Gender Streaming in Bangladesh Civil Service: A Critical Study of Women Quota Utilization Thesis Submitted to The Department of Public Administration University of Dhaka In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) By Momtaz Jahan Registration No-132 Session 2014-15 Dhaka May 2017 Declaration I hereby declare that the research work entitled “Gender Streaming in Bangladesh Civil Service: A Critical Study of Women Quota Utilization” has been carried out under the Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Dhaka in fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. I have composed this thesis based on original research findings from field study acquired by me along with references from published literature. This has not been submitted in part or full for any other institution for any other degree. Momtaz Jahan Registration No-132 Session: 2014-15 Department of Public Administration University of Dhaka Certificate This is to certify that Ms. Momtaz Jahan has worked under our supervision in preparing the thesis entitled ‘Gender Streaming in Bangladesh Civil Service: A Critical Study of Women Quota Utilization’submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Public Administration, University of Dhaka. The thesis has been prepared on the basis of original research work carried out by Ms. Momtaz Jahan alone to the best of my knowledge. No part of the thesis has been submitted anywhere for any other degree or diploma. Supervisor Professor Shahnaz Khan Department of Public Administration University of Dhaka. Co Supervisor Professor Naznin Islam Department of Public Administration University of Dhaka. Acknowledgement All praise be upon Almighty Allah, whose blessings enabled me to put the last full stop of my thesis. Now I wish to acknowledge several people and institutions who have contributed in a variety of ways to the development and completion of this study. First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude and thanks to my Supervisor, Professor Shahnaz Khan and Co Supervisor Professor Naznin Islam, Department of Public Administration, University of Dhaka for their encouragement, support, guidance, suggestions and patience throughout my PhD studies. I am extremely thankful to them for giving enough time to clear my conceptions and checking draft several times.I am especially indebted to my Ex Supervisor Professor Syed Giasuddin Ahmed (Ex Vice Chancellor of JatiyoKabiKaziNazrul Islam University and Professor of University of Dhaka) for his guidance and direction. He could not continue owing to illness. I am thankful to all my departmental teachers and colleagues of University of Dhaka for their cooperation. Their opinion and suggestions helped me to build my ideas. There are many other people both at the professional and personal level who took a lot of pain for providing me valuable information on my research work. Among them Professor Mohammad Mohabbat Khan (Ex Member Bangladesh Public Service Commission and University Grants Commission), Ex Rector A.K.M. Abdul AwalMazumder of Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre, Mr. Jalal Ahmed, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Ms. MushfekaIkfat, Secretary, Ministry of Food deserve special appreciation. My sincere thanks and gratitude to all others. I am also grateful to all the respondents and key informants who provided their accessibility and spared their valuable time in filling up the questionnaires and expressing their views to me during interview. Special thanks to Md. Amjad Hossain who helped me in collecting empirical data from the civil servants. I greatly acknowledge the assistance provided by the librarians of the respective libraries and system analysts of the Public Administration Computer Centre of the Ministry of Public Administration, which I have used during the study. I am also thankful to the University of Dhaka for granting me study leave. I would like to thank my entire family for their love, patience, inspiration and moral support shown on me during my studies without which this work would not have been possible. I am heartily indebted to my husband Md. Shahidul Islam Majumder, my son Ratul and daughter Mourin for their constant support to complete this dissertation. They have suffered most due to my full time immersion with my dissertation. My mother helped me in more ways than I can express. While, I have been greatly benefited by the help and cooperation of many people and institutions, I alone am responsible for the errors and lapses that may have occurred in this thesis. Momtaz Jahan Department of Public Administration University of Dhaka. Abstract Limited or unequal access of women to public employment is a common phenomenon in the developing countries.The issue of empowering women and bringing them to the mainstream has already found a place in our policy agenda. Over the last four decades, emphasis has been given on mainstreaming gender issues through various policies and strategies to ensure gender equality in public service. Recently women’s employment has increased in Bangladesh but compared to men, the number of women in the 27 cadres of Bangladesh Civil Service is still negligible in spite of 10 percent women quota. This study intends to see the position of women civil servants in terms of number as a lens of measuring women quota utilization effectiveness. It uses policy implementation theories and models to study the factors affecting women quota utilization i.e. the effectiveness of women quota policy implementation. The data are collected using triangulation of methods, questionnaire, in depth interview and informal discussion, and also documentation. The findings are based on the analysis of the results of 240 questionnaires received, 40 key informants’ interviews and informal discussions with 20 respondents as well as the examination of the status of women in Bangladesh and the civil service through documentation. The study assumes that quota policy implementation depends on the policy characteristics, implementing agency’s characteristics, political condition and social condition. But it finds that there are some other factors (which were not included in the study) which may facilitate or impede women quota utilization. Many internal and external factors hinder the process of implementation. At the personal level, socio economic background, educational achievements, parental encouragement, spouse’s support and to some extent the quota policy facilitate women to enter the civil service. While potential barriers to their entry are spouse’s career, and their disinterest or negative attitude towards civil service jobs because of the very nature and characteristics of the jobs. Fifteen percent of the women respondents admitted that women quota favored them to get jobs while 32.71 percent females supported that women are not motivated to pursue career in civil service. Posting to remote locations and different places of posting of spouse were mentioned as greatest barrier to women’s joining and continuing in the service by the respondents. At the organizational level, women are denied equal opportunities through complex distribution of quotas, limited opportunities of political networking, absence of women in important decision making bodies, gender biased selection process, discriminatory organizational practices and lack of women friendly work environment. The findings has revealed that women quota utilization is hampered because of the existence of certain gaps in the process of implementation. The masculine cultural norms, values, and perceptions about the role of women in society, low level of gender development and gender empowerment are the major societal factors that adversely affect women's entry in the civil service. Two major barriers counteracting women’s career aspirations to civil service are work family conflict and institutionalized discrimination. The study reveals that women quota utilization does not depend only on the four variables i.e. policy characteristics, implementing agency’s characteristics, political conditions, and social conditions addressed in this study. There are some other factors which prohibit women to enter in the civil service. The study makes several policy recommendations to facilitate women aspiring for careers in civil service which include capacity development of women, gender supportive workplace, institutionalized child care facilities, changes in stereotypical thinking and mindset of both men and women about women’s career, balanced representation of women in decision making bodies and proper monitoring of the implementation of quotas. Consideration of these issues in case of designing strategic plan and in implementation process can bring a positive change towards gender mainstreaming in Bangladesh Civil Service. Table of Contents Declaration ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. I Certificate ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..II Acknowledgement ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….III - IV Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………....V - VI Table of contents ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………VII - X List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..XI -XII List of Figures ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………XII List of Abbreviations and Acronyms Used …………………………………………………………………………..XIII - XIV Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................