Women's Participation in Union Parishads: A Quest for a Compassionate Legal Approach in Bangladesh from an International Perspective

A woman's capacity to participate in politics is a constitutionally entrenched and fundamental right in Bangladesh, repeatedly affirmed in several pieces of legislation, the most recent being the Local Government Act, 2009. Despite the endorsement of a series of affirmative features to promote women's equality, empirical research reveals very disappointing results. This paper investigates some of the fundamental constraints that hinder women's participation in Union Parishads, the third tier of local government, with special reference to a number of serious flaws in the Act. A compassionate approach is developed for the workplace to accommodate exceptional gender-centric concerns in Union Parishads by fostering a relationship in which men and women see each other as interdependent and interconnected.