Organizational Democracy and Women's Empowerment: An Examination of Four Advocacy Organizations in Bangladesh

Women's empowerment is an important aim of the development activities of Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) in Bangladesh. In a patriarchal society, women experience discrimination and their participation in decision making processes often is not allowed in domestic, political and economic affairs. Most women's organizations mainly work to create a better, non-discriminatory, and equal society for women. To focus on this goal, these organizations often are not conscious of democracy at their own workplaces and equal participation of their members and employees in decision making. In addition, only a small amount of scholarship has been concerned with the structures and governance, organizational democracy, and women's participatory roles in organizational decision making. By using a multiple case study design, this research explores the ways four advocacy women's NGOs in Bangladesh promote women's empowerment and equality at the organizational level and how organizational structures and internal decision making processes help NGOs to achieve these goals. None of the organizations has pure democratic or bureaucratic structure and participatory decision making process. More democratic organizational structures or participatory decision making processes are more effective in promoting more cognitive and psychological empowerment of its members and employees.