Closing the gender gap in Bangladesh: inequality in education, employment and earnings

Purpose - To provide and assess trends on the status of women in Bangladesh in terms of key macro level indicators namely, women's labour force participation, educational attainments and earnings vis-a-vis men. Design/methodology/approach - The trends in women's workforce participation, educational attainments and earnings compared with those of men are evaluated on the basis of descriptive statistics. Correlation and regression techniques are used to examine the relationship between women's education and workforce participation, and to predict the equalisation of female-male educational attainment. Findings - The study finds evidence of growing commercialisation of women's work in Bangladesh. Although most women in the workforce are self-employed or employed in low-skill jobs, their participation in high skill and entrepreneurial jobs as well as policy-making bodies is on the rise. While gender wage differentials have been considerably reduced in many industries, in general, women tend to be paid less than men. There have been remarkable improvements in women's educational attainments. Further, female education is found to be positively correlated with their workforce participation. Overall, the findings indicate an improvement in women's status in Bangladesh. Research limitations/implications - The suggested relationship between women's education and employment needs to be further investigated using rigorous econometric techniques in order to distinguish between productivity-enhancing effects of education and other determinants of increased female employment (FEMPL). Practical implications - The research should be a useful reference to international and domestic policy-makers as well as members of the academia and future researchers on the issue. Originality/value - This study represents the first of its kind in the Bangladesh context. It provides valuable information about, and an independent assessment of, women's status in Bangladesh at the national level.