Vol. 6, Issue 1, Part B (2024)

This study investigates the complex dynamics shaping the empowerment trajectories of female day laborers in rural areas of Bangladesh, as well as examining the engagement motivations, outcomes, and persistance challenges of the involvement. This study is conducted through a mixed-methods approach, and data was collected from 137 respondents through surveys and case studies in Bajitpur Municipality, Kishoreganj District. The findings reveal economic necessity and family responsibilities as the primary motivators compelling women into insecure informal labor. While day labor participation enabled some positive gains in income, confidence, mobility, and domestic decision-making, most women continued to face multidimensional difficulties, including income instability, violence, unpaid burdens, stigma, and harassment. The study reveals significant post-labor increases in financial independence (From 8.7% to 94.8%), household decision power (12.4% to 78.8%), and self-efficacy (24% to 90.5%), which overall indicate that female day laborers are being empowered after engaging the day labor works. However, over one-third still grapple with income instability, while 68.7% encounter social stigma and 72.7% experience harassment, signaling continuing disempowerment despite modest legal knowledge gains. The research points out that in the absence of greater systemic change, the inclusion of labor force is a necessary but inadequate condition for poor female day laborers in the absence of greater systemic changes and the inclusion of labor force for the transformation of alignment. It deeply demands integrated legal, economic, and infrastructure, with the cooperation of stakeholders in an ecosystem that supports rural female day laborers in all cases and helps the empowerment process in all spheres. Overall, the goal of this study is to explore the progress and the scenarios of the conditional empowerment of marginalized women workers, as well as the complex reality and continued obstacles, to inform the appropriate involvement in eliminating discrimination in their daily socio-economic progress on the basis of their self-demanding and living experiences.