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Paper short abstract:

Benefits of better understanding through my longitudinal study of Dhaka city (1991-2010) published from the Oxford University Press. It is rare to get an opportunity to learn from longitudinal study of city given the high mobility and attrition rates.

Paper long abstract:

Sociologists often consider city as the ‘uncontested homes of progress’ (Durkheim 1933) and women’s emancipation is the centrepiece of progress. Employment generated through ready-made garment sector and micro-credit have been proven to be conducive to poverty alleviation and women’s freedom in Bangladesh. Therefore, like education, employment is a major factor towards women’s emancipation and cities provide more opportunities and options for that. However, this is not the case for Dhaka city. With an estimated population of 23.9 million, Dhaka is the fourth largest cities of the world.

Despite rapid urbanisation of Dhaka city, women’s labour force participation rate is declining or lower, compared with urban average. This is vexing amidst supportive parameters such as increased enrolment rates of girls and lower age-dependency ratio and given that almost all future population growth in Bangladesh will be in urban areas centralising around Dhaka and its peripheries. .

Drawing largely on Afsar and Hossain’s longitudinal study on Dhaka city (2020), this paper will probe deeper into employment trends and occupational patterns of women from different socio-economic backgrounds – slum/non-slum, migrant/non-migrant, more/less educated over time to capture variations. It will identify barriers to women’s employment through gender norms/roles and other factors in the supply-side and missing-middle syndrome in the demand-side with a few suitable policy options.