Gendered Language of Bangladeshi Law and its effect on women’s rights: A Structural Inequality Approach

Abstract

Language is not an indifferent tool of law; it creates the sense of law, behaviours within an institution and social relationships of power. In Bangladesh, even after constitutional provisions of equality and the international obligations towards rights of women, the statutory language is gendered on overwhelming basis. This paper provides a discussion with regards to the operation of the gendered terms in Bangladeshi laws to reinforce structural inequality against women such as the use of male pronouns (he). The study employs the doctrinal legal analysis and critical feminist legal theory to examine the selected statutes. The argument presented in the paper is that gendered language of the law does not simply exist symbolically but has material effects. The paper ends by providing recommendations of the gender-neutral legislative action as one of the steps that were required to realize the constitutional and international requirements of Bangladesh.

Mother Language, 2026; 10(1): 169-185