STRENGTHENING WOMEN’S AGENCY THROUGH THE HANDICRAFT SECTOR: A RANGPUR-BASED ANALYSIS

Abstract

In Bangladesh, women from rural areas make up the majority of handcraft workers. By working in this unorganized sector, these women can obtain access to and control over financial resources through household earnings and spending. The goal of the current study is to calculate how women's employment and earnings from the handicraft industry affect their economic empowerment. This study, which was carried out in Rangpur, used both qualitative and quantitative techniques based on primary and secondary data. 200 sampled respondents are used to gather primary data using a multistage sampling approach. The likelihood that respondents will be economically empowered is estimated using a multivariate logistic regression. The regression result shows that seven out of eight independent variables including handicraft employment, working hours, and monthly income affect the economic empowerment of women significantly in the study area.