<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>The women employment in the banking sector increased by 1407 in July-December period of 2023, and the overall perrcentage of women employees at banks stood at 16.37 percent in Bangladesh.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Meanwhile just 13.51% of board members in the banks are women.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Bangladesh Bank’s (BB’s) latest report on gender equality revealed this information. There are 33346 women employees in 61 banks in the country, which is 16.37 percent of the total employees of banks, according to the report.</div><div><br></div><div>The BB report shows that among the scheduled banks in 2023, 43 private commercial banks have the highest number of women employees 22,248, which is 16.32 percent of the total employees.</div><div><br></div><div>Foreign commercial banks have the highest proportion of female officers, 24.18 percent as compared to other banks.</div><div><br></div><div>In the period July-December 2023, the participation of women as board members was only 13.51 percent. Among them, foreign commercial banks have the highest female board member participation rate at 17.54 percent.</div><div><br></div><div>On the other hand, there is no participation of women board members of specialized commercial banks in the discussed period.</div><div><br></div><div>According to the reports submitted by banks during the period July-December 2023 shows that the participation rate of women employees is higher at the entry-level 17.04 percent and mid-level 15.79 percent than at the higher levels 9.36 percent.</div><div><br></div><div>Analysis of the obtained data shows that the participation of women in the banking sector is high at the initial stage.</div><div><br></div><div>At the same time, the participation rate of female employees under thirty years of age 20.99 percent is more than double that of female officers above 9.58 percent in scheduled banks.</div><div><br></div><div>Bangladesh’s place has improved by 12 steps in the gender gap report of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2023, as women's employment increased in the country.</div><div><br></div><div>The BB report shows that Bangladesh is holding the 59th position in 2023 improving from 71st in 2022 in the gender gap of WEF, among 146 countries in the world.</div><div><br></div><div>Executive Director of CDP Dr. Fahmida Khatun said that women's employment is usually increasing with the developing socio-economic scenario of the country and decreasing the ratio of women's employment does not match that calculation.</div><div><br></div><div>She focused on the need to study why the ratio of women employment has been decreasing in the banking sector.</div><div><br></div><div>Bangladesh Bank’s spokesperson Mezbaul Haque told UNB that women's employment has increased in the banking sector following the central bank’s policy to reduce the gender gap in banks and financial institutions, reports UNB</div><div><br></div><div>The central bank prefers women both in employment and entrepreneurship development. Loan disbursement and interest incentives have been given to women encouraging them involved in financial inclusion.</div><div><br></div><div>The BB is still working to ensure a sound environment in the workplace of banks. Facilities including maternity leave and daycare opportunities for women’s employees have increased, he said.</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>