Tension, depression, and culture among women in rural Bangladesh: Continuity and change

People’s experiences of psychological distress can provide insight into broader social contradictions and divisions in societies. In Bangladesh, an ethnographic record dating back to the 1920s presents an opportunity to explore how those contradictions and divisions have changed or stayed the same in 100 years. This article draws on interviews with a group of 60 women with likely depression in rural Bangladesh to a) explain their distress, its causes, and its possibilities for resolution; and b) compare those experiences to the ethnographic record. Social institutions reflected in the literature, like dowry, patrilocality, and mobility restriction, were still key features of life for women in the study and were significant sources of distress in their everyday lives. On top of these “classic” stressors, newer stressors also surfaced from women’s narratives, including debt to microlending programs and husbands’ addictions to pharmaceuticals. Women articulated an awareness of emerging opportunities for girls and women in rural Bangladesh that did not exist a generation ago, such as pursuing education, marrying later, having smaller families, and working in a job. They hoped for their children to benefit from these new opportunities, but their aspirations were often thwarted by ongoing poverty and patriarchal norms that limited their life chances.