Women’s Participation in Family Decision Making in Dumki Upazila of Patuakhali District

The investigation was conducted to know the family decision making role of rural women in some selected villages namely Shreerampur, Jalisha, and Jhatra of Dumki upazila under Patuakhali district. Data were collected through interview schedule for seventy selected women during February, 2010. The selected characteristics of the rural women were age, education, family size, farm size, annual income, agricultural knowledge, non-localite behavior, training exposure, fatalism and media exposure. Decision Making Index (DMI) was developed to measure each of the items regarding different aspects of role. The DMI ranged from 98-165 against a possible range of 0-210. On the basis of DMI top aspects of decision making role were ‘house construction’ (165), ‘education of children’ (160), ‘participation in social, religious and marriage ceremony’ (160) and ‘vaccination of children’ (155). Overall, family decision making role indicated that the highest proportion (42.8%) of the rural women were found playing medium decision making role while the rest 57.2% was equally shared by high and low decision makers. Correlation analysis indicated education, agricultural knowledge and non-localite behavior to have positive significant influence on family decision making role of the rural women.