Measuring Dimensions of Women Empowerment in North-West Region of Bangladesh: A Case Study

Abstract

The current study was aimed to measure the different dimensions of women empowerment and identify the factors affecting women empowerment in the North-West Bangladesh. To conduct the study, 537 female respondents who had at least one biological child aged between 6 to 59 months were selected purposively from eight districts of North-West region of Bangladesh using stratified random sampling technique. To identify the factors which influence different dimensions of women empowerment, binomial logistic regression model was used. Descriptive result showed that the overall women empowerment are 13%, where the dimension wise empowerment are (self-esteem – 36%, access to and control over resources – 24%, attitude and behaviour of husband – 48%, decisions related to household – 19%, and mobility– 12%). The factors which significantly influence different dimensions of women empowerment were exposure to media, attitude and behaviour of husband, mother’s employment, spousal age difference, mother’s education, wealth index, family religion, public speaking power, participation in community events, household size and ownership in tangible resources. The result showed that education plays a significant role to improve the level of empowerment of female respondents of NW Bangladesh. When level of education of mothers increased, the self-esteem and access to and control over resources also improved. The study concluded that as the level of empowerment of women living in the NW region are comparatively low in the context of Bangladesh, therefore to increase their empowerment, the study recommended for underlining on quality education for the respondents especially urban and peri-urban areas to move out from poverty.