Women’s participation in household decision-making: qualitative findings from the Shonjibon Trial in rural Bangladesh

A key element of women’s empowerment is the ability to participate in household decision-making. This study presents the qualitative results from the Shonjibon Cash and Counselling Trial baseline process evaluation with the aim of exploring the status of women’s decision-making at the trial’s outset and to facilitate the exploration of any changes in women’s empowerment over the course of the trial. Between January and March 2021, we conducted forty-one in-depth interviews with pregnant women in rural Bangladesh. The research team translated, transcribed, coded, and discussed the interviews. We used thematic analysis to examine women’s experience and perceptions on household decision-making. The key findings that emerged; women jointly participated in financial decision-making with their husbands; men made the final decision regarding seeking healthcare, and women solely made choices regarding infant and young child feeding. Our findings revealed that women felt that they needed to discuss their plans to go outside the house with their husbands, many perceived a lack of importance in the community towards women’s participation in decision-making. This study documents current contextual information on the status of women’s involvement in household decision-making and intrahousehold power dynamics at the start of the Shonjibon Cash and Counselling Trial.