Women held 20.9% of the seats in Bangladesh’s national parliament in 2023, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). That is more than double the 9.1% recorded for 2000, but the share has barely moved since 2010, when it was 18.6%.
9.1% → 20.9%
Share of parliamentary seats held by women, 2000 to 2023.
The series is not a smooth climb. It dropped to 2% in 2002–04 and to 6.3% in 2008 before returning to about 18.6% in 2009. From 2011 to 2023 it stayed between 19.7% and 20.9%, so the recent story is a plateau rather than steady progress.
Among South Asian neighbours, the latest World Bank figures (IPU data) put India at 13.8% and Pakistan at 17.0% in 2025, and Sri Lanka at 9.8% in 2025. Nepal stands apart at 33.1% in 2024. Bangladesh sits in the middle of the region, well short of a third of seats.
For policy, the plateau suggests that the seats Bangladesh already counts for women are not being supplemented by many more won in open competition. Whether quotas, party nomination practices or other measures could lift the share is a question this indicator alone cannot answer. A caveat: the figure measures seats held, not influence, and the latest year available in the databank is 2023.
Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), via World Bank WDI (SG.GEN.PARL.ZS). Regional comparisons use the latest year available for each country.