WOMENS POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN BANGLADESH: A LOCAL GOVERNMENT LEVEL ANALYSIS

Women constitute half of the total population of Bangladesh but their presence in the political arena is very limited. Despite having female leadership at the top political level, at the local government level few women are participating in politics and elections. Comparing with other democratic countries, women?s political participation has not reached the satisfactory level due to socio-economic settings, patriarchal values, lack of education, social mobilization, financial support and ideological barriers. The present study focuses on Chittagong City Corporation as the study area and tries to unearth reasons behind such low female representation at the local government level.