View with images and charts
Principle on Political Science and Public Administration
Definitions of Leadership
Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills. Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills.
The word Leadership can refer to:
Those entities that perform one or more acts of leading.
The ability to affect human behavior so as to accomplish a mission.
Influencing a group of people to move towards its goal setting or goal achievement. (Stogdill 1950: 3)
Leadership is a dynamic, relational process involving interactions among leaders, members and sometimes outside constituencies.
SITUATION
LEADERS ß======à FOLLOWERS
COMMUNICATION
?????????????????????????????
•Peter Drucker : “The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers.”
•John C Maxwell : “leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less.”
•Warren Bennis : “Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential.”
•John W. Gardner :Leadership is the process of persuasion and example by which an individual (or leadership team) induces a group to take action that is in accord with the leader’s purpose, or the shared purposes of all.
Contemporary definitions most often reject the idea that leadership revolves around the leader’s, behaviors, styles or charisma. Today, scholars discuss the basic nature of leadership in terms of the “interaction” among the people involved in the process: both leaders and followers. Thus, leadership is not the work of a single person, rather it can be explained and defined as a “collaborative endeavor” among group members.
How to be a good leader
Remember: leadership skills and techniques can be learned. You don’t have to be a natural leader. Very few people are.
Know your team. At some point, every day, walk around the office and say “Hi” to everyone who works for you. If you’re not in the office that day, call and see how people are.
Meet your team. Regularly – daily, weekly or monthly, depending on your place and type of work – have meetings of all the members of the team. Keep these meetings short, focused and action-orientated.
Train your team. Every team member should have at least two days training a year. Newer and more senior colleagues should have more. If they don’t ask to go on training sessions, suggest some suitable courses.
Grow your team. Through varied experience and regular training, you should be developing each team member to be more and more confident and more skilled.
Set objectives for each team member. As far as possible, these objective such be SMART – Specific Measurable Achievable Resourced Timed.
Review the performance of each team member. At least once a year – at least quarterly for the first year of a new team member – have a review session where you assess performance, give feed-back and agree future objectives and training.
Inspire your team. Consider making available a motivational quote or story every week or month [for lots of good quotes.
Socialize with your team. Have lunch or an after-work drink with them, especially when a staff member has a birthday or there’s another reason to celebrate.
Thank constantly. The words “Thank you” take seconds to say, but mean so much.
Praise constantly. The words “Well done” take seconds to say, but will be long remembered and appreciated.
Communicate constantly. Don’t assume that people know what you’re doing, still less what you are planning or thinking. Tell them, using all the communication tools to hand: team briefings, electronic newsletters, and organizational newspapers.
Eliminate. Too often we do things because they’ve always been done. Life changes. Consider whether you could stop doing certain things altogether.
Delegate. You don’t have to do everything. Develop your team members by training them to do more and trusting them to take over some of the things you’ve been doing.
Empower. A really effective leader sets clear objectives for his team members, but leaves detailed implementation of these objectives to the discretion and judgment of individual members of the team. As Second World War U.S. General George S. Patton put it: “Don’t tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results”.
Facilitate. A confident leader does not try to micro-manage his team, but makes it clear that, if team members need advice or assistance, he is always there to facilitate and support.
Be on time. Always start meetings on time and finish them on time. Natural breaks keep people fresh. Short meetings concentrate the mind.
Be seen. Don’t just talk the talk, but walk the walk. So visit each unit or department for which you are responsible on a regular basis. Don’t do this unannounced – you are not out to undermine other leaders or catch out staff. So arrange with the unit leader or departmental head when you’ll visit and ask him or her to walk round with you.
Make time. Managers are often very busy and this can deter people from approaching you, so make time for people and be approachable. People will appreciate you taking five minutes out of your busy schedule, especially if you act on/listen to what they say.
Really listen. Many of us – especially those who think they are important – don’t really listen, but instead think about what they’re going to say next. Give the person speaking to you your full attention and really take on board what they are saying. [For more detailed advice on listening.
Accept honest criticism. Criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance or a stranger – but it’s a powerful tool of learning. Above all, assess criticism on merit, without regard to its originator.
Think strategically. The doers cut a path through the jungle; the managers are behind them sharpening the machetes; the leaders find time to think, climb the nearest tree, and shout “Wrong jungle!” Find time to climb the trees.
Have a mentor or buddy, someone doing similar work in the same or a similar organization with which you can regularly and frankly discuss your progress and your problems as a leader.
Have a role model, someone who can inspire you to be a truly great leader. If you can’t find one, study Jed Bartlet as the American President in any episode of the television series “The West Wing”.
Constantly revisit and review these tips. In his seminal work, “The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People”, Stephen Covey puts it this way: “Sharpen the saw”.
Plan your succession. You won’t be there forever and you may not be in control of the timing and circumstances of your departure. So start now to mentor and train at least one colleague who could take over from you.
Difference Styles of leaders
The bureaucratic leader is very structured and follows the procedures as they have been established. This type of leadership has no space to explore new ways to solve problems and is usually slow paced to ensure adherence to the ladders stated by the company. Leaders ensure that all the steps have been followed prior to sending it to the next level of authority. Universities, hospitals, banks and government usually require this type of leader in their organizations to ensure quality, increase security and decrease corruption. Leaders that try to speed up the process will experience frustration and anxiety.
The charismatic leader (Weber, 1905) leads by infusing energy and eagerness into their team members. This type of leader has to be committed to the organization for the long run. If the success of the division or project is attributed to the leader and not the team, charismatic leaders may become a risk for the company by deciding to resign for advanced opportunities. It takes the company time and hard work to gain the employees’ confidence back with other type of leadership after they have committed themselves to the magnetism of a charismatic leader.
The autocratic leader (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939) is given the power to make decisions alone, having total authority. This leadership style is good for employees that need close supervision to perform certain tasks. Creative employees and team players resent this type of leadership, since they are unable to enhance processes or decision making, resulting in job dissatisfaction.
The democratic leader (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939) listens to the team’s ideas and studies them, but will make the final decision. Team players contribute to the final decision thus increasing employee satisfaction and ownership, feeling their input was considered when the final decision was taken. When changes arises, this type of leadership helps the team assimilate the changes better and more rapidly than other styles, knowing they were consulted and contributed to the decision making process, minimizing resistance and intolerance. A shortcoming of this leadership style is that it has difficulty when decisions are needed in a short period of time or at the moment.
The laissez-faire (“let do”) leader (Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939) gives no continuous feedback or supervision because the employees are highly experienced and need little supervision to obtain the expected outcome. On the other hand, this type of style is also associated with leaders that don’t lead at all, failing in supervising team members, resulting in lack of control and higher costs, bad service or failure to meet deadlines.
The people-oriented leader (Fiedler, 1967) is the one that, in order to comply with effectiveness and efficiency, supports, trains and develops his personnel, increasing job satisfaction and genuine interest to do a good job.
The task-oriented leader (Fiedler, 1967) focus on the job, and concentrate on the specific tasks assigned to each employee to reach goal accomplishment. This leadership style suffers the same motivation issues as autocratic leadership, showing no involvement in the teams needs. It requires close supervision and control to achieve expected results. Another name for this is deal maker (Rowley & Roevens, 1999) and is linked to a first phase in managing Change, enhance, according to the Organize with Chaos approach.
The servant leader (Greenleaf, 1977) facilitates goal accomplishment by giving its team members what they need in order to be productive. This leader is an instrument employees use to reach the goal rather than an commanding voice that moves to change. This leadership style, in a manner similar to democratic leadership, tends to achieve the results in a slower time frame than other styles, although employee engagement is higher.
The transaction leader (Burns, 1978) is given power to perform certain tasks and reward or punish for the team’s performance. It gives the opportunity to the manager to lead the group and the group agrees to follow his lead to accomplish a predetermined goal in exchange for something else. Power is given to the leader to evaluate, correct and train subordinates when productivity is not up to the desired level and reward effectiveness when expected outcome is reached.
The transformation leader (Burns, 1978) motivates its team to be effective and efficient. Communication is the base for goal achievement focusing the group in the final desired outcome or goal attainment. This leader is highly visible and uses chain of command to get the job done. Transformational leaders focus on the big picture, needing to be surrounded by people who take care of the details. The leader is always looking for ideas that move the organization to reach the company’s vision.
The environment leader ( Carmazzi, 2005) is the one who nurtures group or organisational environment to affect the emotional and psychological perception of an individual’s place in that group or organisation. An understanding and application of group psychology and dynamics is essential for this style to be effective. The leader uses organisational culture to inspire individuals and develop leaders at all levels. This leadership style relies on creating an education matrix where groups interactively learn the fundamental psychology of group dynamics and culture from each other. The leader uses this psychology, and complementary language, to influence direction through the m institutions
Women and Politics in Global Perspective
A truly democratic and representative government cannot be established without women’s participation in the political processes. Political participation generally refers to those actions of people by which they want to influence or support the government and politics. Political participation can be both conventional and unconventional. Scholars and researchers suggest that people participate in politics for a variety of reasons such as,
(a) To show support for their country;
(b) To achieve some advantages for themselves; and
(c) To influence broad public policy.
Almond notes that ‘In most countries, higher education is strongly related to political participation and skills’.
Women’s Participation in Local Level Politics in Bangladesh
Article 9 of the Bangladesh constitution proclaims that, ‘The state shall encourage local government institutions composed of representatives of the areas concerned and in such institutions special representation shall be given, as far as possible, to peasants, workers, and women.[1] [26] The lowest level of local government in Bangladesh is known as the Union Paris had. At the local level, women’s representation is still insignificant, but is gradually growing. In the 1973 local government elections, for the first time, only one woman was elected as chairperson. In the 1977 and 1984 local government elections, four women won as chairpersons respectively. In the 2001 Union Paris had (UP) elections, as many as 102 women candidates contested for 4,443 UP chairmanship positions countrywide where only 20 women were elected. However, in the 2003 Union Paris had elections, the number of women candidates who contested for the position of UP chairmanships increased to 232 from 102 in 1997. But this does not mean that the major parties and the media are encouraging women leaders who enter into politics at the local
Level. At present, there is not a single woman city mayor in Bangladesh. No women received a nomination from the major parties to contest for the mayoral position to the six-city corporation’s elections. For the first time in 1994, as many as 19 women ward commissioners were elected to the reserved seats of the Dhaka City Corporations. Table-3 provides the data of the elected female chairpersons to the Union Paris had of Bangladesh during 1973- 2003.
Table 1: Elected Women Chairpersons to the Union Paris had of Bangladesh (1973-2003)
Year
Total Union Parishes
Female Candidates
Elected Female Candidates
1973
4,352
Not available
1
1977
4,352
Not available
4
1984
4,440
Not available
4
1988
4,440
79
1
1992
4,443
115
15
2001
4, 443
102
20
2003
4,443
232
22
Source: Election Commission of Bangladesh, Women in Bangladesh, Bangladesh National Report, 1995.p. 9
In 1997, the Bangladesh government took a positive step to ensure women’s participation in elected bodies at the local level. The government enacted a law introducing of a direct election of women for three reserved ward member seats to each Union Paris had – the lower rural administrative tier of the local government.[2] [27] This step was taken in conformity with Article nine of the Bangladesh constitution. Apart from the exclusive reserved seats, women can also contest for any of the general seats. Welcomed by concerned women’s organizations and groups, the quota system provided women the effective right to be elected in local level politics. For example, 43,969 female candidates contested in the 1997 Union Paris had direct elections for 12,723 ward member seats reserved for females. Women members consider their participation in local level politics as less disruptive to family life. They are found to be regularly attending the meetings of the Union Praised. In an overwhelmingly male dominated political environment, the quota system has enhanced the opportunity for women’s participation in politics at the local level. Hossain, head of the Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC), found that reserved seats for women have boosted women’s confidence in their capability. But he points out that lack of opportunity to play an effective role from those seats has infused them with frustration.[3] [28]
Although women members attend the Union Paris had meetings regularly, very few can influence the discussions and ultimate resolutions. In the male dominated Union Paris had, female ward members hold subordinate position and cannot express their views as forcefully as their male counterpart. The male colleagues have a propensity to ignore their development proposals on diverse socio-economic issues. In addition, Salma Ali alleges that many women elected through quotas were subjected to sexual harassment by their male counterparts and were looked down upon as ‘second category’ members.[4] [29] It is noteworthy however, that the percentage of women willing to contest at the local level has been increasing in recent years, which indicates that women are eager to participate in both national and local level politics.
Source: Kamal Uddin Ahmed, “Women and Politics in Bangladesh”, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (Hum.) Vol. 50, 2005, p. 534.
Obstacles to Women’s participation in leadership in Bangladesh
The elected women member’s participation in local government bodies remains generally insignificant, as they are not given any specific duties. The absence of operational guidelines and terms of reference for female elected reprehensive, the limited capacity of the female elected representatives to operate in pubic institutions of this nature, the lack of awareness over their roles and responsibilities, the systematic discrimination and biases by male elected colleagues- all these are seen as factors impeding women’s meaningful participation in local government (ADE, 2001:14).
Some of the major problems to women’s participation in leadership include the following:
Albeit the constitution guaranteed the equal rights for women, the reality is that they are not seen as equal, their roles are closely tied to their reproductive and household activities only. At the same time women are considered as unfit to perform political and community affairs. This is due to lack of clarity in the constitution on the role of women in leadership. A common complaint regarding women’s reserved seats is that the law does not specify what their roles and responsibilities are to be.
Patriarchy as a system, an ideology and practice impacts in different ways on the lives or women wherever they are. Patriarchal attitudes become so embedded that they are. Patriarchal attitudes become so embedded that they are taken as natural. Even where there is supposed equality, these attitudes tend to prevail. Socio-cultural norms and religious misinterpretations are used frequently for challenging and reinterpreting women’s rights and create insecurity for women. And although women have equal political rights to participate as voters and representatives, in reality they can be actively discouraged to do so. The patriarchal society enforces rules and laws n such way that affect the self-confidence of women, limit their access on resources and information and thus keep them in a lower status than men.
A considerable amount of literatures has explained the traditional socio-cultural noms and attitudes towards women and their roles in society. According to Hofsted’s Cultural dimension, it was assumed that Bangladesh is a Masculine Society. Masculinity pertains to societies in which social gender roles are
Clearly distinct. The predominant pattern is for men to be more assertive and for women to be more nurturing (Hofstede, 1994:83). These masculine cultural patterns of Bangladesh assign specific sex roles in the society which give women an extremely limited scope for employment opportunity as there is a myth going on that:“men need employment for their families; women need only income generating activities to perform in their spare time as an extension of domestic activities”. For Bangladeshi women, being a good wife and a good mother is her main socially acceptable goal. Therefore, if a women want to join the polities, she has to perform the dual role as a housewife and a political
Education is probably the most important variable, which determines the extent of progress that country can make in various fields (Khan, 1995: 80). Although educational opportunities are open to the both men and women, historical facts of socio-cultural attitudes that favored sons over daughters. Women’s access to education is an important indicator of women’s status. IN recent time, primary school enrollment has significantly increased for both male and female students in Bangladesh but gender gaps still continues because of high drop out rates of female students. At the secondary level, various incentives have been introduced of increasing the number of girls but still their percentage remains less than 40% of the total secondary enrollment (Jahan and Kabir as quoted in 2006:166; Chowdhuary, 2004:1). In a patriarchal society like ours, where gender division of labor is an accepted norm, women’s access to appropriate educational training is extremely limited. Moreover, the prejudicial attitude of employers is also responsible for women’s limit
The male-biased environment within political institutions can deter women. The fact that there are few women on decision-making bodies means that these women have to work within styles and modes acceptable to men. As a result women cannot give attention to their issues. Sometime their colleges and society treat them harshly. Many-if not all-male elected members harbor negative attitude towards elected woman members. They believe women should not run for general seats. They denigrate the value of the reserved seats. Lack of cooperation by men in the local government is a significant barrier to women’s effectiveness in decision-making.
The constitution of Bangladesh as mentioned earlier (Article 10, 11, 19, 27, 28, 29) in clear terms guarantees constitutional rights and equality of women with men in every sphere of life. As we discussed earlier that after independence in 1971, the Bangladesh Government took many positive steps to increase women participation in civil service, as the position of women vis-à-vis men in terms of number was very insignificant. The steps are as follows:
Setting a quota of 10 per cent public jobs for women in class-I, which was later raised up to 15 per cent for non-cadre and non-gazette posts;
Filling up 60% of the vacancies of primary school teachers (wherever possible) by female candidates; in secondary school it is 30 per cent and in satellite schools it is 100 per cent (Hussain, 2002:236);
Relaxing the age limit up to 30 years in entry to the public service (S. Khan 1988; p25).
In addition, different five years plans adopted by successive government outlined many policies to integrate women in the mainstream of national development. The Gob declared the National Policy for the Advancement of Women. (NPAW) on 8 March 1997. It attempted to address 14 different and relevant issues where employment and administrative empowerment of women were given special emphasis (Japan, 2007: 52). For the administrative empowerment of women, the following policies were suggested to be undertaken.
· Make provisions for contracts and lateral entry to facilitate female access to government service in the higher levels of administrative structure;
· Appoint females to the higher positions of Judiciary, University Grants Commission, Ambassadors, State Representatives in different United Nations Bodies and other International Organizations;
· Continues the quota system and increase the quota at all levels;
· Increase efforts for achieving a 30 per cent female population at all levels of decision-making, including policy level post (GoB, 1998).
The government in 1998 declared the National Action Plan (NAP). It furnished the role of 15 concerned and some other relevant ministries in the plan for increasing female participation in pubic sector and decision-making levels. Moreover, the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary, Affairs and the Ministry of Labor and Manpower were assigned to take action for recruiting women in Judicial and senior management position (Jahan as quoted in 2007: 52; Kashem et. Al., 2002:45).
Despite the efforts mentioned above, women’s participation in the civil service has not been satisfactory. Annual report of the Public Service Commission indicated that Government could not fulfill fully the posts, which were reserved for women under the quota system in different years (The Public Service Commission, Annual Report; 2004). Thus, educated women could not be accommodated in the government service despite the fact that 10% of the gazette posts and 15% of the non-gazette posts are reserved for them.
In fact the real obstacle is the absence of pragmatic government policy and the lack of commitment to implement policies that have already been undertaken. The policies, already underway, should be reformed and revised in light of adequate examination of women’s needs, prevalent social environment and rationale for proper development and utilization of the half of the human resources of the country.
7. Tokenism is the practice of appointing a few representative from the under represented groups merely for public relations purposes (or what cab be termed as “window dressing” appointments). Sometimes token are used by the appointing authority to reduce pressure for more representation form the groups concerned (Langue, 1989: 179).
In Bangladesh, there have been Cabinets without a single women member (Jahan and Kabir as quoted in 2006:167; Haque 2003:18). Table 6 shows that the presence of women in the cabinet has been extremely low during different periods. Women in the cabinet basically indicate ‘tokenism’, which becomes clear form the table. There are no women Vice Chancellor in any of the universities. No woman has so far headed the Universities. No woman has so far headed the University Grants Commission (UGC) or the Public Administration Training Centre (PATC). For the first time in the history of Bangladesh, a female served as the Chairman of the Bangladesh Public Service Commission (BPSC) during 2002-2007. Women hold only 2.2% of positions in the judiciary (Jahan and Kabir as quoted in 2006: 167). It has become clear to observers that these appointments are merely giving a semblance of supporting egalitarian value and forestalling criticism, but do not actually address basic problems affecting gender balancing in public administration. In a way it has become potential obstacle to the realization of fuller representation of women, because it tends to placate demands for it, while camouflaging serious imbalances in the system.
Table 7: Number of women ministers in Bangladesh during different periods of rule
Sl No
Regimes
Total no. of Ministers
MenMinisters (Total)
Women Ministers (Total)
Women Ministers(%)
1
Sheikh Mujib
(1971-1975)
50
47
2
4%
2
Ziaur Rahman
(1979-1982)
101
95
6
6%
3
H. M. Ershad
(1982-1990)
133
127
4
3%
4
Begum Zia
(1991-1996)
39
36
3
5%
5
Sheiks Hasina
(1996-2001)
46
42
4
8.69%
6
Begum Zia
(2001-2006)
60
58
2
3.5%
Source: Najma Choudhury, Women in Development; A Guidebook for Planners, Draft Report, 1994, and Najmun Nessa Mahtab: 2003
Public Administration Sector study (PASS) report identified some socio-cultural obstacles, which are the main reasons for the low presence of women in the civil service. They are listed below:
· Negative attitudes towards them male colleagues:
· Doubts of superior officers about the capabilities (for work) of women officer;
· Superiority complexes of their male colleagues;
· Tendency to that women officers in a gender biased fashion;
· Comments that male officers are more efficient than women officers;
· Having to perform the dual role as housewife and government officer without the required support system;
· Non-cooperation of male colleagues and family members.
· Societal backwardness (Report on Public Administration Sector Study, 1993: 149).
For all this reason women are not take part in political leadership.
Overcoming Obstacles against Women’s Advancement into Political leadership
Everywhere men are more visible in political leadership than women. A leading political scientist and former chairperson of the Women Studies Department at the University of Dhaka observed that politics in Bangladesh remains male-dominated with respect to number, position in the party hierarchy, presence, and effectiveness in national parliament.[5] [30] A number of obstacles have kept the representation of women in government and politics low. In fact, the time restraints associated with women’s traditional roles as wife and mother as well as the frequent lack of family support for women seeking elected office still remains as one of the primary reasons for women’s inability to make any advancement into politics. The reasons and obstacles why few Bangladeshi women are in politics even today can be attributed to religious and economic factors, social biases, obstacles, and negative attitudes based on gender roles and stereotypes that continue to persist. The patriarchal culture that has dominated Bangladesh society with its social attitude and role expectation has placed women within the realm of domestic life or in narrowly defined work roles. In addition, most of the religious-based parties in Bangladesh, including the Jamat-e-Islami, all the time wanted to restrict women’s rights and equality and intentionally deny women’s political participation. Salma notes that in most of the Muslim societies, the fundamentalists urge the full submission of women to their husbands and expect them to always be obedient in the name of social order and religious doctrines.
In fact, there are multiple explanations for the low numbers of women in public office in Bangladesh. Besides situational barriers, economic problems and dependency, political and social violence, and lack of education and political knowledge, one major explanation is that Bangladeshi women have been conditioned not to take much interest in government and politics. They are also rarely pre-selected by the major political parties for possible winning seats. Another reason for their under-representation is that women have been reluctant to run for parliament due to domestic responsibilities.
A former member of the parliament from the AL, Sajeda Chowdhury, observed that, ‘Women must be encouraged to be more independent and self-reliant and that social norms and cultural values to be re-oriented’.[6] [33] Moreover, the problem of reconciling family life and public life has been a serious disincentive to Bangladeshi women contemplating over whether to participate in the political process. In fact, for many Bangladeshi women a political career is seen as a non-traditional choice. A 1992 UN study observes that, ‘Women’s political participation will be enhanced if social and economic support structures exist, legal discrimination is eliminated and negative stereotypes are vanished from education and media’. Clearly, these measures are lacking or insufficient in Bangladesh. The difficulty of running for office in the rough and tumble of Bangladeshi politic in addition to the continuing economic inequality, limit women’s opportunities in achieving political office. Legal discrimination may have been largely eliminated, but negative stereotypes and entrenched attitudes regarding proper gender roles mean that legal equality has not translated into any real political equality. So to ensure women participation in leadership the following policies may be taken:
1. Role of responsibilities of women members should be clear in the manuals and orders of local government.
2. Opportunities for education, health care and employment
3. Specific programs should be undertaken by the government and non-government organization for women’s partiepation in Political leadership
4. Mass media should be used to educate and mobilize public opinion about women’s participation in leadership
5. Women should be given various opportunities for leadership training
6. There is an urgent need to undertake research on women’s participation in politics
7. And finally in increasing the number of women in decision-making position.
Conclusions
In sum, the suggestion is that in order to give Bangladeshi women a place in the political leadership process, there is a need to increase the number of women holding political office at both the local and national level. However, any substantial increase in women’s representation in public life depends on the mainstream changes within the major political parties; the strong support and campaigning by women’s groups, NGOs, and the media; the removal of structural impediments, traditional mindsets, biases and attitudes based on gender roles, and access to financial resources. The religion-based parties are opposed to women in public office. It is likely that in the national parliament of Bangladesh as well as in the local level politics, women’s representation will remain insignificant in the near future despite their enthusiasm to provide political leadership.
References
1. Asian Affairs-CDRP Publication
2. Ahmed.S.G and MM khan(1990) Bangladesh, in V.Subramanian (ed). Public Administration in the Third World, New Yoork:Greenwod Press
3. Bangladesh Public Service Commission(2004),Annual Report of Bangladesh Public Service Commission,Dhaka:BPSC
4. BBC(2004),Statistical Pocket Book of Bangladesh,Dhaka:Bangladesh Bureau of Statistices
5. Chowdhury,B.H.(2004) Womens Status in Bangladesh:A Suggested Framework for Analysis,in Empowerment
6. WOMEN AND POLITICS IN BANGLADESH-Kamal Uddin Ahmed
7. Wikipedia
8. M. Margaret Conway, “Women and Political Participation”, PS, Political Science and Politics, Washington, June 2000, p. 3.
9. Enayetullah Khan, “Women in Politics”, Lecture Series-2, Women and Politics in Bangladesh, Centre for Women and Development, (CW) Bangladesh, May 1999.
10. Giele and Asmock, Women: Roles and Status in Eight Countries, New York, Wiley, 1977.
11. ADB, Country Briefing Paper, Women in Bangladesh, 2001,
12. UN Center for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs, Women in Politics and Decision-making in the Late Twentieth Century: A United Nation’s Study, Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1992, pp. 30-31.
13. See GOBD, The Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Part III, p. 8 (modified up to 2000).
14. Najma Chowdhury, “Women in Politics in Bangladesh” in Ahmed Q.K. et. al (eds.) Situation of Women in Bangladesh, Ministry of Social Welfare & Women Affairs, Government of Bangladesh, Dhaka, 1985, p. 268.