This Presentation illustrates the status of women's participation in national & local level politics in Bangladesh. it also shows why women are lagging behind in politics. Hope this presentation will help readers to know about the condition of women in politics in Bangladesh.

1. Women in Politics in
Bangladesh
From National to Local level

2. Tasmia Haque
Department of Women & Gender Studies
8th Batch
University of Dhaka

3. Introduction
 The Un office of the special Adviser on Gender Issues and the advancement of
women (UN OSAGI) has firmly stated that gender equality is central to
development and poverty alleviation (UN OSAGI2001). International rights
frameworks commit signatory states to protect an established “universal” set of
rights to which poor and marginalized citizens can lay claim. Instruments such
as the convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) have highlighted
where mainstream tights frameworks have failed to act in favor of women-particularly
in relations to social and economical rights, which will be of
particular importance to poor women. In many cases women’s movements
working within civil society have been key players in holding governments to
account for commitments they have signed up to under international
frameworks. However, despite significant progress, the ability of many women
to ‘realize’ these rights may be limited. Poor women lack information, education
and access to legal processes, resulting in a gap between ‘paper’ and ‘actual’
rights..
Women have become more politically visible in the last two decades. A quota
has ensured women's presence in the local government and National Parliament.

4. Continued…..
The Platform for Action adopted at the Beijing Conference
affirmed that women’s equal participation in decision making is
not only a demand for justice and democracy but can also be
seen as a necessary condition for women’s interest to be taken
into account. Najma Chowdhury argues that political arena is
the main source and space for women’s empowerment.
(Chowdhury, 2003).
 Bangladesh as a signatory to the Beijing Platform for Action,
is committed to achieving equal participation of women in
politics and decision making.

5. Women in Politics: Existing
Statistics
 With regard to public life, women remain under-represented in international
and national decision and policy making bodies, including legislative and
economic bodies, and those agencies responsible for law and justice.
 women hold 10.5 % of the seats in the world’s Parliament.
Women occupy 2% of the parliamentary seats.
 2.22% of positions in the judiciary are held by women, only 20% members
of local government are women.
 only 7.88% of civil servants are women, but only 7.88% at decision-making
level.

6. Situation of Women in Politics at
National level
The constitution of the people's Republic Bangladesh drafted in 1972
guarantees certain rights and privileges to women as fundamental rights.
Such as: Article 27,28(1,2,3,4),29(1).
 These article mainly focus on equality, special provision in favor of
women and children.
 The Government has withdrawn reservation about some provisions of
CEDAW, relating to personal rights such as family benefits and
guardianship of children. The withdrawn reservations of Bangladesh
pertain to Article 13(a) and Article 16 (1) (b) of the convention.

7. The National Policy For The
Advancement of Women
The National Policy for the Advancement of
Women, which was declared by the prime Minister,
Shiekh Hasina, on March 8,1997.The main goals of
the policy are as follows:
 Establish equality between men and women in all
spheres, all forms of discrimination against women
and girls, women human rights etc.

8. Women’s Right to Vote
 In Bangladesh Women constitute about 50% of the
eligible votes. During the Democratic movement of
1990 and the caretaker government of 1995-1996
and in the former election the participation of
women has been radically changed.

9. Reserved seats in National
Parliament
 The number of Reserved Seats are increasing from
1973 to 2008.The number of reserved seats were 15
in 1973 and the number of reserved seats in
parliament was 50.So the percentage of women has
been increased from 4.8% to 18.55%

10. Political participation of women in
Local level
Women were first elected to local bodies in 1973. The Union Parishad Election of 1997 is a
milestone in the history of political empowerment of women in Bangladesh.
 The Constitution of Bangladesh emphasizes the participation of women at local level stating
that ‘ the state shall encourage local government institutions composed of representations of the
areas concerned and in such institutions special representations shall be given as far as possible to
peasants, workers and women’.
 The Government of Bangladesh enacted a law for direct elections to reserve seats for women in
local level elections. In 1997 through an Act, the Government reserved three seats for women in
the Union Parishad where women members are elected from each of the three respective wards.
 The majority of women representatives regularly attended Parishad meetings, but only a few of
them participated in the deliberations and decisions. The female representatives usually involved
themselves with mass education, family planning, immunization, handicrafts, relief activity, and
shalish (mediation in the village court).
 Throughout the decades, women members were selected and not elected.

11.  There are at present two types of local government institutions in
Bangladesh: one for rural areas and the other for urban areas.
Existing Structure of Local Government in Bangladesh
Rural-Regional Local Government Urban Local Government
Local Government Division (LGD) City Corporation
Zila (District) Parishad Pourashava
Upazila Parishad
Union Parishad

12. Women in Urban Local bodies:
City corporations and Pourshava
 In each Pouroshova there is a provision of a quota for at least 3 women
members who would be elected by the commissioners of the Pouroshova.
(Union Parisad, 1993).
Women have the right to vote as well as right to stand for election at these
local bodies.
 In 1992, 17 women contested for Ward Commissioner seats, but none was
elected (UNDP,1994).
 In June 2002, a total of 63 women Commissioners were elected in the
country’s 4 City Corporations.

13. Continued……..
 In 2011, Selina Haiyat Ivy was elected as the first Mayor in Narayangonj City
Corporation.
 Elected Women Commissioners of the Four City corporations (reserved seats for
women) in 2002 are given below:
City
Corporations
No of Ward
Commissioners
(Men)
Source: Election Commission, 2002.
No of Ward
Commissioners
(Women)
Dhaka 90 30
Chittagong 41 13
Rajshahi 30 10
Khulna 31 10

14. Women in Rural Local
Governance
 For the first time in the history of Bangladesh direct election for women
representatives was provided in the local government tier, the Union Parisad.
 Union Parisad consists of one chairperson, nine members in general seats, and
three women members in reserved seats, for a total of 13 persons. This means that
the percentage of women will be at least 23 percent. The nine general members
are directly elected from each of the Union’s nine wards. These positions are also
open to both men and women.
 The first election to the union Parisad took place in December 1997. about
45,000 female candidates contested in the election. A total of 13,000 women
candidates were elected in the election to represent women’s reserved seats ( The
Daily Janakanth, 1997).
 These direct election to one-third reserved seats in all local bodies has promoted
women in decision- making bodies.

15.  There exists a gap that- women members have been given no responsibilities despite their
inclusion and they are assigned to the job of looking after education and health care. They
are not included in the committees that deal with development projects and policies.
 Men have the access to all decision-making bodies and mostly controls the Parisad.
 Women's participation in election of Union Parisad are given below:
Election of
Union
Parisad
Women
Candidate
No of
Women
Chairperso
n
Source: Election Commission, 1992 & UNDP, 1994
Women
candidates
as member
Women
members
elected
1973 - 1 - -
1977 19 2 19 7
1984 - 6 863 -
1988 79 1 - -
1992 115 19 1135 -
1997 110 20 43969 110
2003 232 22 43764 85

16. Factors affecting the participation
of women in politics
 The factors that promote women’s participation in politics reflect on
the following aspects:
• Power bases of the elected women
• Assessment of their development perceptions, in particular, those
concerning poverty alleviation and women’s issues
• Their participation in development activities; their empowerment
process.
• Husbands education and occupation
• Public position of household members
• Involvement with various organizations
• Community support and Organizations
• Constrains in the discharge of their duties, and effective
involvement.

17. Why Women are lagging behind in
Political participation?
The participation of women in politics is still not that
satisfactory at all. There are several factors behind this:
Generally the persons –
 Who have strong networking and connection with the
leaders in national level.
 Who can bear the huge cost of election campaigns and thus
who can convince the public.
 Have much possibilities to get nomination from the political
parties. (Chowdhury, 2003). Women lag behind in these
criteria for some socio-cultural and political factors.

18.  Financial Hindrance
Islam(2003) and Mahtab (2012) argues that poverty is the most
pervasive among the most common and persistent barriers limiting
women’s ability to participate in politics. Most of the women in
Bangladesh do not own any property and those who own lack control
over it and hence they do not have money to use for the campaigns.
On the other hand, Islam(2003) asserts, that there prevails hugely the
use of Black Money with which women can hardly compete.
 Problem with women’s household chores
Islam (2003) argues that if women have her own earning still she do
not get time to work for political parties because she has to do the
household chores for which there is no fixed time. They have the
burden of Double Working Day. Mahtab (2012) asserts that women
carry primary responsibility for household and family maintenance. In
both urban and rural communities in Bangladesh , women of poorer
families augment the income and food supplies with agricultural labor
or informal employment. These dual obligations of household and
paid labor leave women with very little time and scope for politics

19. Hindrance of muscular strength
Islam(2003) confers that in today's politics there is a dominance
of muscular strength. The political leaders hire terrorists to gain
power. It threatens women’s security to join politics and to
compete.
Apathy of the political leaders to give nomination to
women
Islam (2003) also argues that political leaders, most of whom
are men, believes that women do not possess the qualities such
as ambition, deliverance, firmness etc needed to be a leader. So
they do not want to give nomination to women.

20. Lack of knowledge about their functions
 Social constraints from families and male Ward
Commissioners. Lack of cooperation from families and
male colleagues affects their participation.
Attitudinal constraints from society that politics are
seen as unwomanly acts which prevent them from
active role playing.

21. Position of Women in the Political
Parties
 All political parties have Women’s Branches. But they
are marginalized within the party. They cannot participate in
the party’s decision making significantly. Men politicians
tend to humiliate this special branch of women. Thus the
political parties are gendered where discrimination towards
the women are very acute. ( Islam, 2003)

22. Problem with the Reservations
 As discussed before that there have been reservations
for women to enhance their participation. In parliament
women of reserve seats are elected by the members of the
general seats. But Chowdhury and Islam(2003) argues
that as most of the members of the general seats are men
they dominate the reserved seats and elect women by
their caprice and after being elected they are seen as
secondary and their decisions are hardly valued.
 In the Union Parishad’s, women are elected directly.
But still they are seen as secondary. They do not get the
same respect as the general seats

23. Problem with Women’s Votes
Though a large number of women give votes, this
phenomenon does not reflect the truth. Islam(2003)
argues that many of the women give vote to a person
chosen by their fathers or husbands. They are forced
to do that. She also argues that though the custom of
‘purdah’ is falling, it is not totally gone. Women are
forbidden to come out of their home and to know
about the political sphere. So they do not even know
about the significance of their votes

24. Recommendations
According to the UN Division for Advancement of Women, the number of
women should be about to equal to that of the men in the parliament.
Islam(2003) suggests that if there is no reserve seats in Bangladesh, in present
circumstance, where patriarchy is dominant, women will not be able to fulfill
the number. So she suggests that the number of the reserved seats should be
increased and they should be elected directly and should be given important
ministries.
Hossain (2003) that the use of black money and terrorisms should strictly be
regulated.
Mahtab (2012) appreciates the NGOs to come forth with awareness building
programs for women to make them able to become politically aware.
Lastly, and most importantly, we can say that there must be overthrown of
patriarchal norms. All women should be given the opportunities to come up
with there potentials and to participate boldly in the politics. Male politicians
must learn to respect the females.

25. Reference
• Mahtab, N., 2012. Women, Gender and Development: Contemporary Issues.
AH Development Publishing House.
• Mahtab, N., 2007. Women in Bangladesh. AH Development publishing
House.
•Chowdhury, N.(2003). Narir Khomotayon: Rajniti O nari. In Hossain, S. and
Masudujjaman (Eds.),Narir Khomotayon: Rajniti O Andolon. Dhaka: Mowla
Brothers.
•Islam, M. (2003). Bangladeshe Narir Rajnoitic Khomotayon. In Hossain, S.
and Masudujjaman (Eds.),Narir Khomotayon: Rajniti O Andolon. Dhaka:
Mowla Brothers.
•Hossain, S. A. (2003). Nari: Rajnoitic Dal O Nirbachon. In Hossain, S. and
Masudujjaman (Eds.),Narir Khomotayon: Rajniti O Andolon. Dhaka: Mowla
Brothers.