Empowering Work

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The theme Empowering Work, takes the ‘work’ entry point into investigating the relationships between paid work and empowerment and exploring the implications of changing markets in the wake of globalization for women’s rights, security and wellbeing as workers as a pathway of empowerment.

The researches in this theme utilized quantitative data to generating new findings about women’s labour market participation.

Work Survey

This project undertook a survey of 5,300 women of different socio-economic backgrounds in Bangladesh, and using work as an entry point to explore pathways of change in women’s lives.  The survey will serve as a source of quantitative data and a site for experimentations with indicators of empowerment and will feed into the Measuring and Assessing Empowerment project.This research hopes to utilize quantitative data for feminist purposes, by generating new findings about women’s labour market participation and its effects on women’s lives.

The first phase of the research has been done in the period April 2007 to March 2009. The second phase of the research will be carried out between April 2009 to March 2011. 

Women Health Workers

This research explored how women community health workers are in challenging various social constraints and stereotypes by being engaged in regular employment, in coming out of their homes, being mobile in their communities and fulfilling a socially valued role.

Bangladesh

The research studied whether and how Women Health Workers are introducing new models for women, challenging purdah, encouraging mobility, and creating a pathway of empowerment. The study compared public (government) women health workers with non-government women health workers of pioneering programmes in three locations: ICDDR,B; Ganoshathya Kendro and BRAC, allowing some comparisons between the different programme approaches, working conditions and associated status to examine whether these have made a difference to the women working in these programmes.

Pakistan

The Collective for Social Science Research in Karachi is partnering with BRAC under this research theme and will be conducting a study on women's paid work and empowerment. Ayesha Khan, who lead this research titled 'Lady Health Workers Changing Lives: The Unintended Consequences of a Government Programme in Pakistan' conducted in-depth interviews that shed light on whether the government project has unintentionally positioned the Lady Health Worker to be an instrument of social change in her community. Community-based Lady Health Workers, who represent the largest force of health outreach workers in Pakistan. This qualitative research project also explored how their work has affected their own personal lives and impacted gender relations and social inequalities in their communities.

Team Members    

Naila Kabeer, IDS, UK

Simeen Mahmud, Lead Researcher

Maheen Sultan, Researcher

Mahjabeen Rahman, Researcher, BRAC RED

Ayesha Khan, Collective for Social Research, Pakistan

Sakiba Tasneem, Research Associate