The Role of ICT in Women's Empowerment in Rural Bangladesh

Rural women in Bangladesh have limited access to resources and public
spheres due to socio-cultural restrictions. Women suffer from severe
discrimination, and it is thought this is heightened due to a lack of access to
information. Information communication and technology (ICT) is a potential tool
that can reach rural women and enrich their knowledge. This paper discusses
women‟s empowerment in terms of perceptual change in rural villages in
Bangladesh after ICT intervention has been introduced by Non-Government
Organizations (NGOs). Since empowerment is a complex phenomenon to measure
because of its multidimensional aspects and its relationship with time as a process,
the methodology used in this research was an integration of qualitative and
quantitative methods. Using a structured questionnaire, data was collected from
women in two different villages where ICT projects have been introduced. The
change in women‟s perception after using ICT was compared with changes in
women who did not use ICT. The results indicate that ICT intervention changed
women‟s perception in a positive direction in one village but it did not change in
the other village.