Women still far behind to decide income spending: Survey

Women are still far behind than men in making decisions on their income spending, according to a survey.

The survey says only 39 percent of women, compared to 62 percent of men, make salary decisions on their own.

Meanwhile, 39 percent of women, compared to 23 percent of men, consult others in making decisions about their salary earnings.

The South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) and Microfinance Opportunities (MFO) jointly conducted the survey by interviewing 1,367 garment workers of Dhaka, Gazipur, Chattogram, Narayanganj, and Savar.

The survey, that aimed to assess the Covid-19 impacts on overall working and living conditions of garment workers in Bangladesh, looked into aspects of salary management, expenditure, savings, and education decisions.

Over three-quarters of the respondents to the survey questions were women.

The survey revealed that 15 percent of women take what they need from their salaries and hand over the rest to the family or household while 11 percent of men do the same.

Additionally, seven percent of the female workers, against four percent of males, hand over their salaries to someone else to decide how to spend it.

Further, only six percent of garment workers reported that the decision-maker for managing money had changed since the beginning of April.

On making decisions about spending money, 24 percent of the female workers, as opposed to 45 percent of the male ones, reported they make the decisions on their own.

Sixty-five percent of women, compared to 46 percent of men, said they, along with their families, decide on how to spend the money; while 10 percent of women, against eight percent of men, reported someone else decides how to spend their money.

Only four percent of garment workers reported that the decision-maker for spending money had changed since April.

The survey found women are less likely (30 percent) to make savings decisions on their own, compared to men (49 percent).

Meanwhile, 59 percent of female garment workers reported that they make savings decisions along with their entire family – compared to 42 percent of males.

On making decisions about their children's education, 23 percent of women, compared to 38 percent of men, reported they decide it themselves.

Seventy percent of women said they share decision-making responsibilities with their families while, for men, it is 55 percent.