Will the budget close gender gap?

In his latest budget speech, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal emphasised on giving importance to young women's skill development in professional and technical fields to reduce the country's gender gap.

He stressed that Bangladesh is in a better position internationally -- in terms of political, economic and social empowerment of women and elimination of gender inequality -- due to implementing various measures in line with the eight Five-Year Plan.

The minister mentioned Bangladesh's position in the World Economic Forum's "Global Gender Gap Report-2021", in which the country ranks 65th among 156 countries and first among South Asian nations. He said the government is working to make the position of women "satisfactory" in terms of participation in economic activities and entitlement to benefits.

While the finance minister's promise to give importance to women's skill development in professional and technical fields is a necessary step, there are a few more areas that Bangladesh needs to look at to ensure gender parity, especially in regards to closing the gap in economic participation and opportunity.

Bangladesh achieved a better position in the Global Gender Gap Report largely due to its fair scores in political empowerment (0.546 percentage points), educational attainment (0.951), and health and survival (0.962).

When it comes to economic participation and opportunity, the country's score is a mere 0.418 percentage points.

Among South Asian countries, Nepal (0.630), Bhutan (0.556), Sri Lanka (0.547) and the Maldives (0.491) have better scores than Bangladesh in "economic participation and opportunity" of women.

Also, in terms of female's labour force participation rate, Nepal (85.3 percent), Bhutan (62.3 percent), and Maldives (43.1 percent) are ahead of Bangladesh (38.5 percent).

In Laos, which ranks first in "economic participation and opportunity" with a score of 0.915 (36th in overall gender gap index with 0.750 score), female's labour force participation rate is 80.5 percent.

According to the global report, females share 24.4 percent of professional and technical work in Bangladesh, which is 30 percent in Nepal, 32.8 percent in Bhutan, 47.9 percent in Sri Lanka, 52.2 percent in Maldives, and 50.4 percent in Laos.

Besides, in Laos, females' share in "firms with majority ownership" is 36.5 percent and "firms with female top managers" 43.1 percent.

They are 12.7 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively, in Bangladesh.

Prof Tania Haque of women and gender studies department at Dhaka University said although there has been much improvement in terms of closing the gender gap, girls in Bangladesh still get less priority in getting support for higher education.

In terms of women's employment opportunities in correlation to skill, there are areas for improvement, since women face different challenges in attaining skills, as they're the only ones having to look after household activities, she said.

Prof Tania said besides urban settings, employment opportunities for young women should be extended to rural areas with infrastructural developments to increase their economic participation.

Also, adequate daycare centres are required to support working mothers to thrive in their workplaces, she told this newspaper over the phone.

Prof Tania said a mindset still persists in society that males are more efficient than their female counterparts in managerial positions.

"If the national budget only focuses on urban areas, then [gender] gap will exist," she added.

In terms of creating better opportunities for women in entrepreneurship roles, she suggested ensuring "flexibility" in loan schemes and tax payments.