Exploring Uncounted Contribution of Women in Bangladesh: Barriers, Implications and Opportunities

Abstract

Work is typically divided along gender lines with men being responsible for the outside work and as the main income-earner and women for housework and child care. Women's unpaid work is not recognized and therefore, women are considered as passive dependents. Non-recognition of women's activity not only leads to undervaluation of economic contribution but also contributes to their lower status in society relative to men in Bangladesh. Therefore unpaid work is not a gender-neutral bundle of chores that women perform out of comparative advantage or lower resources but instead it is an integral part to the reproduction of unequal power relations between men and women.