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Agric. Sci. Digest,
29 (4) : 254-259, 2009 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE
www.arccjournals.com / indianjournals.com
NATURE AND EXTENT OF RURAL WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN
AGRICULTURAL AND NON-AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES
K.S. Farid, L. Mozumdar, M.S. Kabir and U.K. Goswami
Bangladesh Agricultural University,
Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh.
ABSTRACT
Rural women in Bangladesh are involved in different works in agricultural and non-agricultural
sectors. The present study was undertaken to determine the nature and extent of participation of
rural women in various agricultural and non-agricultural activities. A sample size of 96 women
labour was drawn from three villages of
Mithapukur
upazial
(25º23´ to 25º41´N latitude and 89º06´
to 89º26´E longitude) of
Rangpur
district (25º17´ to 25º57´N latitude and 88º95´ to 89º32´E
longitude). The findings showed that most of the respondents constitute economically active age
group who were mostly illiterate. Rural women area largely took part in homestead gardening,
harvesting crops, post-harvest operation, selling labour, sewing
katha,
‘buying daily necessities’
and
rice husking by
dhekhi
. Women were involved in various activities in order to meet basic
family needs, increase family income and meet additional family requirements. The values of
correlation coefficient (r) indicated that age of the respondents, amount of indebtedness of the
family and family size were positively, and level of education and size of landholding are negatively
associated with the participation of rural women in various agricultural and non-agricultural activities,
whereas, average annual income and wage rate have no significant relationship with their
participation in various activities.
Key words : Women in rural Bangladesh.
INTRODUCTION
Women in rural Bangladesh are mostly
underutilized and largely unrecognized. Though rural
women constituted a large share of labour force of
the country, official labour force statistics have not
yet recognized the vital role women play in farm
and non-farm production process. Among the 10.3
million women labour forces, the share of rural
women is 7.6 million compared with the 2.6 million
urban labour forces. The share of female labour
forces engaged in various types of occupation is 22.2
per cent among total percentages of labour forces.
Women labour force of rural areas contributed 16.4
per cent of total female labour force, while the share
of urban female labour forces is only 5.8 per cent.
Moreover, the participation rate of rural women
labour forces is slightly lower than that of urban
female labour forces which is, 25.6 for rural and
27.4 for urban female labour forces among the total
participation rate of 26.1 (BBS, 2006).
Despite their routine domestic work, women
in rural areas are very actively involved in
agricultural production in Bangladesh. They are in
general responsible for most of agricultural work in
the homestead. Farm activities in the homestead,
ranging from selection of seed to harvesting and
storing of crops, are predominantly managed by
women. It is documented that women alone or jointly
with men, participate in nearly all phases of
agricultural production (Rothschild and Mahmud,
1989). The overall involvement of women in rural
areas of Bangladesh, however, not only includes
employment in the agricultural and non-agricultural
labour market, but also unpaid work for the
household in crop cultivation, homestead gardening,
livestock and poultry raising, fishing, cottage industry
and personal services. Rural women in Bangladesh
also do many other quasi-economic activities which
are not valued in national income accounting.
Vol. 29, No. 4, 2009 255
Examples of such activities are food processing and
preparation of meals for the family members; care
of children, old and sick members
of the household; and tutoring of children
(Hossain, 2004).
A common social perception exists in
Bangladesh according to which women in the farm
households do not perform field and market work
and men do not undertake most of the productive
activities carried out in the proximity of the
homestead (Abdullah and Zeidenstein, 1982). But
in reality among poor households, such clearly
demarcated gender divisions of labour do not apply.
The traditional gender relations with women’s
involvement in post-harvest work and men’s in
fieldwork have not remained static over time.
Presently, due to extreme poverty and food crisis,
social norms and traditions are changing and
women are appearing in the field as well (Shirin,
1995). About 60-70% of women from landless and
near-landless households work as agricultural wage
labourers, whereas women from larger farms do not
participate in field activities (Jahan, 1990). In the
Grameen Krishi Foundation working areas in North-
West Bangladesh, women equally share all tasks in
rice production, even the presumably male task of
irrigation (Jordans and Zwatreveen, 1997). But
credible documentation of women’s participation
in farm and non-farm activities is problematic
particularly for women belonging to farm
households. Invisibility of women’s productive
work
is a problem, particularly in developing countries
because women usually work within the household,
and productive
work is often overlapped with the
so-called non-productive
work (Hossain
et al
.,
2004). In recent years, empirical researches have
tried to document the extent of women’s involvement
in special task. But further documentation is
necessary to know about the nature, extent, causes
and determinants of involvement of rural women in
agricultural and non-agricultural activities. Owing
to this necessity the present study aims to investigate
the following specific objectives:
i. To measure the various socio-economic
characteristics of the rural women
ii. To determine and describe the nature and
extent of participation of rural women in agricultural
and non-agricultural activities.
iii. To analyze the causes and determinants of
participation of women in those activities.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
The study was conducted at three randomly
selected villages of
Mithapukur
upazila
(administrative unit next to district) in
Rangpur
district.
Mithapukur
upazila
(25º23´ to 25º41´N
latitude and 89º06´ to 89º26´E longitude) was
selected purposively from
Rangpur
district (25º17´
to 25º57´N latitude and 88º95´ to 89º32´E
longitude) which is situated in northern part of
Bangladesh. Rural areas of
Mithapukur
upazila were
selected due to the participation of women of those
areas in various activities outside their home which
is associated with their poor economic condition.
Among the farm households of three selected villages,
96 households were selected randomly. Thus female
members of these households, who worked outside
along with their household work, were the
respondents of this study. Data on various socio-
economic parameters were collected through direct
interview with the structured and pre-tested interview
schedule during February to April 2008.
After completion of the field survey, the data
obtained from all the respondents were edited, coded,
compiled, tabulated and analysed according to the
objectives of the study. Basic statistics such as
frequency distribution, percentage, mean, standard
deviation and rank were used in describing the
variable of the study. ‘Pearson’s correlation test’ was
used to analyse the relationship between various
factors and extent of overall participation of rural
women in various activities. Overall participation
was calculated by summing up all the activities done
by the women either regularly or occasionally by
giving a value of 2 for regularly and 1 for
occasionally. So the dependent variable is extent of
overall participation in various activities and
independent variables are age and level of education
of the respondents, size of landholdings, family size,
household income, amount of indebtedness, and
wage rate.
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Socio-economic features of the respondents
: Human being possesses various interrelated and
constituent characteristics which determine his/her
unique adjustment to his/her environment. It is
therefore, assumed that participation of rural
women in various activities would be influenced
256 AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE DIGEST
by their socio-economic characteristics which are
shown in Table 1.
Table 1 portrays that the mean age of the
women respondents was 39.98 years with the
standard deviation (SD) of 8.37, that is, rural women
of the present study belong to the economically
active age group. Their education level is very much
low i.e., only 1.65 years. The average annual income
was about Tk. 55.56 thousands with Tk.12.50
thousands of indebtedness. The rural women of the
study area involve in agricultural and non-agricultural
activities with the average wage rate of Tk. 71.56
per day.
Participation in various agricultural and non-
agricultural activities : Participation refers to taking
or having a part in activities in various events often
with others. If there is a need there is participation.
It was not possible to investigate into all kinds of
participation by the rural women, The following two
broad kinds of participation were undertaken in this
study :
i. Participation in various agricultural
activities, and
ii. Participation in various non-agricultural
activities.
Rural women of the study area were taking
part in various agricultural and non-agricultural
activities. The distribution of rural women according
to their participation in various agricultural and non-
agricultural activities has been shown in Table 2
along with participation indices and rank order.
Table 2 shows that rural women in the study
area were largely involved in homestead gardening,
harvesting crops and post-harvest operation,
because each of this items of work ranked for I, II
and III position respectively. All of the respondents
of this study were involved in homestead gardening.
Moreover, out of 96 respondents, 94 involved in
harvesting activities, 86 in post-harvest operation,
79 in weeding, 56 in livestock rearing, 55 in planting
seedling and 40 in uprooting seedling respectively.
No women were involved in land preparation and
fertilizer application regularly. Only 11 and 15
respondents were involved in land preparation and
fertilizer application occasionally respectively. Again,
a large part of respondents (56 out of 96) were
occasionally taking part in uprooting seedling
activities.
The non-agricultural activities which were
done by the rural women included labour selling,
bamboo work, embroidery work, sewing
katha
(a
traditional instrument used to cover body while
sleeping), dress making, rice husking by
dekhi
(a
traditional instrument used to husk the paddy)
,
teaching children and buying daily necessities
.
The
universal household activities like cooking, child
caring, washing clothes and cleaning house were
not accounted in this study. The Table 2 reveals that
the participation of rural women in respect of ‘selling
labour’ was highest, ‘sewing
katha’
was the second
highest and ‘buying daily necessities’ was the third
highest. Participation in ‘dress making’ had the
lowest index (30). Out of 96 respondents, 69 were
in involved in ‘labour selling’ in comparison with
20 in ‘sewing
katha
’ and 13 in ‘rice husking by
dheki
’
respectively. ‘Rice husking by
dheki’
was another
important activity done by the rural women either
regularly or occasionally. It is apparent from the
Table 2 that 13 women are involved in rice husking
by
dheki
regularly whereas 54 women do this activity
occasionally.
Table 1. Socio-economic characteristics of the respondents.
Characteristics Observed score Mean SD
Age(years) 20 to 58 38.98 8.37
Education (years of schooling) 0 to 8 1.65 2.36
Land ownership (decimal) 0 to 130 20.46 31.42
Family size(numbers) 1 - 8 5.07 1.89
Annual income (‘000’Tk.) 22 - 108 55.59 20.44
Amount of indebtedness (‘000’ Tk.) 7 - 20 12.50 4.50
Wage rate (Tk./day) 60 - 90 71.56 6.93
Note : Tk. = Taka (Bangladeshi currency) Source : Field Survey, 2008
Vol. 29, No. 4, 2009 257
Reasons of participation in various
activities: Views of the rural women : There
are many reasons behind the involvement of rural
women labour in various farm and non-farm
activities. The causes are not mutually exclusive and
the main causes found to be responsible in this study
were to meet family needs, absence of male earning
members, to increase family income, to meet
personal needs and to meet additional family
requirements. Attempts were made here to find out
the most three important reasons. In order to do
this the respondents of this study were asked to give
priority on the above mentioned causes in order of
importance. Then final rank order was calculated
after giving weight to each of the priority for
example, 3 for priority I, 2 for priority II and 1 for
priority I respectively. The important reasons, on the
basis of the rank, of involvement of rural women in
various activities are shown in Table 3.
The most important factor for seeking
employment or involvement in various activities by
the women was to meet family needs. The women
who were very poor and those who have no
alternative source of earning were involved in
different types of work for improving their livelihoods.
Out of 96 women, 73 were reported that they were
engaged in various farm and non-farm activities in
order to meet the basic needs of the family. To lead
a decent living, the need for money can hardly be
overemphasized. So, the second important reason
for the involvement of women in various types of
activities was to increase the family income followed
Table 2. Extent of participation in various agricultural and non-agricultural activities.
Items of operation Extent of participation Participation Rank
Regularly Occasionally Never indices order
Agricultural activities
i. Land preparation 0 11 85 11
ii. Applying manure 4 50 42 58
iii. Uprooting seedling 40 56 0 136
iv. Planting seedling 55 29 12 139
v. Applying fertilizer 0 15 81 15
vi. Drain preparation 5 17 74 27
vii. Weeding 79 8 9 166 IV
viii. Applying irrigation 1 32 63 34
ix. Fencing 20 4 72 44
x. Applying insecticides 10 0 86 20
xi. Homestead gardening 96 0 0 192 I
xii. Harvesting 94 2 0 190 II
xiii. Post-harvest operation 86 4 6 176 III
xiv. Rearing poultry 8 59 29 75
xv. Rearing livestock 56 32 8 144 V
Non-agricultural activities
i. Labour selling 69 17 10 155 I
ii. Bamboo work 0 30 66 30
iii. Embroidery work 0 62 34 62 V
iv. Sewing
katha
20 74 2 114 II
v. Dress making 1 20 75 22
vi. Rice husking by
dhekhi
13 54 29 80 I V
vii. Teaching children 20 4 72 44
viii. Buying daily necessities 16 71 9 103 III
Source: Field Survey, 2008
Note: Participation indices = Regularly x 2 + Occasionally x 1 + Never x 0.
258 AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE DIGEST
by to meet additional family requirements as the
third respectively.
Determinants of women’s involvement in
agricultural and non-agricultural activities :
Labour allocation between agricultural and non-
agricultural activities at household and outside the
household was influenced by economic and socio-
cultural factors, and this deserved more attention
because women’s participation on outside activities
was not so high in Bangladesh. In rural Bangladesh
for example, women from well-to-do families
generally did not engage in outside work, and they
devoted more time in childcare and domestic
activities instead of economic activities (Goldin,
1995). The purpose of this section was to explore
the relationship between the socio-economic
characteristics of the women and the extent of their
participation in agricultural and non-agricultural
activities. The results of the ‘Pearson’s correlation
test’ in Table 4 showed the determinants affecting
rural women’s participation in various activities.
Judging from the r-values of the estimated
parameters, it appears that the most significant
factor influencing women’s participation in
agricultural and non-agricultural activities was the
age, i.e., participation increased with the increase
of age of the respondents. The next important factor
is found to be the amount of indebtedness of the
household, that is, involvement of women from poor
families, (who were more indebted) was more than
that of the women of well-to-do families. It was also
apparent that the larger the size of the family the
higher the extent of participation of women in
outside activities. Level of education of the
respondent and the size of the landholding were
negatively associated with the women’s involvement
in economic activities. Women’s participation
decreased with the increase of level of education
and size of landholding.
CONCLUSION
Women play important role in agricultural and
non- agricultural activities especially in harvesting,
post-harvest operation, homestead gardening,
livestock and poultry rearing, selling labour etc.
Economic pressure is forcing them to break away
their traditional roles of housewives into farm and
non-farm labourers. The findings of the present study
reveal that contribution of female labour in different
activities is substantial. Moreover the following
specific conclusions can be made from the summary
of the findings of the present study.
i. Participation of rural women is apparent in
diverse forms of agricultural and non-agricultural
activities.
Table 3. Causes of the involvement of women workers in various activities.
Reasons Priority Total score Final rank
I II III
To meet basic family needs 73 21 2 263 I
Absence of male earning members 23 27 2 125 IV
To increase family income 35 27 34 193 II
To meet personal needs 12 25 21 107 V
To meet additional family requirements 23 20 58 167 III
Source: Field Survey, 2008 Note: Total score = I x 3 + II x 2 + III x 1
Table 4. Factors influencing women’s participation in various activities.
Dependent variable Independent variables Correlation coefficient (r)
Overall participation in Age (years) 0.608**
agricultural and Level of education (year of schooling) -0.327**
non-agricultural activities Landholding (decimal) -0.499**
Family size (number) 0.234*
Annual household income (‘000’ Tk.) 0.115 NS
Amount of indebtedness (‘000 Tk.) 0.578**
Wage rate (Tk./day) 0.151 NS
Note: ** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed)
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) NS Not significant
Vol. 29, No. 4, 2009 259
ii. In case of agricultural activities women
labourers are mainly involved in homestead
gardening, harvesting and post-harvesting
operation.
iii. In case of non-agricultural activities the
contribution of women labour is highest for selling labour.
iv. The most important factor for seeking
employment or involvement in various activities by
the women is to meet family needs followed by to
increase family income.
REFERENCES
Abdullah, T.A. and Zeidenstein, S.A. (1982).
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Investment in Women’s Human Capital
, Schultz T.P. (ed) The University of Chicago Press.
Hossain, M.
et al.
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Insights from Household Surveys. Working Paper No. 20, Lund University, Department of Economics,
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