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From Panoptic Control to Quiet Resistance: Navigating Gendered
Childhoods and Emerging Agency in Rajshahi, Bangladesh
Rubel Hossen
*
, Farhana Zerin Lubna
Student, Department of Anthropology, University of Rajshashi-6205, Bangladesh
*
Corresponding Author
DOI: https://doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.910000189
Received: 01 October 2025; Accepted: 07 October 2025; Published: 07 November 2025
ABSTRACT
This qualitative study moves beyond documenting gendered disparities to examine the intricate interplay
between patriarchal structures and children’s agency in shaping childhoods in Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Through
fieldwork that involved 45 in-depth interviews with children, parents, teachers, and participant observations
across urban, peri-urban, and rural settings, the study reveals how a powerful architecture of gender inequality
is reproduced. This architecture is sustained through a gendered division of labor that functions as a tacit
curriculum, an economic rationale framing sons as "appreciating assets" and daughters as "symbolic capital,"
and a panoptic system of honor (izzat) that enforces female conformity. However, to complicate a
straightforward deterministic view, our research identifies one primary locus of tension: media consumption.
The paper argues that television and social media constitute a contested terrain wherein patriarchal norms are
simultaneously reinforced and subverted. Counter-narrative exposure breeds a critical agency in children that
manifests not as overt rebellion but as "quiet resistance" in the form of clandestine aspirations, negotiated
identities, and inconspicuous acts of non-conformity. The study concludes that Rajshahi childhood is not only a
site for social reproduction but a dynamic and contested space wherein structures of inequality are actively
negotiated and, in nascent ways, challenged.
Keywords: Gendered childhoods, children’s agency, social reproduction, media and socialization, Bangladesh.
INTRODUCTION
Childhood is a socially constructed life phase that is highly influenced by the culture and society in which one
grows. In Bangladesh, which is struggling with fast-capitalist development and thick-rooted cultural beliefs,
patriarchal power remains the dominant shaper of children's experienced worlds in gendered terms. Although
national policies have ceaselessly enriched educational attainment, especially for female children (Asadullah &
Chaudhury, 2016), household-level inequalities that exist in the nation's psyche erupt time and again and happen
to be the major site where gendered responsibilities are designated and internalized during childhood (Kabeer,
2015). A huge number of studies have mapped macro-level gender differentials in education and child marriage
in Bangladesh (UNICEF, 2019). However, an unexplored area remains in qualitative, micro-level analyses that
reveal the everyday mechanisms through which these inequalities are reinforced. Significantly, contested within
the household and community.
This research closes this divide by examining the everyday experiences of children in Rajshahi, Bangladesh.
Although the literature has successfully chronicled the what of gender disparity (e.g., the valuing of boys'
schooling and the limiting of girls' movement), less is known regarding the how: the exact social mechanisms
that underpin these tendencies, and how children themselves accommodate them. This paper questions: How do
patrilineal formations and children's developing agency mutually construct gendered childhoods in everyday
life, and what is the role of the media in this dynamic?
The research argues that childhood in Rajshahi is architected by a powerful, interlocking system of gendered
socialization, economic rationalization, and panoptic social control. Yet, it is also a dynamic and contested space.
Crucially, the work contends that modern media (television and social media) have become a critical arena of
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contestation, simultaneously reinforcing patriarchal norms and providing the resources for children to develop
a critical agency that manifests in forms of "subtle resistance." This focus on the dual role of media and the
subtle manifestations of child agency provides a novel contribution to the literature on gendered childhoods in
South Asia, moving beyond a narrative of passive socialization to one of negotiation and nascent transformation.
The paper is structured as follows: After outlining the theoretical framework and qualitative methodology, the
researchers first delineate the architecture of gendered inequality, examining the division of labor, economic
prioritization of sons, and the operation of honor (izzat). The researchers then analyze the contested role of media
as a site where this architecture is both fortified and weakened. The discussion consolidated these results,
focusing on the tension between structure and agency, followed by a conclusion that indicates the implications
for research and practice.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: INTEGRATING STRUCTURE AND AGENCY IN
GENDERED CHILDHOODS
To analyze the complex social world of children in Rajshahi, this study employs a triangulated theoretical
framework. This perspective goes beyond the lone standpoint to both the dominant structures that limit children's
existence and the subtle agency children negotiate in the midst of such limitations. Here, the paper brings together
feminist constructions of gender as performance, Bourdieu's ideas of capital and habitus, the sociology of
childhood's centering of child agency, and the standpoint of postcolonial feminism in order to scrutinize the
critiques of the reproduction of, and resistance to, gendered inequality.
The Social Construction of Gender and the Patriarchal Field
The article's starting point is the foundational feminist principle that gender is not a biological given but a social
institution that is actively constructed and performed (West & Zimmerman, 1987). This "doing gender"
perspective allows this work to analyze the everyday interactions ( such as the division of chores, the control of
mobility, and the language of expectations) through which boys and girls in Rajshahi learn to perform
masculinity and femininity. However, these performances do not occur in a vacuum. The paper situates them
within what Pierre Bourdieu would term a “patriarchal field,” a social arena with its own specific rules, power
relations, and distributions of capital (Bourdieu, 2001). In this field, the family and community operate as
primary institutions where patriarchal norms are legitimized and enforced.
Bourdieu and the Mechanics of Reproduction: Habitus and Capital
Bourdieu's theory of practice (1977) provides the tools to understand how this gendered order is reproduced so
seamlessly. The concept of habitus, the ingrained, often unconscious set of dispositions and perceptions, explains
how gendered expectations become internalized as "second nature." A girl instinctively reaching for household
chores or a boy asserting his right to play freely are manifestations of a gendered habitus, a "feel for the game"
of patriarchal life.
This reproduction is rationalized through the logic of capital. As studies in the South Asian context have shown,
parents often make calculated, albeit culturally embedded, decisions about resource allocation (Kabeer, 1999).
In the Rajshahi context, this article examines how sons are frequently seen as long-term investments for family
security and as accumulators of financial capital. Daughters are considered to be stores of symbolic capital,
whose worth is correlated with their honor (izzat), and whose union raises the social status of the family. With
the use of this framework, the analysis shifts from viewing parents as purely discriminatory to viewing their
behavior as a strategy that fits into a particular socioeconomic and cultural framework.
Panoptic Control and the Gendered Body
To understand the intense regulation of girls' bodies and mobility, the study draws on Michel Foucault's (1977)
concept of the panopticon. The system of honor (izzat) functions as a panoptic mechanism, where the constant
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possibility of community surveillance and gossip leads girls to internalize the patriarchal gaze and police their
own behavior. This internalized self-discipline is a powerful and efficient form of social control, making the
constraints on girls appear as a matter of personal responsibility and familial necessity, a phenomenon noted in
other honor-based societies (Welchman & Hossain, 2005). This theoretical lens helps explain why direct
coercion is often less visible than the self-regulating practices that maintain gendered boundaries.
The Sociology of Childhood and Postcolonial Feminist Agency
A framework that only addresses social reproduction and structure would be lacking and run the risk of
presenting kids as passive cultural objects. The Sociology of Childhood, which views children as active social
agents who influence the structures in their environment, is thus incorporated into the study (James & Prout,
1990). This is essential for examining the study's findings of "quiet resistance" and negotiation.
The study, however, refines this concept through a postcolonial feminist lens to avoid applying a Western-centric
notion of agency as overt rebellion (Mohanty, 1988).
This perspective makes us more aware of the unique, situation-specific ways that agency manifests itself in the
Global South (Southwick, 2021). The hidden transcript, the covert dream, the small act of non-compliance, or
what James Scott (1985) refers to as "everyday forms of resistance," are some examples of how agency may
appear in Rajshahi instead of public protest. Recent research on Bangladeshi youth has started to draw attention
to these nuanced compromises, especially when using digital media to balance modernity and tradition (Hossain
& Sultana, 2022; Abdullah et al., 2022). According to this study, children's critical agency development is most
important where global media flows (Appadurai, 1996) provide "resources for the imagination."
Synthesis: A Structure for Adversarial Childhoods
By integrating these theories, this study constructs an analytical model that views gendered childhoods in
Rajshahi as a contested terrain. The patriarchal field, with its mechanisms of habitus, capital, and panoptic
control, seeks to reproduce a specific gendered order. Simultaneously, children, as active agents, navigate this
field. They interpret, bargain, and resist, using tools like media to envision alternative possibilities. This
theoretical triangulation allows the study to capture the core dynamism of our findings: childhood is not a passive
state of being molded, but an active space of becoming, where structure and agency are in constant, everyday
conversation.
METHODOLOGY
Research Design and Philosophical Approach
This study was based on an interpretive phenomenological approach and used a qualitative research design. This
method was employed to learn about people's lived experiences from their own perspectives and how they
interpret their social environment (Creswell & Poth, 2018). A qualitative design was thought to be the most
suitable for gathering rich, contextual, and detailed data because the goal of the study is to investigate the
complex, everyday mechanisms of gendered socialization and children's agency.
Study Area and Participant Selection
The study was carried out in the Rajshahi District over a period of six months. The research area was chosen
using a method that identified a region in northwest Bangladesh that best represents the dynamic interaction
between fast socioeconomic change and traditional norms. The study used a multi-sited approach across three
different settings to guarantee contextual diversity: 1. Urban: The neighborhoods in the Rajshahi City
Corporation; 2. Peri-urban: The Yusufpur union of Charghat Upazilla, which represents transitional areas on the
outskirts of the city; 3. Rural: Two villages in Godagari Upazilla, which capture the perspectives of the riverbank
and agrarian communities.
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A purposive sampling technique was used to choose participants in order to guarantee that cases with a wealth
of information pertinent to the study questions were included (Patton, 2015).To help with recruitment, certain
standards were set:
Children: ages 10 to 17, from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds, with a balanced representation of both
genders, enrolled in or dropped out of school.
Parents: To offer intergenerational viewpoints, the participating children's mothers and/or fathers.
Teachers: To provide an institutional perspective, they are from schools in the corresponding urban, peri-urban,
and rural settings.
Initial contact was made through local community leaders and school headmasters or teachers. Snowball
sampling was then used cautiously to identify further participants, while continuously monitoring for diversity
against the selection criteria. The final sample consisted of 45 participants, detailed in Table 1 below.
Table 1: Participant Demographics
Category
Sub-Category
Urban
Peri-urban
Rural
Children
Boys (Aged 10-14)
4
3
3
Girls (Aged 10-14)
4
3
3
Boys (Aged 15-17)
2
2
2
Girls (Aged 15-17)
2
2
2
Parents
Mothers
2
1
1
Fathers
1
1
1
Teachers
Primary School
1
1
0
Secondary School
1
0
1
Madrasa
0
1
1
GRAND TOTAL
17
14
14
Data Collection Methods
To facilitate triangulation and increase the reliability of the results, data were gathered using two main
techniques.
In-depth Interviews: There were forty-five semi-structured interviews, each lasting forty-five to ninety
minutes. For kids, parents, and teachers, different, adaptable interview guides were created. Children's guides
addressed everyday routines, goals, household duties, and media habits while using language that was
appropriate for the child's age. Adult guides delved into ideas of honor (izzat), educational investments, and
gender roles. To maintain confidentiality, all interviews took place in private settings using the participants'
native Bangla language. Interviews were recorded on audio with informed consent.
Participant Observation: In each of the three study locations (rural, peri-urban, and urban), three concentrated
participant observations lasting roughly four to five hours were made. Interactions took place in the courtyards
of homes, at tea stalls that boys visited, and in public areas where girls gathered. The practical division of labor,
spatial dynamics, and non-verbal cues were all documented in detail in the field notes, which provided vital
context to support the interview narratives.
Data Processing and Analysis
The data analysis was conducted using the six-phase framework for reflexive thematic analysis developed by
Braun and Clarke (2006). NVivo 12 was used to manage the data in an iterative and collaborative process.
1. Familiarization: The research team carefully verified the accuracy of the audio recordings by transcribing
them verbatim in Bangla.
2. Initial Coding: The codes (such as "mobility restrictions," "izzat talk," and "media aspiration") were created
collaboratively by the lead authors.
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3. Theme Development: To guarantee coherence, the initial codes were categorized into possible themes, which
were then examined and improved upon in comparison to the complete dataset.
4. Finalizing Themes: Four key themes emerged from this process: 1) The Gendered Division of Labor as
Social Reproduction, 2) Economic Rationalization and Male Capital Priority, 3) Izzat as a Panoptic Mechanism,
and 4) Media as a Contested Terrain for Agency.
5. Reporting: The analysis was synthesized into a narrative, supported by carefully translated participant quotes
that reflect the original meaning and context.
Ethical Considerations and Researcher Positionality
All participants who were older than 18 years old provided written informed consent. Both the child's and their
parent or guardian's written informed consent were required for child participants. Each participant was informed
of their right to withdraw from the activity at any time. To protect confidentiality and anonymity, pseudonyms
were used in all publications and transcripts. Because the writers were Rajshahi scholars, their insider status
made it easier for them to communicate in terms of language and culture, and the researchers actively engaged
in reflexivity to lessen any potential biases. The researchers documented and discussed how their own
subjectivities, including their gender, educational background, and urban upbringing, might affect how they
interacted with participants and how they interpreted the data in a collaborative research journal they kept
throughout the fieldwork and analysis. When interviewing girls who expressed limited aspirations, researchers
purposefully took into account their own privileged educational journeys in order to avoid forcing their narratives
onto the experiences of participants.
Researchers were able to pay closer attention to the participants' lived realities and meanings through this
ongoing process of critical self-reflection.
RESULTS: THE ARCHITECTURE OF A GENDERED CHILDHOOD
The field data show that gender is not just a factor in Rajshahi childhood; it is a fundamental aspect of its
architecture. This construction produces two separate, parallel experiences of growing up, driven by a strong
logic that gives girls' symbolic value as the heirs to family honor and boys' future economic potential priority.
The following findings describe the fundamental elements of this architecture, the systems that support it, and
the new fissures that are appearing in its base.
The Pedagogy of Social Reproduction: Gendering Space and Labor
According to the data, children are methodically socialized into their expected adult roles through the gendered
division of labor, which serves as a kind of unwritten curriculum. Spatial segregation, a pedagogical distinction
in chores, and a discourse of naturalization are the three interconnected mechanisms that define this process.
Table 2 summarizes the core patterns of this division.
Table 2: The Gendered Division of Labor and Socialization
Dimension
Boys' Socialization
Girls' Socialization
Spatial Domain
Public, outward-oriented (markets,
fields, streets)
Private, home-bound (homestead, courtyard)
Nature of Tasks
Episodic, non-core, "helping"
(errands, repairs)
Immersive, core household, "duty" (cooking,
cleaning, childcare)
Stated Rationale
Training for economic and public life
Training for marital and domestic roles
Pedagogical
Frame
"Learning to be a man" / Building
confidence
"Real education" (Asol Shikkha) / Protecting
honor
Spatial Segregation and the Gendered Map of Mobility
A pronounced disparity in spatial freedom was a foundational finding. Boys were actively encouraged to inhabit
and navigate public spaces, with their domains extending radially from the home to markets (haats), playing
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fields (maidans), and streets. This mobility was explicitly framed as essential training for future economic
independence and social confidence. A father's justification on this issue: "How will he learn to deal with
people, to bargain, to be a man, if he is always inside the four walls of the house? He must visit outside the
home."
On the other hand, girls' lives were meticulously circumscribed within the boundaries of the homestead (bari).
Their movements were strictly controlled, requiring both express authorization and a "legitimate" reason, like
going to school or seeing close relatives. Under the pretext of protection, unsupervised mobility and aimless
socializing were strongly discouraged. A rural village's ethnographic notes eloquently depicted this division: a
rowdy group of boys was playing cricket on a dirt road, while their sister, who was about the same age, was
sitting in the courtyard, quietly sorting lentils, her eyes occasionally straying to the game outside.
The Pedagogy of Chores: "Helping" versus "Duty"
The system's reproductive logic was further exposed by the qualitative character of the tasks that were given.
For boys, chores were usually episodic, unrelated to the day-to-day operations of the home, and presented as
"helping" with a clear, time-bound objective (e.g., buying groceries, helping in a family shop). Domestic work
was immersive, continuous, and essential to the main functions of the home for girls. Their training progressed
smoothly from early small-scale duties to primary accountability for crucial tasks: cooking (ranna), cleaning
(ghor poriskar), and sibling care. This was not perceived as temporary assistance but as crucial, lifelong
preparation. A mother’s explanation to her daughter was telling: "If I do not teach her these things now, what
will her in-laws say? They will say she is from an uncivilized house. This is her real education." This process
naturalizes the female identity as inherently tied to caregiving and domestic competence.
Rationalizing the Divide
This systemic division was consistently justified by parents and community members through a powerful
discourse of natural aptitude and future utility. The phrase "meyeder ei jinish gulo shojjo" (these things are
appropriate for girls) was routinely invoked to essentialize domestic competence. Concurrently, boys' exemption
from these duties was rationalized by their presumed need to focus on academic and future professional pursuits.
This creates a self-perpetuating cycle: boys receive no domestic training, their subsequent lack of skill is taken
as proof of their innate unsuitability for such work, and the burden of labor falls to girls by "natural" default.
This pedagogical architecture ensures the intergenerational reproduction of a gendered family structure with
minimal friction.
Economic Rationalization: Sons as Assets, Daughters as Liabilities
Parental decisions on resource allocation are governed by a patrilineal economic logic that rationalizes inequality
through a calculated, yet deeply gendered, risk-and-return analysis. This framework explicitly values sons as
long-term economic endowments, while positioning daughters as symbolic capital and managed financial
liabilities. Table 3 contrasts the underlying economic perceptions driving these investment strategies.
Table 3: Gendered Economic Logic in Household Decision-Making
Dimension
Perception of Sons
Perception of Daughters
Primary Role
Future breadwinner & social security
("pension plan")
Bearer of family honor & marriageable asset
Type of Capital
Economic & Social Capital
Symbolic Capital
Investment
Rationale
Appreciating an asset
Managed liability; investment enhances
marriage prospects
Response to
Scarcity
Protected at all costs; education
prioritized
Expenditure curtailed; early marriage
considered
Sons as Appreciating Assets and Social Security
Investment in a son is universally perceived as a strategic investment in the family's long-term advancement and
old-age security. Expenditures on his education, nutrition, and healthcare are viewed as direct investments in the
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family's future earning capacity. This perception effectively transforms a son into a form of human capital
expected to yield high returns. An unemployed father articulated this with stark clarity: "If I spend one taka on
my son's education, it is an investment. When he gets a good job, he will repay it ten times over. He is our
pension plan (pension scheme)."
This statement vividly illustrates the Bourdieusian logic where the son is perceived purely as a form of
“economic capital”, an investment with a calculable future return.
This rationale creates a powerful imperative to safeguard the son's development, even during economic hardship.
Families reported making significant sacrifices (such as withdrawing daughters from school or reducing
household food quality) to ensure uninterrupted funding for their son's educational expenses. His success is a
collective family asset, and his failure represents a profound economic risk.
Daughters as Symbolic Capital and Managed Liabilities
Conversely, investment in a daughter is primarily conceptualized in terms of enhancing her value in the marriage
market, a form of symbolic capital centered on reputation (izzat) and domestic competence. Education for girls
is often valued for its signaling effect, indicating the family's modernity and producing a more "desirable" bride,
rather than for fostering autonomous income-generation. When asked why a girl's education was valuable, one
mother replied, "An educated girl can marry into a better family. It brings us respect and ensures she will be
treated well. We always want our girl to be happy."
Here, the daughter's education is framed not as building her “economic capital” but as enhancing the family's
“symbolic capital,” its honor (izzat) and social standing within the community. Simultaneously, daughters are
frequently perceived as a financial liability, a perception fueled by the ongoing costs of their upkeep and the
pervasive, though illegal, institution of dowry (joutuk). This perception encourages a strategy of risk mitigation.
During financial strain, the most direct way to reduce this perceived liability is to curtail investment in her human
capital by withdrawing her from school or expediting her marriage. Thereby transferring the economic
responsibility to her husband's family. A teacher's observation highlighted this stark calculus: "We see families
take out loans to keep their son in a good private school while they take their daughter out of the free
government school to save the cost of her uniform and exam fees. It is not about the amount of money, but
about where the future return is believed to come from."
The Negligent Cycle of Rationalization by Gender
A self-sustaining cycle is produced by this economic reasoning. Parents guarantee their daughters' continued
financial dependence by consistently underinvesting in their education and future earning potential. The initial
notion that sons are the only trustworthy financial investments is subsequently supported by this fostered
dependence. The system thus reinforces its own logic: boys are constructed as future sources of economic
support, while girls are channeled toward economic security through marriage, not independent work. This
circular reasoning normalizes inequality, framing exclusionary decisions not as prejudice, but as rational
economic necessity within a closed patriarchal system.
Izzat (Honor) as a Panoptic Mechanism of Social Control
Family honor (Izzat), developed as a pervasive and coercive system of social control that had a significantly
different impact on the lives of boys and girls than just being a cultural value. This system works panoptically,
where girls self-police their behavior to conform to patriarchal norms because they internalize the constant threat
of social censure. Daughters bear a disproportionate amount of the burden of preserving this symbolic capital,
which dictates their social behavior, mobility, and sexuality. The main workings and gendered effects of this
system are described in Table 4.
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Table 4: The Architecture of Honor (Izzat) as Social Control
Mechanism
Description
Gendered Impact
Gendered Burden
Honor is tied to female purity and family
reputation.
A boy's transgression is an individual fault
(gunah); a girl's transgression is a familial
stain.
Familial
Surveillance
Female relatives (mothers, grandmothers)
act as primary enforcers of modesty
(lojja).
Direct control over dress, speech, and
social interactions from a young age.
Community
Gossip
Fear of public opinion ("Loke ki bolbe?" -
What will people say?) acts as a powerful
deterrent.
Justifies severe restrictions on girls'
mobility and social participation to avoid
shaming the family.
Internalized Self-
Surveillance
The external gaze is absorbed, leading
girls to self-censor and self-discipline.
The most efficient form of control, where
compliance appears voluntary.
The Gendered Burden of Izzat (Honor)
Izzat (Honor) serves as a type of symbolic capital that is inextricably linked to ideas of modesty, feminine purity,
and the moral standing of the family. The glaring disparity in the penalties for transgression was one of the main
conclusions. A girl's actions are viewed as a clear reflection of the moral character of her entire family, whereas
a boy's misbehavior may damage his reputation.
Mechanisms of Surveillance
This control is enforced through a multi-layered system of monitoring. Firstly, a direct Familial Monitoring.
Mothers, grandmothers, and other female relatives serve as the frontline enforcers, responsible for instructing
girls in norms of modesty and directly regulating their conduct, attire, and associations. Secondly, Community
Gossip, the fear of becoming the subject of neighborhood gossip "Loke ki bolbe?" (“What people will say?”),
remains a powerful tool for policing behavior. Girls' activities are curtailed not necessarily due to immediate
family belief, but to preempt any talk that could diminish the family's izzat. Thirdly, Internalized Self-
Surveillance. Over time, the panoptic gaze becomes internalized. Girls learn to police their own behavior
proactively, anticipating social judgment and modifying their actions to conform, thereby making external
enforcement increasingly unnecessary.
Control of Mobility and the Body
The most visible manifestation of this control is the stringent regulation of girls' bodily autonomy and freedom
of movement. Their presence outside the home is permitted only for sanctioned purposes (school, essential
errands) and often requires chaperoning. In contrast, boys' movements are rarely scrutinized through the lens of
honor. Furthermore, girls' clothing, speech, and interactions with non-related males are subject to strict
surveillance to signal modesty and purity, which are the core components of family izzat.
The Differential Application of Consequences
There are harsh and clearly gendered consequences for violating these codes of honor. Perceived transgressions
by girls may result in harsh and quick penalties, such as dropping out of school, increased domestic stress, or
pressure to marry young to "resolve" the threat to the family's reputation. Given that their actions do not pose
the same symbolic threat to the family's fundamental identity, boys who exhibit similar behaviors usually receive
lighter, more tailored reprimands. Fundamentally, izzat functions as a strong disciplinary tool that methodically
restricts daughters' liberties, normalizing their subordination by presenting control as a necessary defense of the
family's most prized symbolic possession rather than as oppression.
Media as a Contested Terrain: Reinforcement and Quiet Resistance
The study finds that the media simultaneously reinforces and subverts conventional understanding of gender.
This two-role functionality transforms media from being merely a source of leisure to a significant field of
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ideological battle, creating room for critical consciousness and agentive capacity among a section of young
people in Rajshahi. Table 5 summarizes the dual role of media and the forms of agency it enables.
Table 5: The Dual Role of Media in Gendered Socialization
Media's Function
Impact on Gender Norms
Manifestation in Children's Lives
Reinforcement of
Hegemonic Scripts
Patriarchal values are echoed and
naturalized through local dramas, ads,
and music videos.
Provides a template that aligns with
parental and community teachings,
making traditional roles seem "natural."
Window to Counter-
Narratives
Exposure to alternative gender models
(women leaders, athletes,
professionals).
Fosters cognitive dissonance and allows
children to imagine lives and possibilities
beyond local prescriptions.
Platform for Quiet
Resistance
Media-inspired "resources for the
imagination" enable subtle, non-
confrontational acts of defiance.
Manifests as furtive aspirations, secret
online activities, and small negotiations of
identity.
Reinforcement of the Hegemonic Script
A significant portion of popular media consumed, particularly local dramas (serials), music videos, and
advertisements, acts as a powerful echo chamber for patriarchal values. These media forms circulate what
Appadurai (1990) termed "mediascapes" that sentimentalize and naturalize traditional gender roles. Women are
primarily depicted as good wives, self-sacrificing mothers, and competent homemakers, their worth being
subordinated to domesticity and beauty. Men are depicted as chief breadwinners, firm decision-makers, and
public figures of power.
One teacher noted, "The serials (drama) they watch with their families show them a world in which the
compliant good daughter and the compliant good wife swallow all in silence. It reinforces what already comes
from their parents."
This ongoing reaffirmation produces a hegemonic script that legitimates the prevailing dominant social order.
Media as a Window to Counter-Narratives
Paradoxically, the same technological access provides a portal to other imagined worlds. Children come across
conflicting messages of womanhood and manhood through international films, sports channels, news channels,
and social media influencers. Girls watch Bangladeshi women cricket players playing for their country, female
news anchors discussing politics, and independent, career-focused internet personalities. The reason this
exposure to what Bandura (2001) would call "symbolic models" is powerful is that it shows that these roles are
achievable outside of the boundaries of regional patriarchal norms. One 17-year-old city girl revealed her secret
aspirations: "I subscribe to a software engineer girl from Dhaka on YouTube.She roams about, lives
independently, and answers to nobody. My family would never believe that I spy on her. They would say it's
fantasy to me, but it is a possibility."
Her experience illustrates how media can serve as a resource for reconfiguring notions of personal agency, a
pattern noted in other studies of Bangladeshi youth (Abdullah et al., 2022).
The Rise of Critical Agency and "Quiet Resistance"
The intersection of localized norms and globalized media scripts fosters a newly critical agency among some
youth. This agency is typically expressed not in open rebellion but through what Scott (1985) identified
as "everyday forms of resistance," subtle, disguised, and non-confrontational acts of non-compliance. The data
revealed several manifestations of this "everyday negotiation":
Aspirational Retooling: Girls secretly nurtured career ambitions inspired by media figures, even while publicly
conforming to familial expectations. This included studying "unsuitable" subjects in secret or saving tiny
amounts of money.
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Negotiated Identities: Some boys began to question rigid gendered competencies. One participant said, "I don't
see why knowing how to cook is a girl's thing," after being influenced by global vloggers. She also added that,
“I could learn how to make an omelette from YouTube if I could learn physics. It's only a skill.” This
organization is still brittle, unequally distributed, and severely constrained. It represents new cracks in the
system's foundation rather than a complete rejection of it as of yet. Because of the media's ability to help them
imagine different lives, these young people can cognitively inhabit a space outside of their immediate reality,
causing a critical dissonance that is a necessary precondition for social change. In this way, the media
environment turns into a crucial battlefield where the transmission of gender norms from one generation to the
next is being contested and negotiated more and more.
Inequitable Access and Differentiated Interpretation
It is important to note that the media’s role as a terrain of contestation is not uniform. The study explored
significant disparities in access and interpretation shaped by socioeconomic location. Boys who are from middle-
class urban families often have greater and more unsupervised access to mobile phones and the internet. They
can explore a wider range of content. On the other hand, girls from rural and peri-urban areas primarily accessed
media through shared family TV or heavily monitored and borrowed devices. This access inequality directly
influenced media literacy and interpretive strategies. Participants from the city area with greater exposure could
more critically deconstruct gender representations in both local and international media. For many girls,
restricted access to the same media content (e.g., a progressive Bangladeshi vlogger) became a potent but isolated
source of aspiration, whose interpretation remained a private, “Quiet” act due to a lack of a supportive and
discursive society to validate their critical thoughts.
DISCUSSION
The study offers a complex vision of gendered childhood in Bangladesh's Rajshahi, with a strong structural
system that performs inequality while also revealing children's own agency in operating with such a system.
Our findings strongly confirm the theoretical conjecture that childhood is socially constructed through
gendered processes of socialization. Differential partitioning of space and labour functions as a powerful
curriculum to socialize children for their future adult roles in a patriarchal order. This result is consistent with
studies on South Asian environments where gender hierarchies are primarily established within the home
(Chowdhury, 2021). West and Zimmerman (1987) define "doing gender" as the ongoing performance of
gendered roles that reinforce social norms. This pattern of boys being oriented toward public action while girls
are confined to domestic spaces is an example of this.
A convincing application of Bourdieu's (1977) ideas of capital and habitus can be found in the economic
reasoning that underlies household decision-making. The cost-benefit calculus within a patriarchal framework,
where boys represent economic assets and girls symbolic capital, explains why parents disproportionately
invest in sons' education. This finding corroborates prior research on educational disparities in Bangladesh
(Asadullah & Chaudhury, 2016) while adding qualitative depth to the study of the household-level decision-
making processes behind these differential investments. The perception of daughters as financial burdens due
to dowry expectations and marriage costs creates a self-perpetuating cycle of underinvestment in female human
capital.
The operation of izzat (honor) as an effective mechanism of social control resonates with Foucauldian (1977)
concepts of panoptic surveillance. Girls' self-monitoring of behavior and mobility to protect family honor
reflects patterns documented in other patriarchal contexts where female bodies become sites for maintaining
community reputation (Siddiqui, 2022). The gendered application of honor codes, where boys' transgressions
remain individualized while girls' actions reflect upon the entire family, demonstrates how moral frameworks
can legitimize structural inequality.
Most significantly, the research identifies media as a contested terrain where dominant norms are both
reinforced and challenged. Television and social media's simultaneous reinforcement of stereotypes and
provision of alternative role models offer what Appadurai (1996) calls "resources for the imagination," enabling
children to envision different futures. The emergence of "everyday forms of resistance" (Scott, 1985), personal
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aspirations, critical media consumption, and small acts of negotiation, complicate narratives of children as
passive recipients of socialization and align with recent works on children's agency in South Asia (Southwick,
2021).
Limitations and Future Research
It is crucial to acknowledge certain limitations, even if this study provides insightful qualitative information
about gendered childhoods. The Rajshahi District geographic focus offers a thorough contextual knowledge,
but also limits the findings' generalizability to other parts of Bangladesh. There is no claim of statistical
representativeness, even though the sample size is appropriate for qualitative research. Even with rigorous
translation processes, it's also probable that certain nuanced cultural meanings were lost during the Bangla-to-
English translation process. These limitations indicate promising directions for further research. Comparative
research conducted in various parts of Bangladesh would shed light on how regional economies and cultures
influence gendered socialization. Longitudinal research could trace how early "quiet resistance" manifests in
adult life choices regarding education, career, and marriage. Finally, a focused investigation into how specific
digital platforms shape gender identity formation would provide valuable insights into rapidly evolving
socialization processes.
CONCLUSION
This study has shed light on the complex and widespread ways that gender influences children's experiences
in the Rajshahi district of Bangladesh. We have documented a strong, mutually reinforcing system that
prioritizes sons as economic investments and controls daughters as bearers of family honor (izzat) through
qualitative investigation of daily routines, economic decisions, and social norms. This system continues to
fundamentally structure current and future opportunities. This system is maintained by several interrelated
mechanisms, as the study has shown: a gendered division of labor that serves as a tacit curriculum for future
roles; an economic rationale that encourages investment in male capital; and a widespread surveillance system
that controls female mobility and behavior to preserve family reputation. These mechanisms collectively
reinforce boys' access to public space and economic opportunity while methodically limiting girls' freedoms
and futures.
A key contribution of this research lies in revealing that this system is neither absolute nor static. Particularly
through the dual influence of the media and children's silent resistance, we were able to identify important
points of tension and transformation. Some teenagers can question and reinterpret their assigned roles because
of the seeds of critical consciousness that are cultivated by exposure to alternative possibilities via social media
and television. This evidence of agency casts doubt on ideas that children are passive socialization recipients
and indicates that gender norms are being passed down through generations in a more contentious way. This
study highlights the need to view childhood as actively negotiated and socially constructed. According to this
study, interventions aimed at promoting gender equality should be firmly anchored in local contexts and should
go beyond addressing structural obstacles such as school access. In order to be successful, they also need to
take on the entrenched cultural and economic rationalities that maintain inequality by dealing with both the
material conditions and the religious beliefs conditioning parental decisions and children's ambitions.
The results of this research also carry significant applications in practice and policy. (1) Critical media
education needs to be made part of the national curriculum in education beyond mere enrollment. This would
equip all children, but particularly girls, with the skills to question and dissect the gendered stereotypes with
which they are bombarded in the mass media. (2) Media regulation requires policies that encourage the
production of more progressive local content that shows women in a variety of empowered roles that go beyond
the stereotype of the selfless mother or wife. (3) Parental and community influencer-focused gender
sensitization programs are essential. To frame gender equality as a pillar of sustainable national development
rather than as a Western import, these initiatives should specifically engage and debate the panoptic logic of
honor (izzat) and ingrained economic rationalities (like son preference) that underlie daily decisions.
In the end, Rajshahi's childhood is varied and vibrant, yet it is nonetheless strongly gendered. Although strong
patriarchal systems still exist, new avenues for imagining futures with different genders are opening up.
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Supporting everyone who is silently working for change requires an understanding of both the limitations of
structure and the possibility of action in this intricate social environment.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to sincerely thank the people of Rajshahi, as well as the instructors, parents, and children
who so kindly gave of their time, expertise, and abilities to make this study possible. Our access to the field
areas was made possible by the headmasters and leaders of the local community, for which we are thankful.
No grants from charitable, commercial, or public funding groups were used to support this study.
AUTHOR DECLARATION
According to the responsible authors, this essay is completely unique and has never been published before. It
is also not being considered for publication by any other peer-reviewed journal at this time. The authors helped
with the design and conception of the study, the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, as well as the
manuscript's drafting and critical review. All authors have given their approval to the submitted final version
of the manuscript. All subjects provided their informed consent, and we have all the ethical approvals required
for the study. As far as we are aware, there are no financial or other conflicts of interest that would have affected
the research presented in this study.
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