Md Mizanur Rahman - Ph.D. Joint Director, Research Division Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD) Kotbari, Comilla, Bangladesh

This paper aims at unraveling the struggle and coping strategies adopted by the woman leaders (WLs) in the grassroots based local government in Bangladesh, i.e. Union Parishad (UP). Although local government of Bangladesh is 145 years old but women‘s representation began only 2 decades ago. Since their entry into the UP in 1997, the women leaders have been struggling to ensure their participation in it. Against such a context, the paper is prepared to unravel the research questions: i) what were the major threats against women‘s participation in the UP and ii) how did woman leaders cope up with the challenges for ensuring their participation in the UP. The paper is based on qualitative research methods that include hermeneutic phenomenological approach which was supported by FGDs, case study, content analysis and observation methods. The paper have come up with the findings that the WLs identified 3 major challenges towards ensuring their participation in the UP such as: i) patriarchy or male domination, ii) corruption and iii) faulty legal provision imposed on women in the UP. Women leaders have adopted various formal and informal means to adjust themselves in the sphere of UP governance. The formal means that the WLs have adopted for coping strategies are seeking arguments from legal sources, protests in meetings, seeking assistance from the local administration, and votes of no confidence. The informal means that the WLs have chosen for coping strategies are adopting some forms of social capital such as seeking help from their family and community people, using NGO networks and political patronage, seeking help from concerned MPs; compromising with the Chairman, and seeking remedies using the media. The paper come up with the suggested intervention that the problems WLs are to encounter in the UP are in general governance problems of Bangladesh society, therefore solution might be changing the structural arrangement in the UP. The UP structure should be more democratized and inclusive as well.

Union Parishad, woman leaders, coping strategies, local government, Bangladesh