Women's Empowerment across Generations in Bangladesh.

This study uses qualitative data to examine young women's relationships with their mothers and mothers-in-law to understand how these relationships foster empowerment in the younger generation or fail to do so. The data consist of ethnographic interviews with 20 triads of women-young married women, their mothers and their mothers-in-law. Findings show that the influence of empowerment across generations was greater in the sphere of economic empowerment and education than in relation to marriage and childbearing. The study illustrates how patriarchal institutions resistant to change can limit the effects of women's empowerment on the next generation.

Gender norms and family planning decision-making in Tanzania: a qualitative study.

Experience suggests that the incorporation of gender approaches into family planning (FP) and reproductive health (RH) programs may increase their impact and sustainability, but further work is needed to examine the interactions between gender norms and family planning and to incorporate this understanding into behavior change communication (BCC) in specific social contexts. We conducted open-ended, in-depth interviews with 30 young currently married men, 30 young married women and 12 older people who influenced FP decisions. Six focus group interviews were also conducted. The interviews focused on the role of gender norms in reproductive decision-making and contraceptive use among young married men and women in Tanzania. The findings suggest that gender factors, such as men's dominance in decision-making do function as barriers to the use of modern contraceptives, but that fear of side effects, by both men and women, may be even more important deterrents. Results from this research will inform the development of BCC interventions to be tested in a subsequent intervention study in which gender factors and poor information about contraceptive methods will be addressed.

Women's empowerment revisited: a case study from Bangladesh.

This article explores the changing dimensions of women's empowerment over time in three Bangladesh villages where one of the authors has been conducting research since 1991. The article discusses theoretical issues related to the measurement of women's empowerment, and describes findings from a recent study in the villages exploring the current salience of indicators developed for a 1992 survey. In the article we discuss the types of social, economic, and political change that affect the measurement of women's empowerment; propose and explain a new set of indicators for the rural Bangladesh setting; and discuss implications for measuring women's empowerment in other settings.