This paper has analysed socio-economic transformation brought about in the lives of women who migrated to the cities from rural areas to take up work in the garment industry which has opened before them an unprecedented opportunities for gainful employment. In terms of socio-economic change in women’s living, the garment workers appear to have experined the most change. However, the socio-economic transformation brought about by the wage employment in the garment industry is narrowed down to a large extent by some negative implication such as exploitation in terms of low wage, irregular wage payment, job insecurity, gender discrimination in earnings etc. A regression analysis of the determinants of earning shows that the variable distinguishing the earnings of male and female is positive and significant showing that female workers earn significantly less than their male counterparts having the same education, length of service, which in turn, is found to be highly correlated with level of earning, and occupational status of the workers. Social gains attained through wage employment are also substantially curtailed by the social  insecurity arising from incongenial work environment, absence of safe and secured housing facilities and lack of transport facilities. Grave concern has been expressed over the negative impact of garment factory jobs on female workers’ health. Finally, the paper suggested that implementation of labour laws and women’s education would help women to overcome many of the disadvantages they face in the labour market.

This paper focuses on how the women beneficiaries of empowerment programmes perceive interventions and what according to them are the outcomes of such interventions. Using in-depth interviews and focus group discussions this study documents women’s perceptions about the changes brought about by credit and concretization programmes.Women hold that many important and positive changes took place at individual, familial and societal levels. They feel that they have gained greater access and control over resources. Further, the relationship of women with others have improved. To a lesser extent, they have become able to change the external environment.Women are valued more in the family for their contribution in family’s income. Verbal and physical abuse and violence against women have been reduced. Women’s mobility has increased tremendously. Women have developed linkages with various service providing institutions and social organizations. Women have learned to defend their own interests through group actions. All of these have ultimately translated into better living conditions for children. Of utmost importance is the fact that women themselves highly value the changes that took place in their conditions and positions.

This paper measures the impact of programme participation on a range of women’s status indicators such as control over household resources, mobility and autonomy and attitudes and aspirations. Five hundred female respondents were interviewed in 36 rural villages in two thanas of Manikganj district in 1989. Respondents were selected according to an experimental design to control for presence of NGO programme in the village, membership in BRAC Programmes and duration of membership. Qualitative information was gathered in focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews. Using multiple logistic regression to estimate the impact of group membership and programme effect, the study estimated programme impact on measures of gender inequality. It found that while programmes, after about two years, had a statistically significant impact on gender inequality within the household in terms of women’s participation in decision-making and control over resources, women’s attitudes and aspirations regarding marriage and education for their daughters is slower to change.

In Bangladesh the reduction of population growth through declines in marital fertility levels has long been viewed as a desirable, if not essential, development objective that is amenable to policy interventions. In particular, the provision of income earning opportunities to women was believed to have an important role in influencing individual reproductive behaviour leading to the increased and sustained use of modern contraceptives. This paper addresses the question of whether participation in employment programmes allows women to alter their fertility regulating behaviour. Using a quasi-experimental design comprising of programme participating women and a comparison group of non-participants, it seeks to identify factors related to women’s work context that are important in determining contraceptive use. The paper finds that changes in women’s work context in terms of higher returns to labour, increased access to extra-family support and greater mobility outside the home are most strongly associated with the increased use of modern contraceptives among rural women residing in intervention areas. Besides, the differential impact of the institutional approaches to input delivery on fertility regulation was also indicated.

The success of credit programmes for the landless poor lies in the alleviation of poverty. The process of alleviation of poverty can be more clearly understood through an analysis of the employment that is generated with the credit and the return from activities where such employment is generated. The paper shows that the three credit programmes, (BRAC, BRDB and Grameen Bank) have been successful in expanding the opportunities of self employment. Labour force participation rates among women have increased. Participation rates and employment per worker are higher among programme participants than among target group population in the control area. The paper also indicates that, the average return to self-employment is higher than the wage rate. Thus self-employment provides a good prospect of alleviating poverty through generation of more employment which pays-off at a rate higher than the wage rate. The average returns are higher in non-agriculture compare to those in livestock and agriculture (crop production activities).The marginal productivity estimates of different types of labour shows that the marginal return to non-agriculture is the highest followed by agriculture and livestock production. However, the marginal productivity of each category of family labour, male and female, varies substantially by type of self-employment. In agriculture, the marginal productivity of female (family) labour is positive and significant, and that of male (family) labour is zero. In contrast, the marginal productivity of male (family) labour in non-agriculture is positive and significant and that of female (family) labour is zero. Further research is needed to explain why the marginal productivity of labour is zero in some activities.

The main objective of this paper is to develop a new system of national income accounting that better reflects women’s contribution to the national income. New methodologies are developed to decompose conventional GDP. The methods are then applied to the case of Bangladesh using nationally representative data on time allocation of men and women. The paper concludes that a more realistic estimation of GDP will be achieved only if women’s and men’s non-market work is accounted for-this methodology yields a GDP figure that is 29 per cent higher than conventional estimates, and it shows that women conventional estimates, and it shows that women contribute 41 per cent to total GDP.