Published at: Daily New Age, September 26, 2019
The number of female employees in the country’s banking sector has been increasing at a snail’s pace as the number is still below 18 percent.
The percentage of woman employees against male staff in banks was 17.88 percent at the end of June this year as 25,771 women were working in the banking sector while the number of male employees was 1,44,104 at that time, according to a Bangladesh Bank report on gender equality in banks and non-bank financial institutions for January-June, 2019.
In December last year, the women’s participation was 17.45 percent with 24,991 female employees against 1,43,201 male staff.
Among the state-owned, private, specialised and foreign banks, the specialised commercial banks had least number of female employees as women constituted 14.01 percent of the workforce in such banks.
Woman employees in the specialised banks were also below the average women’s representation in the banking sector.
The specialised banks — Bangladesh Krishi Bank, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank and Probashi Kallyan Bank — had 1,495 female employees against 10,670 male employees.
BKB managing director Md Ali Hossain Prodhania told New Age on Wednesday, ‘We do not make any gender discrimination, neither in the appointment process nor in the promotion process. In awarding promotion or in appointing any employee, the only thing we consider is their performance.’
Recently, Bangladesh Krishi Bank appointed over 2,000 employees that included a good number of women, he said.
Prodhania said women might be reluctant to get jobs at BKB as the majority of the bank’s branches were located in very remote areas.
Apart from the specialised banks, state-owned banks had the second lowest number of woman employees.
The percentage of woman employees against male staff was 16.97 percent in six state owned banks — Sonali, Janata, Agrani, Rupali, BASIC and Bangladesh Development banks — as the banks had 7,262 female employees against 42,788 male employees.
The ratio was 16.24 percent at the end of December, 2018.
The foreign banks had 31.96 percent female employees as they had 938 female and 2,935 male employees at the end of June this year.
Forty private commercial banks, which offer 61 percent of the country’s banking jobs, had 18.33 percent female employees as they had 16,076 female and 87,711 male employees.
The BB study also showed that women’s presence at the banks’ top-level jobs was only 8.49 per cent, meaning that male staff held 81.51 per cent of the top-level posts in the banks.
Besides, the ratio of women in the banks’ boards was only 13.34 per cent in the country.
The percentage of female employees in the banks’ mid-level and entry-level jobs was only 15.30 per cent and 15.48 per cent respectively.
In the non-bank financial institutions, women’s presence was 16 per cent at the end of June this year.
