman et al. 2023). However, orchestrating such systemic shifts is complex, uncertain, and extremely difficult. What, then, are some evidence-based, focused interventions to boost women’s labour force participation in Bangladesh?

The potential of childcare in Bangladesh

Limited access to childcare services is one of the greatest hurdles for women to take on outside work, especially in urban areas where the support of extended family and close community is usually unavailable. A recent qualitative study by BIGD in low-income urban settlements found that women frequently struggle to juggle childcare responsibilities and outside work, often forcing them to quit the latter (Brockie et al. 2024). Research from many developing countries shows that childcare responsibilities significantly affect maternal labour market outcomes—participation, type of employment, hours of work, and income—and that affordable childcare services can significantly improve these outcomes (Heath et al. 2024). Community-based childcare has emerged as a potential solution (Heath et al. 2024), which is most relevant to the low-income urban context. The above-mentioned BIGD study finds that of all the possible childcare options, mothers prefer home-based, informal childcare facilities due to trust in their children’s safety, ease of access, and affordability. The study also finds that even though some women working in RMG have access to factory-based daycare, they find it difficult to carry their children to work, as almost all of them walk miles to and from the factory.

Harassment is a key barrier to women in Bangladesh: More evidence on policy options is needed

Harassment in public spaces, especially on public transport, is a widespread problem in Bangladesh. The fear of being harassed and the associated stigma severely limit women’s mobility and, consequently, their labour market outcomes. While reserved seats for women on public buses have long existed in the country, their number remains grossly inadequate. Consequently, female commuters in Bangladesh suffer many unintended consequences of this policy, such as verbal aggression from male commuters, being made to feel unwelcome, and often being denied service to general seating areas. While the policy is necessary—otherwise, many women would find it impossible to take generally overcrowded public buses—it cannot be the main solution. Evidence from Lima, Peru, suggests that improved urban infrastructure, which enables faster and safer transit for women, increased their employment prospects by ten percentage points and boosted hourly income by 23% (Martinez et al. 2020) . Similar developments in Bangladesh, particularly the metro rail system in the capital city of Dhaka, are promising and warrant further study.

Opportunities on the firm side for boosting participation

Work amenities, particularly flexibility, have been identified as another promising solution for facilitating women’s employment. Evidence from multiple contexts suggests that an opportunity to work from home significantly increases women’s likelihood of employment, at least in the short run (Heath et al. 2024). An RCT conducted by BIGD found that online freelancing training for educated, underprivileged women significantly increased their income, employment, and hours of work, primarily through freelancing, which can be done from home at flexible hours (Arman et al. 2022). However, a qualitative exploration found no reduction in the burden of their domestic responsibilities, leading to an overall increase in their total workload (Jahan et al. 2023), which raises questions about the sustainability of working from home for women.

Entrepreneurship is another possible option that provides women with flexibility and control over their time use. In recent years, thousands of Bangladeshi women have started businesses using social media platforms, taking advantage of the minimal capital requirements, flexibility, and home-based nature of the work. These online ventures have developed organically, but can entrepreneurship among women be systematically fostered through training? Research finds modest impacts of basic entrepreneurship training on female entrepreneurs’ profit and sales in many contexts (Heath et al. 2024). A study in Bangladesh on an entrepreneurship development program of BRAC, conducted by BIGD, found a large impact on the self-employment and income of female participants. More significantly, the conditional loan component of the programme further enhanced the impact (Khan et al. 2024).

Conclusions on female labour force participation in Bangladesh

While the growing body of evidence provides a robust foundation for designing development interventions, policymakers must always consider the local context in which these initiatives are implemented. I conclude with some key areas where more evidence is needed in the Bangladesh context for women’s economic empowerment. 

• First, despite promises, community-based childcare facilities in low-income urban areas in Bangladesh are few and far between, often developing organically without a clear business model. Can they be scaled up? BRAC is piloting a low-cost, community-based childcare model in low-income areas of Dhaka, and BIGD is conducting an impact evaluation of the pilot to assess its feasibility and impact.
• Second, in this digital era, can digital connectivity, including digital finance, help women become economically empowered? BIGD’s WEE-Difine and WEE-Connect initiatives are trying to create an evidence base around this question.
• And finally, the broader question of gender norms and values cannot be avoided if we want to see a significant, sustained improvement in women’s labour force participation. Thoughtfully designed, low-cost behavioural nudges should be tested to find potential interventions for shifting norms in the Bangladesh context.         

Given the profound, persistent, and pervasive role that gender norms and values play in women’s lives, especially in the developing world, the approach to their economic empowerment must be nuanced, iterative, and patient.     

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