Working Women.Doc

1. Introduction:

Bangladesh is a country with evenly distributed male and female population. From the very beginning of its journey as an independent country it has been cherishing of harmonized growth of both male and female population. But it is far behind in materializing the envisaged goals for male population even, let alone for female population although history provides that our women played no less a role than the males in the junctures of the nation including achievement of independence. Till date their immense and outstanding contributions in the areas of family care, birth control, infant care and nutrition and even in generating income have been proved indispensable.

2. Objectives:

There is always at least an objective behind any word, which drives a person towards to work. As per natural rule we also had some objectives for completing this report. Our objective is:
1 To find who are the working women.
2 To find out the problems they are facing.
3 To find out why they facing these problems.
4 To find out the solutions of their problems.

3. Overview the Issue:

Women have been active in a sporadic fashion in Bangladesh’s history. They have acted as enlightened individuals, speaking out against excess- vie aspects of women’s subordination. One example is Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain whose essays and short stories caricatured the practice of purdah in the early twentieth century. Women have participated in different political struggles, although related issues were generally subordinated or completely absent from the agenda. Women were prominent for instance in the Tebagha Movement (1940s) in East Bengal

which sought to retain a greater share of the harvest for the tenant farmer and in guerilla action against the British colonial administration. Women have also been involved in single-issue campaigns concerned. With women’s rights they fought the attempts by the provincial.

4. Women Work Position:

Now-a-days there are not a single work where women are not involved. In every section of work women have prove themselves. But those are not a huge number. In our country most of the women are working in garments sector especially in Dhaka city. It is increasing day by day. Because in this occupation they don’t need to be educated. Another important occupation for women for women is the nursing. It is an important work for women in our country. There are also many works like doctor, engineer, CA, banking, police, advocate, defenses, administration, pilot, airhostess, teacher, in agriculture, social welfare etc. In politics women have also participation. In every part of occupation women are now working. Problem is that the participation is not that much as men.
Employment position alters with the increased inputs of information intensive work even in traditional manufacturing. In the clothing industry, for example, computer-aided designing and cutting methods give rise to labor processes that are a kin to those in the services sector. The use of information-intensive methods of production demands computer-literacy and some knowledge of programming. Access to relevant training in a given type of employment, in this situation, gives women and men skills that are transferable between industries and sectors.
In the service industries, the use of computers has been generally women friendly, the QWERTY of the computers allows women to use the typist’s skills in many jobs in the services sector. In the banking, insurance, and telecommunications industries, the rate of entry of women has been impressive in both the rich and poorer parts of the world, despite the current quantitative gains;

however, women’s career progression in these new fields has been less spectacular: their presence in managerial and technical posts has been minimal.
Women’s numerical predominance is visible also in the Information Technology (IT) industry. In certain occupations, such as in software, companies are keen to recruit highly trained women at managerial level. In spite of the demand, women are less visible in these jobs, as they find it difficult to combine the challenges of a demanding career with domestic peace and social norms. Table of working women age Job style 1st class 2nd class 3rd class age Num. (%) Num. (%) Num. (%)
1 20-25
2 25-30 16 26.7 15 25 19 31.66
3 30-35 18 30 14 23.33 14 23.33
4 35-40 9 15 4 6.66 12 20
5 40-45 9 15 8 13.33 5 8.33
6 45-50 6 10 0 0 4 6.66
7 50-55 2 3.33 0 0 0 0 total 60 100 60 100 60 100

5. The problems which women are facing in their working life:
5.1: Social problems: social problems of working women are many. Women can faced problems from family and society by many ways. Such:

5.1.A: Problem from husbands: In lower class working women do hard work for getting money but most of the time their husbands take money from them. When they cannot give proper time in their family then husband angry on them. There are lots of women who do good job in our society like doctor, teacher, private employee, government employee. Most of the time they are treated from their husband. They cannot spend their own money from their own choice. They are like a servant who are working for their husband or house hold activities and also paying for their work. In our survey we found one school teacher who told us that whole night her husband torture with her after that in morning she has to go to office. Another harassments for women that most of the time husband doubts his wife because of their office colleague. Most of the husbands do not believe on their wife. Some of the husbands are think that if their wife can earn money or if they have more ability to earn money than them then their wife will be more freedom and then start to dominate their husband which is very shameful for them. That’s why also having the ability they cannot prove themselves. Now-a-days it mainly happens in the higher class society. Because women are now become strong like men in their career and when they are trying show themselves then their husbands cannot tolerate their success. Actually all classes husbands think that wife means his own asset.

5.1. B: Problem from Their Children: In all classes working women when they join their office then they cannot take care properly or cannot give much time for their children which they deserve. Children also cannot understand their mother’s problem. Because all children are more likely to stay with their mother and they are more likely to share their feelings with their mother than her father. That’s why they want more time from their mother. So it creates distance between mother and children. It is still expected that women will stop working when they have children and it is completely normal for a women to quit their job as soon as she finds out that she is pregnant. The difference here is women wait until they are 35 to have their kids and then claim it as their right to now stop working, almost like an early retirement.

5.1.C : Facing problem from their boss: It is one of the most important problems which they have to face. Most of the time bosses give lots of bad proposal to their women employee. It happens mainly with lower class working women like garments, labor. This type of problem not only happens in lower class but also in middle class and also in upper class. Though the amount is low in upper class but it happen. In the all sector of working women have to face this problem. In nursing occupation nurse are facing this type of problem. When they do not listen or accept their bad proposal then boss lay off the women employee from their job. In office bosses try to influence on them by extra care. Bosses always create pressure mentally or physically. In higher class working women it happens less than the lower or middle class working women.

5.1.D : Problem of Maintain Job And household work: Usually women are sincere and punctual in their work. It is not matter whether their job or house hold work. They are bound to look after the members of the family and also to communicate with each other. After doing hard work in office or in job, they return home and then they have to engage with the household work. Without taking any rest they have to do all those things. Because in our country, taking care of family or doing the household work is only the responsibility of a women. And this things because the tradition. But women who are from it they have to compromise with their career and with their destiny.

Is this possible to do job and all family work at the same time

Opinion Job style 1st class 2nd class 3rd class Num. (%) Num. (%) Num. (%)
Yes 25 41.67 30 50 20 33.33
No 35 58.33 30 50 40 66.67
Total 60 100 60 100 60 100

5.1. E : Family Problem: In our country there are so many families who don’t want that their daughter go outside to making a career by doing proper education and jobs. Sometimes parents are giving permission to study but not to use this in practical life. They think that if they go outside for job then she became bad girl and no one want marry her. In rural area family don’t allow girl to study so much. They think that if their daughter can read then she can get a good husband. It happens mainly in lower class and middle class family. In their opinion there is no need to use of education for women. That’s why they can do this type of things. But sometimes parents are giving permission for working but when they are getting married then on that family she face some another problem. In traditional Muslim families, a woman does not leave her home without the permission of her husband or mother-in-law. Unless it's absolutely necessary for survival, she does not work outside the home. She does not even go to the marketplace to shop. The marketplace is the province of men.

Male workers mentality about female workers

Job style mentality 1st class 2nd class 3rd class Num. (%) Num. (%) Num. (%)
Friendly 47 78.33 42 70 43 71.66
Try to create pressure 10 16.66 16 26.66 14 23.33
Do avoid 1 1.66 0 0 3 5
Do not need 2 3.33 2 3.33 0 0
Total 60 100 60 100 60 100

Inequality about promotion

Opinion Job style 1st class 2nd class 3rd class Num. (%) Num. (%) Num. (%)
Inequality 30 50 31 51.67 25 41.66
No Inequality 28 46.67 23 38.33 29 48.33
No answer 2 3.33 6 10 6 10
Total 60 100 60 100 60 100

5.2: cultural problems: Many cultural problems faced by working women such:

5.2.A : Transportation and Security Problem: In our country women are facing another problem which is the transportation. There are not any available transportation vehicles by which they can transport from home to office or office to home. Another problem is the security problem. Sometime it may take long time for working in office. So on those situation women feel secure less in coming home.

5.2.B : Dress-up problem: in our country women workers restricted with dress. They can’t wear dress as their wish. They should use formal dress always. But a male worker can use various type of dresses for their office or work place.

5.2.C : joining to a program: a female worker can’t join any official program or meeting easily as like as a male. Mainly when a program held on abroad most of the women absent on that because of some restriction that are just for women. the problem is become hard when there is a night program. It is very hard to possible for woman to join into night program with her colleague in our country.
Response according to Ability
Job style opinion Get response Doesn’t get response total
1st class 30 30 60
2nd class 20 40 60
3rd class 20 40 60
Total 70 110 180

5.3 : Financial problem: Financial problems are very important that women worker often face. Such as:

5.3.A: Using the salary:
Most of the women of our country share their income with their family. They can’t use the salary as their own. In this case, they should take permission from their husbands or family. Though they earning their selves, but they are accountable for the expense of their salary. For this most of the time they are in under financial as well as mental pressure. 5.3. B: comparison with male employees: now a days many women working at the same rank as like as a male employee. But they do not get the proper financial respect from the authority. Naturally women are physically week comparison to the male but they are doing same job as like a male employee. In this case most of the time they get low salary.

Job style opinion adjustable Do not adjustable Total
1st class 32 28 60
2nd class 26 34 60
3rd class 25 35 60
Total 83 97 180

6. Why women are facing problems: 6. 1: social
Socially women workers facing most problems. Ours is the men controlled society. It’s become a habit that women are always in back benchers. Women workers are concentrated in labor-intensive export industries that feed into global supply chains. In contrast, male workers tend to be distributed across a wider range of economic sectors. Women are also concentrated in the lower levels of these global supply chains, in casual, temporary, sub-contracted and informal employment, where work is insecure, wages low, working conditions poor, and workers least likely to be protected by conventional social insurance systems. It follows that shrinking global demand for clothes, textiles and electronics (as well as for related business services like hotels and restaurants) means that women will be the first to lose their jobs.
However, in many countries women do not get equal access to social protection. In some cases this is because of the non-standard, low wage and informal economy jobs they have, which are less likely to come with such social benefits. In others it is because policy makers assume women can rely on men, or because benefits are directly linked to keeping your job — for example, most maternity protection systems in Asia are paid solely by employers.

6. 2: cultural
Most of the Bangladeshi is Muslim. According to the religion believe, to do something by male and female is not very much allowed. So joining to a conference or another work at night or in abroad is totally restricted from most of the family. So it is very difficult to a woman worker to maintain her workplace or break the family roles.
Another, some people has very low character. Sometimes their eyes work to the female dress-up. So women should always alert for it, especially workers.
6. 3: financial
To get money or any financial support from the family male are always get percentage. A women worker earns for her or for her family, although any certain time she can face problem with money. In this case, most of the times female didn’t get the support comprising to a male worker.
Beside, female workers have to show the list of spend to her family or husband but male worker haven’t. So women are facing financial problems.
Mentality of authority about working women problem

Opinion Job style 1st class 2nd class 3rd class Num. (%) Num. (%) Num. (%)
Helpful 34 56.67 24 40 18 30
No
Response 17 28.33 28 46.67 16 26.67
Got disturbed 9 15 8 13.33 26 43.33
Total 60 100 60 100 60 100 7. How can we solve these problems?

Women in Bangladesh are the key to the development of future generations of the country. We know that our society dominated by male. Most of the time they dominated by the husband. It should be changed. The women worker has lots of contribution in our economy. Because that Dr. Muhammad Yunus targeted women to give loans because women, unlike their male counter parts, will used the money for good. They will use the money to raise the standard of living for their families. We know that in our country most of the women are illiterates. In our survey we get different type of problem. If we want solve these problems-
7.1:Change attitude : Firstly we have to change our attitude. Why I say attitude because that from our survey we see that many women want to change different type of attitude. Like that mental attitude, psychical attitude or social attitude. In our society we know that those women do the job they are torched psychically and mentally. It is very common picture in our country. They torched by the husband, mother- in- low, father, and brother. Not only the family they torched by their boss. Most of the time bosses give lots of bad proposal to their women employee. It happens mainly with lower class working women like garments, labor. This type of problem not only happens in lower class but also in middle class and also in upper class. All types of class faces these problem. So we should have changed the mental and physical attitude.
7.2:Social security: Secondly we have to ensure social security. Social security is very important things. We all know our social security level is very low. In our survey we see that the all types of working women facing lacking social of security. They facing problem in bus or train. In our country there are no special bus services. Not at that they facing problem in every day life. So we should have ensured our social security.
7.3:Economic security: Thirdly we have to ensure economic security. We know our society dominated by the male and most of the time women are dominated by the husband. In our society there are a very common thing is that women earn money and the husband expenses these money. The women can’t use their salary properly. We know naturally women are physically week comparison to the male but they are doing same job as like a male employee. In this case most of the times they get low salary. So we should have ensured economic security. From our findings and analysis we can see that working problem of women is a great problem in our society. The good position of working is increasing for women very rapidly. If we try we can remove working women problems by enforcing laws, refining laws, improving union awareness and improving public policy environment. In family they also face problems from their husband and children. If they understand their wives and mother then all problems can handle very easily.

8.research methodology

8.1:Sample type: Random sampling:
We survey basically on working women problems. We took sixty lower level working women where most are coming from garments and some are coming from home servant. Then we took sixty middle class working women. Most of them are school & college teacher, some are doing job in various bank. Then we took sixty upper class working women. They are from various multinational and international company.

8.2:Questionnaire:
We are prepared a questionnaire for the survey which comprised of 27 questions. We have selected open and close questionnaire. Questions are all about working problem related. People gave their opinion with very jolly mood. And they are clear about their belief. The questionnaire is given in the back part of the report.

8.3: Primary Information:

The report is based on data acquired from the primary source and secondary source in order to achieve the objectives of this study. Data have collected from nine working women who are from different financial level.

8.4: Secondary Information:

After the collecting of the data by interview we read several supplementary from bangle news papers and magazines and browsing in internet for preparing our report.

9.Limitations:

Limitations that we face during preparing this report include:
• All women are very busy and we took interview from their working place. Our research has done during their working period. So they are not free to done an interview. But we have to catch them for interview in their work place.

• Some were not want to give the correct information about their working life and personal life. On that situation we have to convince them. We have to make to belief them the information which we get from them we make it confidential. It mainly happened in lower class working women. They were worried about their job.

Many up-to date data and documents were not available, which could have the study informative. So a major constraint of the study was the insufficient information.

We had to complete this study within a short period of time which was not sufficient through investigation.

• Such a study was carried out by us. We are not experienced in this field. As we are learners, so it may be possible something mistake that is one of the main factors of the limitation of the study.

10.Findings and Survey:
We said earlier that we take nine working women as a sample. According to the survey the women are answer of question in our questionnaire (see in Appendix). We summarize their answer in the table bellow.

10.1: Findings on what is the biggest challenge in being woman:

One of our questions was about what is the biggest challenge in being woman that is for fighting (against men) or fighting for education or fighting for the workplace or fighting to prove herself.
Outcomes Always fighting (against men) Fighting for education Fighting in the working place Fighting to prove yourself
Lower middle class Findings 3 3 3 1
Percentage 100% 100% 100% 33.33%
Middle class Findings 2 2 2 2
Percentage 66.67% 66.67% 66.67% 66.67%
Upper middle class Findings 1 1 1 3
Percentage 33.33% 33.33% 33.33% 100%
Figure 1: Data about the biggest challenge in being woman

10.2: Findings on If you could change one thing for women in Bangladesh:

The option we gave to them is the way of thinking of men or families point of view or transportation.

Outcomes Way of thinking of men Families point of view Transportation
Lower middle class Findings 3 3 3
Percentage 100% 100% 100%
Middle class Findings 3 3 2
Percentage 100% 100% 66.67%
Upper middle class Findings 3 2 1
Percentage 100% 66.67% 33.33%
Figure 2: Data about change one thing for women in Bangladesh.

11. Analysis of the Survey: 11.1: The working women: Normally working women means those women who are doing job or another work in the outside. They are earning for their family or just for their self. But most of the women of Bangladesh doing just household chores. They are also working women. The biggest challenge is being a woman always fighting (against men) or fighting for education or fighting for the workplace or fighting to prove herself:

From the data we found in every body from lower class working women told they always for fighting (against men) or fighting for education or fighting for the workplace only one woman told they also fighting to prove herself. Actually lower middle class working women work to survive, The number of middle class working women is 2 who told they always for fighting (against men) or fighting for education or fighting for the workplace or fighting to prove herself. From upper middle class only one working woman told that they always fighting (against men) or fighting for education, fighting for the workplace but 3 women told that they are fighting to prove her.

11.2: To change one thing for women in Bangladesh:

The option we gave to them is the way of thinking of men or families point of view or transportation. From the survey we found that women of all classes wanted to change all of the problems. Some of lower middle class women are wanted to change the way of thinking of men, families’ point of view, and transportation. Some of middle class want to change the men’s thinking and families’ view point and few of them want to make change in transportation. But in upper middle class some of them are appreciate to change in the way of men’s thinking, few of them want to change families’ view point and very few of them want to make change in transportation.

11.3: International Women’s Day mean:

100% middle lower middle class and middle class women think that it is only a day nothing else. 66.67% middle class and upper middle classes women think that it is a reminder that women are not alone.

11.4: How can we end violence towards women?

In our survey we found that women of all classes strongly agree with that men should change their point of view.

11.5: Women face problems in night shift:

100% lower middle class and middle class working women suffer from night shift problem for their husband, children and unsafe environment.

11.6: Women workers fear of reporting sexual harassment on the job:

100% lower middle class working women fear of reporting sexual harassment on the job. In the same case middle class working women percentage is also 100% and upper middle class working women percentage is 66.67%.
11.7: face social problem: in our survey we saw that the working women of our country face mostly social problems. So we are the people who lives in the society should be aware of their problems try to change mentality about women.

12. Conclusion:
In our society all financial classes working women face problems but in lower middle class working women face tremendous problem than middle and upper middle class. They work for survive whereas another two classes working women work to make their position in the society. To maintain family and job they have to give hard work which makes them mentally and physically sick. If we can help women properly then they will become our resources.

13.Recommendation:

From our findings and analysis we can see that working problem of women is a great problem in our society. The good position of working is increasing for women very rapidly. If we try we can remove working women problems by enforcing laws, refining laws, improving union awareness and improving public policy environment. In family they also face problems from their husband and children. If they understand their wives and mother then all problems can handle very easily.

• Appendix

14.Questionnaire:

Name: Age

Occupation: This survey is an assignment for Basic In social science
American International University (AIUB)
Faculty:
Suamaiya habib

1. What is the biggest challenge is being a woman?
○ Always fighting (against men) ○ Fighting for education ○Fighting in the workplace ○ Fighting to prove you

2. If you could change one thing for women in Bangladesh? ○ Way of thinking of men ○ Families point of View ○Transportation

3. How can we end violence towards women? ○ changing the men’s point of view ○ making laws and strictly follow them ○ giving the awareness among the people who are involved in violence.

4. Women face problem in which shift? ○ Night shift ○ Morning shift ○ Always

7. Do you think women feel job insecurity? ○ Yes ○ No

8. Do you think women workers fear of reporting sexual harassment on the job? ○Yes ○ No

9. Who create problems? ○ Husband ○ Children

10. Who create problems? ○ Boss ○ Colleague 11. Do you think women give hard work to maintain family and job? ○ Yes ○ No

12. How the position of women working is increasing? ○ Very rapidly ○ Slowly
13.do you get the response as your rank? ○yes ○no
14.is your salary enough according to your work? ○yes ○no
15. in your working place is there proper environment? ○yes ○no ○not in all side
16.what about your relation with your colleague? ○ very good ○not good ○not good, not bad ○no answer
17,what is the mentality of male colleague about you? ○helpful ○try to create pressure ○ ○no need
18.is your job safe? ○Yes ○no
19. in case of promotion is there any equality? ○yes ○no
20.do u get the real price of your work in your working place? ○yes ○no ○not always
21.what is the mentality of authority about your any problem in working place? ○helpful ○give no response ○got disturbed
22.what is your present position in family for doing job? ○increase ○decrease ○same as past
23.from salary what percentage do you spent for family? ○60-70% ○70-80% ○80-90% ○90-100%
24. do you think that,the all responsibility of job and family cam do at the same time? ○yes ○no
25. by doing the job can you know the proper status of your children’s study? ○yes ○no ○not always
26.is there any fiction between job and family work? ○yes ○no
27. is there any pressure from your family to take a decision about your occupation? ○yes ○no ○no answer