By Tahia Afsah Khan
In Bangladesh, the sanitation sector has long been male-dominated, its operations grounded in perceptions of physical strength, stigma, and deeply rooted social taboos. Yet, across the country, a quiet revolution is underway. Women are not only participating in sanitation services, they are now leading businesses, generating jobs, and changing the narrative around dignity, equity, and opportunity.
The women-led sanitation enterprises are proof that economic empowerment and social transformation can go hand in hand. From pit emptying and desludging to sanitary napkin production and waste recycling, female entrepreneurs are building resilient, high-impact businesses despite facing daunting odds. They are challenging cultural expectations, pushing through financial constraints, and redefining what it means to be a woman in WASH.
While their individual stories are inspiring, they also reveal just how far we still have to go to overcome systemic barriers.
Access to finance remains a significant barrier. For many women, securing a loan or investment means overcoming not only procedural complexity but also deep-rooted gender bias in financial institutions- such as the requirement of a male guarantor to secure a loan. Even when financing is available, the lack of financial literacy and business skills often prevents them from fully leveraging it. Another challenge within financial institutions is the limited recognition of sanitation as a viable sector for women-led businesses. When traditional goods and services associated with women entrepreneurs are considered, sanitation is rarely visualised or prioritised, resulting in limited focus, support, and opportunities for growth in this space.
Begum Rukshana Akter Banu, after conducting latrine emptying services
Access to markets is a significant challenge for many home-grown women-led sanitation businesses, particularly in rural and peri-urban areas. It is their sheer commitment that keeps them going despite the ongoing struggle to connect with stable customer bases or larger institutional buyers. Limited mobility, low visibility in formal networks or marketplaces, and exclusion from public procurement opportunities further restrict their reach. Local market systems often remain male-dominated, making it difficult for women to negotiate fair prices, secure contracts, or scale their operations. Moreover, the market competition is often uneven; for example, a local sanitary pad manufacturer must compete with well-established institutional brands. Without deliberate efforts to integrate women-led enterprises into supply chains, cooperatives, and service delivery platforms, their growth potential remains largely untapped.
Societal norms also weigh heavily. Women are still expected to juggle the double burden of household care and enterprise management, often with little structural support. Community perceptions around women working in sanitation, particularly in roles like pit emptying or waste handling, can be isolating or frowned upon. On top of this, a bias persists around women’s involvement in technology. They are often confined to manual or labour-intensive roles, while being overlooked for opportunities to engage with digital tools or innovative technologies. This not only limits their productivity and efficiency but also adds to the overall burden they already carry
So, what must be done?
First, we need to build tailored support systems for women entrepreneurs through not just training and financing, but mentoring, creating networks, and ensuring access to markets and visibility. Skill-based learning that is grounded in market realities must be made more accessible to women, especially in underserved towns and peri-urban areas.
Second, policy frameworks must actively enable women’s participation. This means integrating gender-responsive budgeting, ensuring that government-led sanitation initiatives prioritise women entrepreneurs, keep provision for incentivised programs specially focusing on them and including them in planning and procurement processes.
Sanitation entrepreneur Shellyna Nazneen teaches women how to make sanitary pads
Additionally, there is a pressing need to institutionalise women’s presence in the sector. A national database of private enterprises, especially focusing on women-led sanitation enterprises, would be a good start, not only to identify and track their contributions, but to create the conditions for scale, replication, and support. Additionally, creating e-commerce platforms to connect manufacturers to buyers, or service providers to customers, could also be a promising strategy to expand market access, increase visibility, and enable women-led enterprises to compete more effectively in the digital economy.
Finally, representation matters. We must move beyond tokenism and bring women into leadership and decision-making roles at all levels of the sanitation value chain, from local utility boards to national policy task forces. To ensure this representation is not merely symbolic, it is essential to provide targeted capacity-building support and improve women’s access to such opportunities. Without women shaping the sector’s direction, its transformation will remain incomplete.
The stories of women entrepreneurs in sanitation are not just about survival; they are about vision, grit, and impact. They are proving that when women lead, communities thrive.
If Bangladesh is truly committed to inclusive growth, urban resilience, and achieving SDG 6.2, then empowering women in sanitation is not a nice-to-have; it is a strategic imperative. Let us not leave this revolution under-resourced. We must fund it, formalise it, and create an enabling environment for it to thrive.
Tahia Afsah Khan is the Senior Technical & Knowledge Management Officer, WSUP Bangladesh.