Socio-Legal Empowerment for Working Women in Bangladesh

Abstract: Violence against working women strikes at the heart of economic empowerment programs—the very programs that are intended to empower them. If economic empowerment is defined as women's control over their income, violence as patriarchal deterrence prevents those women from controlling the money that they have worked so hard to earn. Therefore, women who earn are not inevitably empowered through their participation in the labor force. We argue that economic empowerment cannot be defined in terms of women's labor force participation alone. Gender-based violence sustains patriarchy. As part of the development of sociolegal empowerment theory, we introduce patriarchal deterrence as a new concept, which goes in tandem with patriarchal backlash theory, further clarifying analyses of low female labor force participation. As patriarchal backlash, violence punishes women who have joined the workforce; as patriarchal deterrence, it deters women from even starting to work. Arguing that income generation is insufficient, we present a theory of socio-legal empowerment as a necessary corollary of economic empowerment, which integrates concepts of legal empowerment and social accountability. Our theory has four components, which can be applied to assess a justice system. First is societal embeddedness, which measures how context-specific it is. For example, in Muslim countries, informal justice systems, which utilize feminist interpretations of Islam, are more embedded in local values and therefore more effective. By analyzing feminist interpretations of Islam as an imperative measure of effective justice systems for Muslim communities, we challenge Orientalist binaries of Islam versus women's rights. Second is social accountability, which assesses whether its verdicts and processes have social sanction. Third is its gender transformativeness, or social change potential, which addresses its capacity to build awareness. Fourth is its costs not only in terms of legal expenses but also of physical proximity which eliminates childcare expenses. In sum, we illustrate that earning income, though necessary, is insufficient for women's economic empowerment. Through the analysis of the NGO-ReformedShalish (informal justice system) in Bangladesh, we illustrate how socio-legal empowerment, in theory and practice, is also needed to empower working women.