Nature and Impact of Women’s Participation in Economic Activities in Rural Bangladesh: Insights from Household Surveys

This paper has been prepared as part of CPD's ongoing agricultural policy research. The paper was presented at the dialogue on Women's Contribution to Rural Economic Activities: Making the Invisible Visible. It presents some empirical evidences of recent changes in gender roles in economic activities, and impact of women's participation on their empowerment and the socioeconomic conditions of the household. The information presented in this paper comes mostly from analysis of gender-specific (male and female) survey data at two points of time, i.e., 1987 and 2000. The surveys covered samples from 62 villages from 57 districts.