Because she’s a girl

Gender norms are social norms that relate specifically to gender differences.Social norms are developed and enforced by institutions that shape the values, roles, and interactions upheld within a society. In Bangladesh, many oppressive gender norms are upheld by patriarchal power structures, undermining the well-being of half our population: The girls.

Bangladeshi Village girl

Endemic discriminatory practices include child marriage, domestic violence, unfair inheritance laws, preference of boys over girls, skewed nutrition and decision-making patterns within families, sexual harassment, lack of security for girls, and the gender pay gap, just to mention a few.

Breaking unfair gender norms and promoting women’s empowerment should be a top priority for everyone.

Perhaps the government could develop a suitable framework for this objective within a gender policy that guides social protection programs and public private service providers to better serve womenUnfortunately, much of our population holds on to traditional ideas about gender roles, so men have access to more opportunities to earn livelihoods than women.Girls too could become confident, self reliant, participating members of the labour-force and politics, if family attitudes were supportive and did not discriminate between boys and girls for access to education, health, nutrition, skills, or labour-force participation.