Every year, 8th March is dedicated to all the women globally to amplify their powerful voices, empowering stories and astounding resilience. Being a center of excellence for climate change research in Dhaka, Bangladesh, International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) has been actively focusing on highlighting the role of women and girls in tackling the climate crisis. Through evidence-based research, advocacy, and capacity-building efforts, ICCCAD has been constantly mainstreaming gender in the climate change discourse.
With rising rates of violence against women in Bangladesh and around the world, the researchers at ICCCAD felt the necessity to have a round table discussion to improve the lives of women. This enlightening discussion took place on the 9th of March 2025.
The event began with a thought-provoking exercise where participants were asked to bring an object that symbolized a woman’s experience. Fahmid Mohtasin brought a tamarind (‘Tetul’), drawing a poignant reference to female objectification. He reflected on how social perceptions reduce women to mere commodities and how cultural norms and narratives reinforce this objectification. His insight highlighted the entrenched male gaze and its far-reaching consequences in our society. Objectifying women is culturally and socially a deeply rooted bias in Bangladesh manifesting across both urban and rural contexts. While Mohtasin discussed the biases against women, Jannat Ara Shifa introduced a mirror as a symbolic tool to emphasize that self-reflection is essential in addressing such deeply rooted prejudices.
The conversation moved beyond societal perceptions to everyday challenges faced by women. Nabiul Islam highlighted how patriarchal structures continue to undermine women, making them the ‘second sex’. These norms jeopardize women’s agency, limit their economic opportunities and confine them to traditional roles of doing household chores. Recognizing women’s rights, their personal and professional contributions is essential to dismantling these structures and achieving true gender equality. Tahseen Ahmed shared his experiences of witnessing the hardships women face in collecting clean drinking water for their families in the climate-vulnerable remote areas. As women bear the disproportionate burden of household chores, it takes a huge toll on their health and well-being. . Adding to the discussion, Samiha Saleha emphasized the urgent need to finance gender-sensitive infrastructure and sanitation facilities in public spaces, as it severely impacts women’s health and mobility during long journeys. Rawnak Jahan Khan Ranon brought attention to the dire need of gender-sensitive water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities for women residing in climate-vulnerable areas.
In global cases, women spend 200 million hours daily to ensure access to potable water. One of the UNICEF reports stated that more than half a billion people worldwide still share sanitation facilities with other households, compromising women’s and girls’ privacy, dignity, and safety.
Savio Rousseau Rozario challenged the mainstream development narrative questioning whether physical infrastructure alone ensures women’s development. Many development projects prioritize tangible progress, such as increasing female literacy rates through more schools or improving maternal health via better hospitals. However, these efforts can fall short without addressing underlying gender biases. For instance, studies show that merely increasing educational infrastructure does not guarantee a sustained attendance of girls if social norms still favor early marriage or restrict female mobility. Similarly, economic opportunities for women remain constrained if their work is undervalued or if gender wage gaps persist despite investment in industrial zones.
Fahmid Mohtasin and Maria Aktar echoed these sentiments by highlighting systemic negligence of women’s contributions, such as, women’s unpaid care work remains unrecognized in economic metrics like Gross Domestic Product (GDP). A more recent study conducted by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) reveals that women’s unpaid care work if calculated, was worth Tk 5.3 trillion, which is equivalent to almost 15 percent of the GDP. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) carried out a Time-Use Survey with support from UN Women to gather evidence of women’s work. The survey revealed that women on average spend seven times more time on care work than men.
Afsara Binte Mirza discussed the double burden of working women. She emphasized that balancing professional responsibilities with domestic care work often takes a toll on women’s mental health. She underscored that sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) and mental well-being remain underrepresented in our development agendas. She brought up the importance of meaningful participation of women in the decision-making platforms to shape up global agendas.
Climate change exacerbates financial stress that leads to increased gender-based violence, including child marriage, dowry, human trafficking, sexual harassment and domestic abuse, mentioned Mahzabeen Mahfuz. A study published by UN Women in 2020 following Cyclone Amphan in Bangladesh revealed a significant rise in intimate partner violence due to financial struggles and social isolation. Loss of livelihoods, particularly in agrarian communities, forces many women and girls to migrate for work, increasing their vulnerability to trafficking and forced labor (IOM, 2016).
Farhana Ayushi pointed out how violence against women has been so deeply ingrained in many societies that violence has become normalized to the extent that survivors and their families accept it as a fate, especially communities residing in slums and informal settlements. This normalization prevents survivors from seeking justice and reinforces cycles of abuse. Even when laws exist, enforcement is often poor due to corruption, gender bias among law enforcers or lack of political will. For instance, in many countries, marital rape remains legal or unprosecuted due to cultural resistance. Without support, many are forced to stay with their abusers or withdraw their cases.
Shahedul Islam further dissected economic barriers, including wage gaps, the glass ceiling, and the ‘pink tax’ that reinforced women’s subjugation. Women are often working in low-paying sectors such as, care work, teaching, and retail, even though they have adequate skills, knowledge and capacities as their male colleagues. Habibur Rahman emphasized that awareness plays a critical role in boosting female participation across education, workforce, and leadership by challenging stereotypes, addressing barriers, and creating supportive environments.
Mourupa Mohima shared stories of gender-based violence (GBV), recalling a village in CHT where women created their own ‘safe space’ to support and uplift each other. Women’s groups, peer networks and community circles offer emotional validation and a sense of belonging. She emphasized the need to eradicate GBV while ensuring access to education, food, and water security. Gender-sensitive policies, women-led agricultural initiatives, and cash transfer programs can help women reduce their vulnerability, in the midst of uncertainties such as climate change.
The discussion concluded with powerful commitments to drive gender justice forward. Participants emphasized the need for including women’s voices in decision-making and moving beyond tokenism. They called for challenging patriarchal mindsets through evidence-based research, advocacy, and capacity-building while ensuring that women’s contributions in all spheres, including unpaid care work, are recognized and valued. They highlighted the importance of transformative changes in policies and societal norms to create a more equitable environment. Most importantly, there was a collective call for women to stand up for themselves and claim their rightful space in society.
About the authors:
Jannat Ara Shifa is working as Gender analyst at ICCCAD; Samiha Saleha works as Research Associate; and Afsara Binte Mirza is working as Research Officer at Locally Led Adaptation Programme, ICCCAD.
