The Gap Between Women's Education and Women's Employment

Women's education and women's employment are the most vital and viral topics of this century. Bangladesh is not outside of this trend too. But there is a huge gap between the percentage of women's education and the percentage of women's employment in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, the rate of female education has reached its peak during the last two decades. Some major government and non-government initiatives have played a significant role here. Government programs like free education and stipends for girls up to the 12th grade; school feeding and free books program as well as non-government projects conducted by various NGOs like BRAC, JAAGO Foundation and many more have made it possible to reach at a very good level in female education. According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and other reliable sources, in 2023, the gross enrollment of primary education rate for females was 116.39%, compared to 106.99% for males and in secondary education it was 76.6% for females and 66.54% for males. When it comes to university level or tertiary level education it is also clear that the rate of female enrollment in education is increasing rapidly. That is a great achievement for a developing country like Bangladesh and it also represents Bangladesh on the world stage very positively.

Though all these achievements have received a huge appreciation, there is an immense gap between the sector of women’s education and women's employment. The students dropout occur at different educational levels but nowadays the main dropout happens after the higher secondary level and the graduation level. Various social, religious, situational and personal barriers work here as reasons. Issues like child marriage, lack of awareness about education and employment, superstitious beliefs about women’s employment, societal expectations and pressures after marriage, child-care responsibilities are some significant factors that work behind this gap. For instance, as the social structure of Bangladeshi society is patriarchal, the female members of the families are not required to be employed to earn and contribute to the family. Again, women are thought as the driving force of the household management and they have a great duty as mothers. Additionally, some women don't choose to be employed after even completing their higher education.

That is actually a concerning issue at this time because there is a shocking gap between the education and employment rate of women in Bangladesh. Even though girls surpass boys in enrollment at some educational stages, their participation in the labor force is disproportionately low, it’s approximately 44.15%, according to the data of 2024. Therefore, this gap needs to be solved for the overall development of our country. Creating employment opportunities and a safe work environment for women, promoting higher education and skill development training, addressing social and cultural barriers and providing proper career guidance can be some effective measures in reducing this gap. Here, the policymakers, government and non-government officials have a great role to play as they are the leading body of the society. Also, we all have some responsibilities as members of this society to solve these micro and macro issues for increasing the rate of women’s employment.


Aysarjo Karmokar belongs
to Institute of Social Welfare
and Research, University
of Dhaka.