Empowering Women in Bangladesh

This book investigates the deep linkages between gender and grassroots politics. It studies how women candidates in Bangladesh are elected in reserved seats in the local government bodies and explores the challenges that they face both from within the domestic unit and from the government administration. The book focuses on grassroots-level governance and provides a comparative study between selected rural and urban local government institutions in different socio-economic, educational, and cultural contexts. It documents loopholes in the system of quota seats for women, allocation of electoral constituency, and elected representatives' rights and responsibilities. It also studies the life-changing impact of women at different levels of governance and society and offers important policy implications for furthering their participation and empowerment. A major intervention in the study of Bangladesh and its politics, this key text will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of political science, public administration, gender studies, public policy, and South Asian studies.

Shajeda Aktar is Chairperson at the Department of Public Administration, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. She has 18 years of research and teaching experience at the university level. Her research interests include public policy, electoral representation, women empowerment, capacity building, gender mainstreaming, poverty, public health, and household dynamics. She has published numerous papers in reputed journals, edited books and presented her works in conferences at home and abroad. She is skilled in managing team-based research projects, keen to share knowledge and promote open discussions. She obtained her PhD from Flinders University (Australia) with the prestigious award of Vice-Chancellor's Gold Medal for Excellence in PhD Thesis, and Honours and Master's from University of Rajshahi.

1. The Silent Souls 2. Ignored Instinct: Citizenship and Governance in a Conservative Setting 3. Framing Empowerment: The Dynamics of Gender Mainstreaming 4. In the Battle: Women's Crusade to Enter into Electoral Politics 5. Floating Against the Tide: Women in Local Government Functioning 6. Let There Be Light: Elected Representatives and Empowerment of the Wider Womenfolk 7. Epilogue: Resource, Agency and Achievement Holding Public Offices