Bangladesh's $30 Billion Problem: Why Women Are Leaving the Workforce | EconoMix – Interview with SEN

Bangladesh's female labour force participation rate stands at just 38.6%, compared to 80.4% for men. Nearly 65% of working women are in vulnerable employment, with limited protections or security. And according to economic estimates, if women participated in the workforce at the same rate as men, Bangladesh could add up to $30 billion annually to its economy. The gap is not a question of willingness or capability. It is a question of conditions.

In a recent in-depth interview titled "Bangladesh's $30 Billion Problem | Why Women Are Leaving the Workforce? | EconoMix | EP 14", hosted by South Era Network (SEN), our Portfolio Advisor on Inclusive Growth, Tasmiah Rahman, returned to the programme to unpack the structural barriers keeping women out of formal employment in Bangladesh.

The conversation explored why millions of women who are educated, skilled, and willing to work are still being held back, not by ambition or ability, but by the conditions that surround work itself. Key themes included:

• Unsafe public transportation as a primary driver of workforce exit, with studies indicating up to 90% of women using public transit face harassment
• Workplace culture in male-dominated environments, including safeguarding gaps, victim-blaming, and the absence of accountability mechanisms
• The impact of inadequate sanitation facilities on women's physical health, including the widespread prevalence of UTIs among working women
• The respectability trap facing middle-class women graduates amid a shortage of suitable formal roles
• Informal and vulnerable employment as the default reality for working-class women
• The care burden as a structural barrier, with unpaid domestic and childcare responsibilities falling disproportionately on women
• Policy priorities including zero-tolerance harassment mandates on public transport, expanded sanitation infrastructure, and state-subsidised childcare centres

The discussion also pointed to the encouraging signals emerging from Bangladesh's upcoming budget, with growing recognition of unpaid care work at the policy level, while drawing attention to how far implementation still needs to go.

As Bangladesh continues to grapple with one of South Asia's most significant gender gaps in workforce participation, the question is no longer whether women can contribute, it is whether the systems around them will finally be built to support them.

Watch the full discussion: South Era Network (SEN) – Bangladesh's $30 Billion Problem | Why Women Are Leaving the Workforce? | EconoMix | EP 14

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