Participation and Decision Making Role of Rural Women in Economic Activities: A Comparative Study for Members and Non-Members of the Micro-Credit Organizations in Bangladesh

The study was aimed to know the present status of rural women's participation and decision making role in economic activities (called EAs from here) in Bangladesh. The sample of the study consisted of 92 farm women from Rampur village of Palashbari upazila under Gaibandha district. Necessary data for the study were collected with questionnaire by personal interviewing of the respondent women covering all types of farm families (i.e., landless, marginal, small, medium and large). Result showed that among the agricultural activities rural women's participation was relatively higher in various post harvest activities and livestock management activities than other agricultural activities. On the other side, their participation was almost nil in the case of aquaculture activities while few of them participate in some selected non-agricultural activities like handicrafts making, tailoring and Nakshi katha making. It was also evident from the study that farm women were contributing in household income through participating in EAs. The result of the study explored that woman's personal income, institutional participation and training received by the women are the most influential factors for increasing the extent of participation of women in EAs. Findings also showed that in most of the cases women's participation in decision making process regarding various family affairs is lower than their male counter part. However, both in participation in EAs and decision making process NGO women were in the leading edge than the Non-NGO women.