{"id":65616,"date":"2026-06-11T09:27:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T09:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lirneasia.net\/futureworksasia\/?p=65616"},"modified":"2026-06-11T09:28:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T09:28:53","slug":"why-are-women-in-bangladesh-leaving-the-workforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lirneasia.net\/futureworksasia\/2026\/06\/why-are-women-in-bangladesh-leaving-the-workforce\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Are Women in Bangladesh Leaving the Workforce?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Image credits: Unsplash.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women\u2019s participation in the workforce is a cornerstone of inclusive economic growth yet recent trends in Bangladesh point to a worrying reversal. New data shows that the country\u2019s labour force has shrunk for the first time in over a decade, with the vast majority of those exiting being women, erasing years of hard-won progress in female employment. This op-ed unpacks the deeper structural and social factors driving women out of the workforce, and what this means for the future of work and gender equality in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article was written by researchers from the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM)<\/a> as part of the project, \u201cGender Implications of the Future of Work in South Asia: Insights from Garment Manufacturing in Bangladesh and India,<\/a>\u201d supported under the FutureWORKS Asia initiative \u2014 part of the FutureWORKS Collective, a global effort supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read the full article, published in The Daily Star<\/em> <\/a>on 24 September 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women\u2019s participation in the workforce is a cornerstone of inclusive economic growth yet recent trends in Bangladesh point to a worrying reversal. This op-ed unpacks the deeper structural and social factors driving women out of the workforce, and what this means for the future of work and gender equality in the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":65617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,75,55,57,68,66,73,74],"coauthors":[38],"class_list":["post-65616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs-and-multimedia","tag-bangladesh","tag-female-employment","tag-garment-industry","tag-gender-and-work","tag-gender-equality","tag-manufacturing-sector","tag-sanem","tag-women-in-employment"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Are Women in Bangladesh Leaving the Workforce? - FutureWORKS Asia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lirneasia.net\/futureworksasia\/2026\/06\/why-are-women-in-bangladesh-leaving-the-workforce\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Are Women in Bangladesh Leaving the Workforce? - FutureWORKS Asia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Women\u2019s participation in the workforce is a cornerstone of inclusive economic growth yet recent trends in Bangladesh point to a worrying reversal. 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