My mother was my first teacher. She was homeschooled, as was common in middle-class Muslim families at the time. Her father, a civil servant, could not break the taboo of sending his daughters to school in early 20th-century Bengal. Many children of my generation were taught at home before they started formal schooling.
My own formal education began at Bagerhat Girls' High School. One privilege of being the child of a civil servant in a small town was that children were allowed to attend the primary section of the girls' school, regardless of gender. My older brother and I both started school in an environment primarily for girls.
The headmistress of the school was Jahanara Begum, a lady we both respected and feared. Her sister, Rowshanara madam, was more approachable. Both women had strong personalities, and we held them in high regard. Then there was Gita Didimoni, whose younger brother, Utpol, was my friend. Yet, despite this connection, I was not exempt from her discipline.
When we entered university, I encountered Dr Rounaq Jahan, the head of the Political Science Department. A freshly minted PhD from Harvard University, she made a lasting impression on us. In my Sociology Department, there were several female faculty members, a greater proportion than I later encountered at Carleton University in Canada, my first foreign university. Dhaka University's Sociology Department had five female professors: Mahmuda Islam, Rabeya Begum, Nayeema Rahman, Ishrat Shamim, and Nina Hadi. With a total of around 17 faculty members, having five women was a significant proportion.
At Carleton, as far as I can recall, there were only three female faculty members in the Sociology and Anthropology department: Gertrud Nieuwirth, Monica Boyd, and Wendy Bell, an anthropologist. This was out of a much larger faculty of over 20 members. Some senior female graduate students were assigned to teach undergraduate classes, but they were not regular faculty members.
Back then, the issue of women's representation in academia had just started to gain traction. Why were so few women becoming academics? And why did so few reach the top? In the United States, my second stop in higher education, studies showed that women faced significant barriers to advancing in academia. The challenges were numerous. The Sociology Department at the University of Pittsburgh had fewer female faculty members than Carleton, and much fewer than Dhaka University at the time.
Decades later, the situation is beginning to look more promising. Sociologist Paula England demonstrated a clear path toward progress. Yet challenges remain. Women have not quite broken through the "glass ceiling" in the corporate world, where about 10% of top positions are now held by women. In 2024, when Harvard University appointed its first African-American woman president, Claudine Gay, whose parents had migrated from Haiti, it was a historic moment. However, her tenure was short-lived, lasting only six months, as she became a casualty of the Israel-Hamas conflict, as did Minouche Shafik, the President of Columbia University, who was born in Turkey.
Despite the formidable challenges that women still face in academia, several leading Bangladeshi academics abroad are women. Perhaps the most distinguished Bangladeshi-born social scientist in the UK is Naila Kabeer. In the US, Nazli Kibria has earned widespread respect. In Singapore, I had the privilege of knowing Professor Chan Heng Chee, who was later appointed Singapore’s Ambassador to the US, winning accolades and recognition in her host country.
In terms of political representation, women in the US have made significant strides. In the early 1980s, when I was at Pitt, only two women served in the US Senate. In 1980, the sole female senator was Nancy Kassebaum, a Republican from Kansas. As of the 119th Congress (2025-2027), women now constitute approximately 28% of the US Congress, with 26 women in the Senate (26%) and 125 in the House of Representatives. This marks a substantial increase from the 1980s when women held fewer than 5% of congressional seats. The growth in female representation reflects decades of efforts to promote gender diversity in US politics.
In post-independence Bangladesh, women became more active in demanding equality, organizing under various groups. In the research sector, think tank Women for Women was established in October 1973, which played a key role in publishing research, reports, and books. One of its main organizers was Roushan Jahan, sister of Dr Rounaq Jahan. In the business sector, the late Rokia Afzal was a force behind various organizations. Barrister Salma Sobhan was a driving force behind the movement for the legal inclusion of deprived women and went on to establish Ain O Salish Kendra, alongside Hameeda Hossain, who was already known as a champion for women’s rights through her work as the executive editor of The Forum and editor at Oxford University Press. Younger women also formed organizations such as Naripohhko in 1983. Khushi Kabir’s Nijera Kori launched in 1980 was a trailblazer.
In the early years of Bangladesh, several international women played a pivotal role in advancing the cause of women's rights, including figures like Saundra Zeidenstein, Hannah Papanek, Renee Gerard of UNICEF, and Martha Chen. Today, on International Women’s Day, it is important to honor and remember these early pioneers and steadfast allies of Bangladeshi women.