Extent and Determinants of Decision-Making Power of Wives of Expatriate Workers in the Bangladeshi Family

Millions of Bangladeshis work as expatriate workers across the globe, but most of the married ones leave their families in native homes, who either live independently or with the parents of husbands or with own parents. The study has attempted to understand how the absence of husbands affects their decision-making power in the family. Data were collected using a sample survey of 400 wives of expatriate workers. A composite variable of 10 statements from simple to complex family matters was included in the interview schedule to measure the extent of decision-making power of wives during their husbands’ absence and using it as the dependent variable to identify the factors associated with decision-making power. Descriptive statistics were used for describing the profile of the wives of expatriate workers and determining wives’ level of decision-making power, while inferential statistics were used for identifying the factors associated with the decision-making power. Wives are young, literate, poor, majority landless and joint family member, and in debt for husbands’ expatriation. About 56% of the wives receive remittance and 63% of them control it. Although two-thirds of the wives control the remittance, the level of decision-making of wives remains at a moderate level. The regression analysis has shown that, a wife has to be a remittance recipient or a remittance controller or an aged woman or any combination of the three to become a decision maker, in addition to the absence of the husband. The decision-making in a family being a complex interplay of multiple actors in a private home, a direct macro level policy is difficult to execute and may not be accepted in society. Indirect micro level policy like posting women in remittance transacting desks in banks and financial institutions, may encourage more husbands to send remittance to their wives to have their money in safe custody. Since regression analysis has found receiving and controlling of remittance have a significant relationship with decision-making power, the more wives receive the remittance, it is likely more wives will control it, and thus more wives will be empowered to make decisions.