Invisible in the Exodus: How Bangladesh’s Women Are Hit Hardest by Climate Migration

The World Bank’s knowledge brief, “Climate Migration and Its Impacts on Women in Bangladesh,” co-developed with the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and supported by the Geo-Enabling Initiative for Monitoring and Supervision (GEMS), delivers a sobering view of how climate-induced migration is reshaping the gender dynamics of vulnerability across Bangladesh. With projections estimating that 13.3 million people could become internal climate migrants in Bangladesh by 2050, accounting for more than a third of South Asia’s total, the brief draws urgent attention to the unique, often invisible struggles women face, whether they are forced to move or are left behind. Through a blend of literature reviews, World Bank project analysis, and original survey data collected from the coastal districts of Barguna, Khulna, Satkhira, and Bagerhat, the report reveals how women are caught at the crossroads of environmental distress, economic precarity, and systemic gender inequality.

Women Left Behind: Invisible Casualties of Migration

In many rural communities, male out-migration is driven by the collapse of agriculture and fishing-based livelihoods. Yet, the departure of men often marks the beginning of deepening hardship for women left behind. The BIDS research confirms that these women face increased workloads, limited access to resources, and diminished support networks. Most reported receiving little or no financial help from their absent husbands, exacerbating their economic fragility. Moreover, they are vulnerable to heightened gender-based violence, including verbal abuse and domestic violence. Public spaces become less safe, while traditional support systems weaken. Of particular concern is the rise in child marriage following major climate disasters, an often overlooked coping mechanism adopted by families facing economic and social stress. These outcomes illustrate how migration, though seen as an adaptation tool, can deepen gender inequities at the community level.

Urban Migration: From Hope to Hostility

For women who migrate, urban life offers not just opportunity but also layers of exploitation and invisibility. The report finds that while men migrate into paid, often manual labor jobs, 62% of female climate migrants in urban areas are unpaid contributing family workers. Women are typically pushed into informal jobs, domestic work, tailoring, or vendor roles, often taken out of desperation and under exploitative terms. Working conditions are dismal: the report highlights a lack of safe rest areas, poor sanitation, and the absence of childcare. Gender-based discrimination is rampant, with women reporting longer working hours and lower pay than men. Additionally, social stigma and a loss of dignity compound their marginalization. Despite these challenges, many women are actively engaging in economic activities post-migration, participating in agriculture, stitching, and petty trade, albeit under extremely unequal conditions.

Autonomy Gains Meet Structural Barriers

The report’s findings show a nuanced picture of female autonomy in the context of migration. While many women gain control over how they spend their earnings, particularly in the absence of male household heads, this does not necessarily translate to broader decision-making power. Only a small percentage of migrant women report having full autonomy over their reproductive choices, and urban women face even greater restrictions on mobility compared to their rural counterparts. The tension between growing financial agency and persistent social constraints reveals that empowerment is partial and fragile. Women’s ability to influence migration decisions or access public services remains largely constrained by traditional gender norms, inadequate institutional support, and their precarious socioeconomic status.

Promising Policies, But Integration Gaps Persist

Bangladesh’s government has launched ambitious frameworks like the Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan, the Delta Plan 2100, and the National Adaptation Plan 2023–2050 to address climate resilience, migration, and gender inclusion. However, as the brief notes, these policies often operate in parallel silos, with limited integration of gender-responsive strategies specific to climate-induced migration. There’s a critical lack of sex-disaggregated data on migration and climate vulnerability, which hampers efforts to design targeted interventions. Even the World Bank’s growing climate-gender portfolio has so far only indirectly included female climate migrants, despite successful pilot programs such as the NARI project, which combined job training and housing for women entering the garment industry. The report suggests that more direct and intentional engagement with this demographic is necessary for truly transformative impact.

A Call to Center Women in Climate Adaptation

The knowledge brief concludes with a compelling call to action: climate resilience efforts must explicitly prioritize women’s needs and agency, especially those affected by or vulnerable to migration. Among the operational recommendations are the expansion of maternal and reproductive health services, stronger gender-based violence prevention systems, safe mobility and transport in urban areas, and the development of climate-resilient livelihoods for women in both origin and destination areas. It emphasizes the need for affordable housing that considers women’s safety, as well as community-led support systems that can fill the void left by broken social networks. Most importantly, the brief calls for gender-climate-migration considerations to be embedded into all stages of development programming, from policy design to project monitoring. With its history of integrating gender into disaster response, Bangladesh is well-positioned to lead the way, if it ensures that women are not only protected but also empowered in the face of climate migration.