Effect of the Matlab project on women"s status

The process it focuses on, however, has not typically been the subject of discussions of the impact of family planning programs on women"s status. That is, it does not examine the extent to which the availability of contraceptive information and services encourages increased autonomy in reproductive decisionmaking. Rather it examines the experience of, and status implications for, those women who have been employed as community workers by family planning programs. The paper presents data from the Matlab Project in Bangladesh which, like many other family planning programs, employs women as community workers to conduct household visits for education and service delivery. This paper deals with the consequences of such employment for the worker"s status within the local community. It examines effects on her prestige as a woman, her professional standing, and her role as social leader. (Author abstract, modified))