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In developing countries, often a major segment of the population is characterized as poor. Thus, social protection programs play a crucial role in facilitating the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda across these nations. Among the several socioeconomic benefits associated with the social safety net programs, the impacts on female labor force participation are vital from the perspectives of enhancing women empowerment and welfare. Against this backdrop, this paper aims to evaluate the impacts of social transfers under the "allowances for the widow, deserted, and destitute women" social protection program on the rural female labor force participation responses in Bangladesh. The overall results from the probit, IV‐probit, and propensity score matching techniques provide statistical evidence regarding the cash transfers acting as a "mini‐push" to nudge greater participation of the beneficiary women in the labor force. Moreover, the cash transfers are also found to positively influence the labor force participation decisions of the other female members within the households of the program beneficiaries. Besides, the female labor force participation decisions are evidenced to be heterogeneous across the age cohorts, marital statuses, and the gender of the household head. In line with the major findings from the analyses, some key policy interventions are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of maternal education on child mortality in Bangladesh by exploiting quasi‐experimental variations in the duration of exposure to a school stipend project for identification. Results from the instrumental variable estimation indicate that an additional year of maternal schooling reduces both under‐five and infant mortality by about 20 percent. The findings are statistically significant and robust to a number of model specifications, including survival models controlling for right censoring of child mortality. Analysis of potential mechanisms suggests that maternal education reduces child mortality through greater wealth and literacy, positive assortative mating, lower fertility, delayed marriage and childbearing, greater health‐related knowledge, better health‐seeking behaviors, and female empowerment, but not through female employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Drawing on survey and ethnographic data, this article presents empirical evidence regarding the impact of work participation on poor women's lives in urban Bangladesh. Working for pay is common among poor, married women in Dhaka and working women commonly make an important contribution to household income. There is evidence that working women are more likely to manage money, shop for household provisions and move about outside the home than non-working women. Working women also appear better able to accumulate personal assets and take steps to secure their own well-being. Despite such signs of challenge to‘traditional’ gender identity, social and economic structures continue to be heavily weighted against women, limiting the impact of employment on other dimensions of their lives. In the acutely insecure urban setting, women(and men) are found to pursue multiple strategies aimed at both securing‘centrality’ within their families, as well as protecting personal interests should familial entitlements prove unreliable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Bangladesh the disparity between male and female representation in public administration is wide. Fewer women are employed in the civil service and they figure prominently in jobs set aside for them, while executive positions are generally occupied by men. Both systemic and subjective discrimination have created obstacles for women's access to public employment. They have to surmount enormous difficulties, first to gain entry into the civil service by thwarting social and cultural barriers and competing against well-prepared and favoured male contestants, and then fight against a variety of odds to climb up the career ladder. Public personnel management is dominated by men whose perceptions and attitudes influence the development of personnel policies with a clear male bias. This has led to women's persistent discrimination in recruitment, placement, advancement, mobility and training. Women quotas are capriciously administered and subjective discrimination serves as a barrier in their career path. The promotion system is heavily inclined towards subjectivity and generally works against them. Most women come with high expectations and are committed to and always enthusiastic about their work and keen to advance their career, but circumstances work against them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]