Women have played a vital role from the liberation struggle of Bangladesh till date. And they have made immeasurable sacrifices for the nation. However, the existing political structure of Bangladesh does not provide enough scope for women in politics to flourish until they come from a politically affluent background.
Bangladesh has had a female prime minister in charge of the nation for more than 33 years since it returned to democracy in 1991. Between 1991 and 2006, Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League (AL) and Begum Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) took turns leading Bangladesh as prime minister. Sheikh Hasina has held the position continuously since 2008 and is now serving her 4th consecutive term as the prime minister. In modern history, no nation has experienced a longer period of government headed by a female. Considering the fact that Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority country with dogma associated with female leaders, it is quite impressive that females have headed the government of this country for more than 3 decades. However, despite the Prime Ministers being female in Bangladesh, there is a significant concern regarding the representation of females in elected public offices like the National Parliament, Local Governance and other subsequent levels of the government. .
According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2021, the nation is doing well when it comes to women’s political empowerment. Bangladesh is ranked 7th out of 155 nations in the Political Empowerment sub-index. With a parity score of 0.546, full gender equity in political involvement is still a long way off. A comprehensive system of reserved seats for women maintains the fundamental numerical representation in both the national parliament and municipal governing bodies of Bangladesh. There are fifty reserved seats in the national parliament, which are filled by the parties in accordance with their share of the vote. In a number of subnational elected governing bodies, slots for women are also assured. However, the masculine nature of politics, lack of political party support and limited access to political networks limit the political career of a woman with limited access in political power dynamics.
Women in National Parliament & Cabinet - Background Matters
The electoral participation of women refers to participation in the public offices through election. The National Parliament is the highest legislative assembly of the country. In the 12th national parliamentary election 2024 only 19 elected Members of the Parliament (MPs) are women out of 300 MPs. More than two-thirds of them come from historically politically established families, either born to an established political leader or married to one. But the representation of a selective few privileged women in the political leadership for the sake of representation does not create a systematic change to allow women to rise through the ranks and gain a position of power by their own merit.
Only 4 including the Prime Minister out of 25 Ministers and 11 State Ministers in the cabinet are women. All of these 4 women in the cabinet belong from aristocratic political families. Dr. Dipu Moni, Minister of Social Welfare, is the daughter of MA Wadud and Hamida Wadud Poly. MA Wadud was a founding member of Bangladesh Awami League and Hamida Wadud Poly was Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s niece. Simin Hossain, State Minister of Women and Children Affairs, is the daughter of Tajuddin Ahmad, the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh who served in the Mujibnagar Government in 1971. State Minister of Primary and Mass Education, Rumana Ali’s father was Md. Rahmatullah, who was a minister and Awami League’s veteran politician in Gazipur-3 constituency.
5541 males elected in public offices
in local governance
44 females elected in public offices
in local governance (without reserved seats)
And this is not exclusive to the 12th Parliament’s Cabinet. Out of the 54 members of the previous cabinet, i.e. the 11th Parliament’s Cabinet, including the prime minister, just five were female. Only 36 female candidates were nominated for 300 parliamentary seats in the 11th National Parliament Election; of whom 22 were elected. Important roles at the municipal level, such as mayor and chairperson, are still primarily held by males. Even though there are female vice-chairmans of upazila parisads and ‘reserved’ female commissioners in city corporations and municipalities nowadays, in the general public offices such as city corporation, there are 5,541 males as part of an elected body, while only 44 women hold leadership roles without the reserved quotas. The seemingly gender-inclusive image of the country is contradicted by Bangladesh’s political landscape.
Reserved Seats - Representation for the sake of it?
Women have been granted reserved parliamentary seats under Section 65 of the Bangladesh Constitution. Initially, there were ten reserved seats in the parliament for women, but today there are fifty, out of the 350 available seats. This means that 14% or so of the seats are reserved for women. The Constitution’s 17th amendment, which was ratified in July 2018, guaranteed the reserved seats for a further 25 years without requiring a direct election.
However, the reserved seat MPs have a very low level of access to power in terms of decision making. For women’s reserved seats in Bangladesh, a single transferable vote (STV) method is employed, with the number of seats won by a political party being taken into consideration. These seats are divided on the basis of the other 300 elected seats and each party’s share in the elected seats. Every party in the parliament gets to nominate female MPs for the reserved seats proportionate to the share of their seats in the elected 300 constituencies. Since reserved seat MPs are not directly chosen by the public and are not regarded as representatives of the female electorate, they do not have a constituency.
The female MPs from the reserved seats receive limited funding for their own projects and have little say over choices made by the government on policy. They have historically been viewed as “vote banks” for the Treasury benches and as second-class members of parliament. Women have not benefited from and have instead been marginalized by the present reserved seat system, which does not allow for direct election.
Inclusion of women in these ‘reserved’ seats create an alternative avenue for women to raise their voices in the parliament. However, it also shrinks their space in the general elections. For every seat there is an intense competition for nomination inside a party. Because there exists fifty ‘reserved’ seats for women, their male counterparts generally argue against nominating them for the general elections because they already have an option to reach the parliament with a ‘reserved’ seat. Therefore, the existing stigma regarding electing women as people’s representative of a particular constituency does not improve.
District Council
- 1/3 of the total number of District Council members;
- 1/3 of the Chairperson’s Office
Subdistrict Council
- 1/3 of the total number of Union Councils and Municipal Corporations in every Subdistrict is equivalent to the number of seats reserved for women; and
- 1/2 of the Chairperson’s Office
Union Council
- 3 seats
- 1/3 of the Chairperson’s Office
Municipal Council
- 1/3 of the total number of Union Councils and Municipal Corporations in every Subdistrict is equivalent to the number of seats reserved for women; and
- 1/3 of the Chairperson’s Office
City Corporation
- 1/3 of the total number of Union Councils and Municipal Corporations in every Subdistrict is equivalent to the number of seats reserved for women; and
- 1/3 of the Chairperson’s Office
The representation of women in local government is lower. In Bangladesh, there is just one female city corporation mayor. According to a UN Women advocacy brief, women held just 102 out of 4701 municipal corporation jobs. In the case of elected representatives, women made up 25.2% of the municipality councilors after the 2014–16 elections, an increase from 23.4% during the 2011–13 term.
However, one-third of the Upazilla council seats are currently reserved for women as well as a female vice-chairman in every upazila council. There are direct elections between female candidates for those reserved seats in local government, unlike the national parliament. In 2019, we saw the election of a transgender to the position of vice-chairman for Kotchandpur municipality.
All local government entities have 13 social development committees (SDCs) operating within the policy framework. The SDCs are required to include women from the community and are designed to guarantee accountability and openness in governance and service delivery. This is the main framework in Bangladesh for developing women leaders at the community level.
Women in Political Parties
The Bangladesh Election Commission has implemented a 33% reservation for women on all political party executive committees, including the central committee, by 2020. This is a first step towards increasing women’s political involvement. This goal has not been met by the majority of the parties. Though not participation, such measures may guarantee representation.
In spite of such measures, the Awami League’s Central Executive Committee has only 20 female out of 81 members. Even in the student organizations of ruling party Bangladesh Students’ League Central Committee has only 37 female politicians out of 301.
With just eight members, women make up 11% of the 73-member advisory board for the BNP. Among other parties, the Jatiya Party (Manju) includes sixteen women (15.8%) in its 101-member core committee, while women make up about 11% of the Workers Party of Bangladesh’s central committee. Women are unable to join political parties or advance through the ranks due to systematic male dominated political culture. Political parties frequently lack the courage to put forward their female members for running elections.
Reasons of Lack of Female Representation in Politics
The access to information about politics is pretty limited for women as it has been told historically that politics is a men’s game. Hence the political training, education, skills development, resource management and political lobbying is limited for women. Several other causes drive women’s underrepresentation in Bangladesh’s politics, such as-
- Religious and cultural conventions support the idea that Bangladeshi women are spouses and mothers and that males are the primary breadwinners. Politics is viewed as “corrupting” or “dirty” and unfit for women. The religious conservatives believe that women should be in Purdah and their gender roles should be limited to caregiving at home.
- Male party leaders frequently believe that males make superior candidates. Women in all major parties stated that other males are chosen to run by their male leaders. Men are skeptical of a woman’s abilities.
- Despite an election rule requiring parties to reserve at least 33 percent of committee slots for women, there are not many women in senior roles inside the party. Women are frequently restricted to women’s wings, where they have little say in consequential choices. This makes it harder for women to help other women grow in their jobs.
- There is often corruption in the reserved-seat system. A reserved seat is frequently offered to a male applicant who is not selected as a consoling measure. His wife or daughter will be seated in advance and act as the man’s stand-in.
- Women in Bangladesh lose their own social networks that they have developed from infancy because of the patrilineal culture. Put differently, women need to leave their social foundation. Local governance rules may discourage women from running for political office since they do not take into account the loss of a woman’s social and maybe political basis as a result of marriage.
- Women in Bangladesh are frequently discouraged from participating in politics or even running for office due to its violent character and attacks coming from their male opponents.
Recommendations
- Instead of giving 50 reserved seats within political families, representation of women from 64 districts have to be ensured so that they work as the representatives of their own districts if not constituencies.
- The state ought to advocate for the establishment of subcommittees exclusively for women to supervise the utilization of the 30 percent of the development budget designated for female council members. This oversight should be accompanied by a well-defined monitoring plan to prevent any potential misappropriation of funds. It is crucial that local women participate in decisions about how this money is used, as is the case in Kerala, by organizing village meetings.
- Female reserved seat MPs should have the power to exercise in the policy making arena so that they can bring female perspectives. It is said that female MPs are less corrupt than the male ones.
- Alternative funding opportunities and quota setting in terms of running for the office can be beneficial.
- Contextual and continuous training, focusing on female councilors, male councilors and the communities can bring back equality in politics.
- Arranging networking events and skill-building seminars so that local and national female party officials may share knowledge.
Cover Photo: Womeneye24.com
About the Author
A R Tahseen Jahan is a Research Associate at The Confluence and a student of Development Studies at the University of Dhaka. She is also serving as an Editor at Dhaka University Law and Politics Review.