Imagine walking into a workplace where nearly half of the employers believe that hiring women disrupts the work environment. This is not fiction—it’s a reality in many developing countries where deep-seated biases and societal norms continue to hinder women’s economic empowerment. Yet, despite these persistent barriers, traditional data collection methods fail to capture the full picture, leaving policymakers and businesses in the dark about the real challenges women face. Without rigorous, innovative research methodologies, policies may fall short in addressing these hidden obstacles.
Barriers related to norms and attitudes are still inadequately understood. Official surveys and censuses capture economic and demographic data, but they fail to reveal the unseen forces shaping women’s lives—entrenched norms, societal expectations, and unconscious biases. It is incumbent upon researchers to construct relevant indices and indicators and appropriate survey instruments. If we don’t quantify how social attitudes limit women’s choices, are we truly empowering them, or just treating surface-level symptoms? Without better data, we risk designing policies that overlook the very root causes of inequality, leaving the most pressing challenges invisible—and unsolved.
Hidden Barriers to Women’s Economic Participation
While education and skill-building programs have expanded opportunities for women, deeply entrenched gender norms and workplace biases continue to restrict their progress. In Bangladesh, despite advancements in female education and employment, perceptions about women in the workforce remain a significant barrier. The World Bank’s Voices to Choices report highlights that up to 45% of employers believe hiring women disrupts the workplace, a bias even stronger in small and medium enterprises (57% and 42%, respectively). If such attitudes persist, can economic policies alone create meaningful change, or will progress remain superficial?
Workplace harassment is a critical but underexamined factor shaping women’s economic participation. A 2022 nationwide survey by Plan International found that 74% of female respondents (ages 10–24) reported experiencing violence and harassment in educational institutions—raising concerns about the environments in which young women are expected to learn and thrive. Yet, despite its significant consequences, there is little systematic data linking workplace harassment to labor market outcomes. A 2015 UNFPA study found that workplaces were the second most common site of sexual violence (32%), after marital homes (45.5%).
Why Conventional Research Falls Short
Measuring topics like workplace harassment poses unique challenges. Women may underreport experiences due to fear of retaliation, stigma, or social desirability bias. Standard surveys often fail to account for these reporting barriers, leading to significant underestimation of the problem. For instance, female workers in enterprise surveys may worry about retaliation if speaking about sexual and non-sexual harassment. These challenges undermine the effectiveness and quality of evidence.
Innovative research techniques are helping to circumvent social desirability bias in response to standard survey questions. Methods such as list experiments and vignettes allow researchers to measure sensitive issues more accurately by reducing respondents’ fear of judgment. One study in rural Bangladesh found that while only 5% of adolescent girls directly reported accepting intimate partner violence, list experiment techniques revealed a much higher acceptance rate of 30%. Similarly, self-reported support for child marriage increased from 2% to 24% when measured through list experiments.
Recent research in Bangladesh’s readymade garment sector highlights the importance of such methodological innovations. In traditional surveys, fewer than 2% of female workers reported experiencing sexual harassment, and 10% reported threatening behavior. However, when researchers used experimental survey designs, harassment reports increased dramatically—threats were reported at rates of 50%, while incidents of sexual and physical harassment more than doubled.
Filling the Research Gap to Drive Change
Tackling workplace harassment and gender-based violence requires more than policy promises—it demands data that captures the full picture. The World Bank’s new Gender Strategy (2024–2030) stresses the urgency of innovative research in addressing gender inequality. Yet, without high-quality, context-specific evidence, policymakers and businesses are left making decisions in the dark. How can we break systemic barriers if we don’t even measure them?
In Bangladesh, the World Bank is helping to bridge this gap, supporting efforts to gather critical data on workplace sexual harassment and the broader challenges women face. Understanding why many women don’t report harassment—or what prevents them from seeking help—requires deeper, more precise research. This isn’t just about documenting incidents; it’s about designing survivor-centered policies that don’t just react to harassment but actively prevent it, paving the way for women’s long-term economic empowerment.
Good research is not just about numbers—it’s about impact. Without a data-driven approach, workplaces gender norms will go unchallenged, and economic opportunities for women will remain constrained. The evidence is clear: we cannot afford to wait. Governments, businesses, and development partners must act now to invest in the research that will drive real, lasting change.
Support to forthcoming analytics is provided by the Umbrella Facility for Gender Equality.
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