The term glocal neatly describes the ways in which spheres of influence operate across levels and in both directions, global–local and local–global. Movements for change, to be effective, arguably must operate across and within these multiple levels. Bangladesh is at a critical moment of transition, with civil society actors able to influence the shape of a new and, hopefully, more optimistic political and social order. This makes it an opportune moment to reflect on the achievements of activists committed to gender equality, while also recognising the challenges that remain. Bangladesh's history has provided a distinct legacy which, in turn, has shaped something of a paradox, with unexpected gains in equality set against persistently high levels of gendered violence. It is ever more important to focus squarely on activism as a key driver of social justice.

In the wider geopolitical context, we see right-wing ideologies gaining popularity, accompanied by a slashing of aid budgets and a scaling back of promises to support women and girls. During this period of heightened fragility across the region, we must recognise and give voice to the unique perspectives and solidarity of female activists. These perspectives often reflect alternative paths to peaceful transformation, enacted through unpaid welfare work during and after crises.

Women not only bear the brunt of crises but are also often the first responders, striving for survival and community care. This reality underscores the importance of women-led organisations in building national and community resilience against the gendered impacts of crises.

To reflect on the distinctiveness of activism to end gendered inequalities in Bangladesh, some experiences from other South Asian contexts, namely Myanmar and Nepal, are included. This comparative analysis highlights the lessons that Bangladesh offers, seen in the resilience and agency of women, particularly in rural areas, which exist despite global indicators that continue to highlight stubborn inequalities. Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Nepal all present multiple vulnerabilities for women and children. Research shows (Bradley et al., 2023) that the intersection of crises—environmental, political, and armed conflict—intensifies the marginalisation and insecurities of women and children. Specifically, conflict, poverty, harmful gender and cultural norms, and climate disasters trigger rising levels of violence, including intimate partner violence. Harmful practices such as child marriage and sexual violence by combatants or strangers intensify during periods of household stress.

Research (Dahal, 2022:3) further shows that women not only bear the brunt of crises but are also often the first responders, striving for survival and community care. This reality underscores the importance of women-led organisations in building national and community resilience against the gendered impacts of crises. Given Bangladesh's, Myanmar's, and Nepal's acute exposure to climate change, conflict, and poverty, this is a critical moment to assess whether vibrant and effective women-led movements for change exist. Arguably, all these contexts foster strong women-led organisations, but the extent to which these movements operate through a glocal structure differs. Comparing across contexts, and back to Bangladesh, we can see how critical the right political conditions are in nurturing the freedoms represented by civil society spaces. In turn, a healthy, dynamic women-led civil society is central to the achievement of gender equality and social justice more broadly.

National structures across these contexts have attempted to support and foster community-led activism, particularly through community and social work. The agency of village women has been documented and celebrated across each of these countries, but the nuanced and often invisible ways in which women act at this level are frequently overlooked, and with this come lost opportunities to strengthen and even trigger deeper transformation.

Myanmar is a conflict-affected context that is also exceptionally vulnerable to climate crises, intersecting with entrenched cultural and social gender inequalities. The recent elections offer little hope of opening civil society spaces in which female activists can freely campaign for social justice. As a result, Myanmar activists are largely dispersed, with many living and working from Thailand. Despite this displacement, Myanmar activists remain focused on supporting those who continue to work within communities across the country.

Simultaneously, activists are striving to maintain a global spotlight on the atrocities women are enduring at the hands of the military. Ferocious determination is evident as female Myanmar activists refuse to allow the collective power of women working together to falter.

In August 2021, women's strike movements from across Myanmar united to form the Women's Alliance Strike Force. They mobilised around powerful slogans such as "This struggle cannot be won without women" and "Uproot the tyranny that rocks the cradle." Since this rare moment of visible solidarity, the movement has had to adapt rapidly. The evolving situation has affected not only the nature of activism but also the operational structures of the movement. One activist shared: "Given the security situation in the areas where we operate, we cannot pursue highly visible advocacy efforts. Currently, our priority is service provision. Advocacy efforts are carefully planned and adapted to the context." Underground networks have emerged, marking a shift from an established movement to more fluid and 'invisible' forms of activism. Despite these challenges, activism continues to operate across levels, supported by transnational global networks that sustain women who remain resilient while working to protect and support their communities.

Nepal, now emerging from a prolonged period of political upheaval caused by a Maoist insurgency against the ruling monarchy that lasted from 1996 to 2006, has been able to draw on a stable and cohesive women's movement. The legacy of this movement can be seen in the integration of gender equality measures into government policies across sectors. The country is building a federalised and local democracy that has created space for many female activists, particularly at the local level, who bring vast knowledge and experience gained through decades of struggle for gender equity. However, there is, perhaps as a result of this new political regime, some disconnect and discord between generations of female activists. Younger activists feel that older generations are not sufficiently mentoring them or passing on lessons from the past. Positive achievements therefore need to be set against the challenges that remain.

In early September 2025, Nepal witnessed one of the most significant civil uprisings in its modern history, widely known as the "Gen Z Protests". The movement erupted after the government imposed a sudden ban on more than two dozen social media and messaging platforms, including WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter), on 4 September 2025. The ban acted as a catalyst for long-standing frustrations among young Nepalese over corruption, unemployment, and a lack of political accountability (The New Humanitarian, 2025). This example illustrates how critical it is for movements to remain agile and adaptive to the changing needs of diverse constituencies.

The women's movement in Bangladesh has been shaped by a contradictory relationship between democracy and state oppression, a dynamic that has made it difficult for civil society to flourish. Since independence in 1971, women have played visible roles in nation-building, humanitarian response, and grassroots mobilisation, negotiating space for political expression despite limited room for manoeuvre. During the 1980s and 1990s, there was an expansion of civil society. Applying a glocal lens, the sector grew with support from an increased presence of international NGOs working alongside 'elite' (in the sense of wealthy and well-educated) female activists who campaigned for equal legal rights, access to livelihoods, health, education, and an end to violence against women. The growth of organisations such as BRAC and Grameen Bank gave visibility to grassroots efforts and created new opportunities for wealth generation among women, recognising their resilience as a force that could benefit society as a whole.

From the late 1990s onwards, women's rights activists achieved important policy gains, including the National Women Development Policy (2011), legal reforms addressing domestic violence (2010), and the establishment of gender desks within government ministries. Women's labour mobilisation has been particularly significant in the ready-made garment (RMG) sector, where women constitute the majority of workers, though often under conditions of pain and exploitation. The 2013 Rana Plaza disaster, which killed more than 1,100 workers, marked a critical turning point, galvanising labour rights activism and transnational feminist solidarity around workplace safety, living wages, and corporate accountability.

Against this background, Bangladesh presents a paradox. Despite being governed for decades by female prime ministers, structural gender inequality and violence against women remain deeply entrenched. Bangladesh is classified as a lower-middle-income country and has achieved notable gains in girls' education, reductions in maternal mortality, and women's labour force participation. Yet these achievements coexist with persistent gendered poverty, informality, and vulnerability to shocks. Bangladesh ranks low on global gender equality indices, with high rates of child marriage, intimate partner violence, and workplace harassment. Gender-based violence remains widespread, with weak enforcement of laws and survivors facing stigma, legal delays, and limited access to justice.

Naila Kabeer writes about the agency of grassroots women in Bangladesh who have been empowered by grasping opportunities to exercise control over their bodily autonomy through accessible birth control, as well as through financial empowerment via waged work or micro-enterprises. She describes a process of renegotiating patriarchy, whereby women have been able to leverage opportunities to transform restrictive gender norms, for example by rejecting son preference and raising expectations for their daughters' lives. Overall, the women's movement in Bangladesh remains resilient despite a history of suppression, but the challenges facing civil society, and the political regime, remain significant. Despite the visibility of development activities at the grassroots, a joined-up structure linking welfare support with rights-based advocacy remains lacking. The ongoing crises triggered by climate change and Covid-19 are examples that have exposed the urgent need to implement a more robust glocal model of activism, protection, and response.

Women-only peer networks emerge as a critical support mechanism for women and girls during crises, yet they are often ignored by policymakers and national development actors. Research conducted in 2019, and likely still relevant today given that flooding remains a recurrent annual event for many communities, explored the links between violence and displacement on the Jamuna chars (www.genderfocus.org). The research focused primarily on women, although community men were also interviewed, and the findings were stark. Like the flooding itself, household-level violence was expected and normalised by both men and women on the chars, with violence increasing after flooding when already extremely poor households came under even greater stress. Although emerging evidence pointed to the presence of community networks that supported one another during crises, with little apparent NGO or government assistance, violence against women nevertheless increased following displacement. The evidence also indicated an ebb and flow in levels of violence over the course of the year and across a char woman's life. The research documented a recurring reflection from the women interviewed.

"My husband is usually a good person, but after coming back from fieldwork, or when there is no money in his pocket, his temper remains hot and he shows anger even over little things. Then I am afraid to talk much with him. During the last river erosion, his mood was very bad; there was no money in his hands, and he faced a severe financial crisis to bear the costs caused by the river erosion."

Many char women spoke of the power of community in responding to displacement crises, packing up their homes, travelling, and relocating together, which helped to keep them safe. A limited number of women spoke of NGO and/or government support during these crises, and none could recount any response actions addressing the spikes in violence they experienced. Women in these communities have had no choice but to look internally, within their families and to other women, for support.

Research conducted during the Covid period (2020–2021) interviewed female ready-made garment workers in factories in Dhaka. The research similarly reported a sudden deterioration in living conditions, the burden of which women bore most heavily. With the sudden loss of income while living far from their village homes, female workers who had once enjoyed the empowerment that came with being wage earners were subjected to extreme stress and exposed to more intense levels of violence. Once again, women reported the importance of relying on one another due to the absence of meaningful government or NGO support.

Activism is not just a reaction to an incident or a one-day event—it is a continuous process, a relentless fight for equality that must persist until it is achieved.

In both of these cases, we see a disconnect between national infrastructure and policymaking and the day-to-day realities faced by many women who navigate precarious employment and normalised violence, even when they migrate to cities in search of more secure waged work. The message in these examples and reflections for those with influence is clear: focus must be placed on ensuring a connected and enabling environment for the most vulnerable. Recognising women's resilience during crises presents a vital opportunity. Recruiting local female activists to act as advocates for the most vulnerable during emergencies is likely to generate more immediate and sensitive responses to the challenges faced and may help close the gap between national and local initiatives.

Activists across these contexts innately adopt a glocal perspective, prioritising grassroots realities in both their actions and their messaging. As an activist from Nepal in her mid-30s shared: "Activism isn't just about protests, placards, or slogans. To me, it starts in our daily lives—how we navigate our communities, workplaces, and personal interactions. It's about having the courage to speak up against injustice, even in small ways, and offering constructive feedback when something needs to change. You don't have to lead a movement to be an activist; it can start at home, in the workplace, or within any industry you are a part of." Another participant stated: "Activism is not just a reaction to an incident or a one-day event—it is a continuous process, a relentless fight for equality that must persist until it is achieved. While our strategies and activities may vary depending on the situation or case, activism itself never stops—it is woven into our daily work."

Care work responsibilities have often been cited as a limitation for female activists, preventing them from engaging with larger structural injustices in society. However, when we look closely at these three contexts, we can observe a shift in perceptions of care work, understood not only as household labour but also as community-based action. Across these contexts, women's groups, informal networks of friends and acquaintances, and local volunteers collect donations and provide support in whatever ways they can. Women take on additional burdens during crises, further underscoring the need to recognise unpaid care work as both agency and activism. Caregiving can be understood as a form of resilience, motivated by determination to survive and to keep others safe and well.

These reflections and experiences highlight the critical and central importance of female-led activism and the movements that have grown as a result. Women-led movements, as seen across these contexts, seek to operate through glocal structures, ensuring that women's actions and advocacy at all levels are supported and recognised. As Bangladesh moves through this pivotal moment in its history, much can be learned and applied, both by reflecting on its own past and by drawing on the positive experiences of other South Asian contexts.

Tamsin Bradley is a Professor of International Development Studies in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Portsmouth. She can be reached at [email protected].

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