Does Land Ownership Really Improve the Decision-Making Capacity of the Rural Women? Reflections from Bangladesh

ABSTRACTWomen’s limited decision-making capacity is recognized as one of the major challenges to women’s empowerment. Decision-making is a complex process that often relies on ownership and access to resources. This study aims to assess the opinions of rural Bangladeshi women about the impact of land ownership on their decision-making capacity. The Binary Logistic Regression (BLR) analysis demonstrates that women’s access to land, income, distance from the rural market, and distance from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have a significant influence on their decision-making capacity. The study underlines the need for gender transformation in formal and informal structures to enhance rural women’s decision-making capacity.