This study focuses on the achievement versus ascription debate that cropped up as an impact of an action research project conducted by the erstwhile National Foundation for Research on Human Resource Development (NFRHRD) during 1981-1983 with 30 urban poor women in two slum areas of Dhaka city. The purpose of the study is to assess if any change occurred in restructuring gender role as an outcome of this project, Using case-study and participant observation method it finds that the project with its overemphasis on attracting women into income generating activities has outweighed the concern for redefining women’s reproductive and domestic roles. It argues that income generating activities cannot make much headway in liberating women if it undermines the role of community mobilization and the need for reformulation of the family ideology and gender role.