ABSTRACT
The parliament of Bangladesh was established after gaining independence from Pakistan in 1971. In support of women’s representation, the government took the initiative to reserve seats for women by establishing a quota in 1972. Many countries have chosen to adopt a gender quota to ensure the representation of women in their political leadership. In Bangladesh, the candidates for the reserved seats have never contested in elections and are directly appointed by their party leaders. Despite its establishment in 1971, Bangladesh’s first parliamentary elections actually took place in 1973. The parliament is the supreme legislature authority of Bangladesh, and thereby parliamentary standing committees play an important role in overseeing the proceedings. The sociocultural environment and intersectional systems currently seen in Bangladesh severely limit the sort of changes that MPs can advocate for. Parliamentarians are likely to be molded by their upbringing and as such, the study attempted to ascertain whether their backgrounds had any impact on the way they viewed SRW.
