Women Empowerment through Participation in Aquaculture: Experience of a Large-scale Technology Demonstration Project in Bangladesh

Abstract

The paper investigated rural women’s empowerment through participation in aquaculture activities within a large scale demonstration project in Bangladesh. The paper is based on farm level data collected from 200 women in two districts of Bangladesh. A questionnaire was used for the purpose of data collection and data gathering spanned a period of four months, (September to December) in 2004. The findings show that women in the study area gained a significant level of empowerment during the course of their participation in the aquaculture program. The extent of their empowerment was positively and significantly correlated with their education, extension media contact and exposure to training, as well as their knowledge and participation in aquaculture. Other factors, such as age, family size, family farm size, area under aquaculture, and annual family income did not show any significant relationship with the extent of a woman’s empowerment through participation in aquaculture.