ABSTRACT

The United Nations and the World Bank have heralded the South Asian country of Bangladesh a development success story. In reporting on progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, the Bangladesh Government cites impressive poverty reduction from 48.9 percent in 2000 to 24.8 percent in 2015. This chapter explores climate change and gender relations through the lens of everyday life as it was captured in a research study exploring the gendered impacts of climate variability in rural Bangladesh. An overview of the research is followed by a moment in time constructed from the data that illustrate the dynamic and gendered nature of life. The chapter discusses some specific research findings in the context of current efforts to address gender inequality and initiatives to manage the impacts of climate change. The research captured significant variations in custom, practices and responses between households in one village, from one village to the next and across the three districts, and changes within households over time.