Gender Inequality within Households : The Impact of a Women's Development Programme in 36 Bangladeshi Villages
Sajeda Amin and Anne R. Pebley
Abstract
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.