Gender dimensions of rural poverty: Analysis from Bangladesh

Highly aggregated measures of poverty overlook inequalities in the distribution of poverty among sub‐groups of the poor. This article focuses on gender differentials in the distribution of poverty, using a conceptual framework of basic needs and resource entitlements to distinguish between the state and process of poverty. Empirical material from rural Bangladesh offers strong evidence that women experience the state of poverty differently to, and often more acutely than, men and become impoverished through different processes. Key indicators are more likely to pick up these gender dimensions of poverty than the conventional single index approach. Notes Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, Fainter, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK. This article is a revised version of IDS Discussion Paper 255, February 1989. The author is grateful to Robert Chambers, Martin Greeley and Chris Colclough for their comments on the article in earlier drafts. The interview material in the article came from a series of informal interviews conducted by the author with members of poor families and local development workers in the districts of Faridpur, Manikganj and Kurigram in 1987/88.