Abstract
The study seeks to ascertain the status of women in contemporary rural Bangladesh in terms of their involvement in economic activities promoted through development programmes initiated by a non-government organization, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). The study assumes that when a woman supports her family economically she is involved to a greater extent in the family's household management and decision making process than a woman who is merely a house wife. More specifically the study deals with examination of data obtained from female respondents with and without exposure to programme intervention of BRAC in four villages each in Mymensingh and Sherpur districts of Bangladesh. It was found that those women who were exposed to programme intervention of BRAC and economically contributed to their families got the opportunity of taking part in household management and decision making process on their own in a large number of matters. The occasions for such involvement were fewer in the case of those women who neither were exposed to programme intervention nor made substantial economic contribution to the family.
