Women especially in developing countries are not empowered in most of fields of their life. They depend on their husband or father in a number of ways. No doubt, education and change of society's attitude towards women is best tool to empower women. Decision making power regarding household, economic, healthcare and women participation in political and social activities can also play positive role to promote awareness to empower women in society. Nowadays, the scenario is changing in Bangladesh and women getting more empower in decision making, earnings and health care. This paper aims to evaluate the factors influencing women's empowerment in Bangladesh. This paper focuses on women empowerment through decision making power at household level, health care, political and social activities. This study reveals that majority of the married women can jointly make decision about their household and economic segment, health care, the participation in political and social activities with their husbands. This paper also shows that urban respondents are relatively more empowered than their rural counterparts and types of place of residence plays a significant role in the women empowerment in Bangladesh. The women who are currently working have more freedom to make decision over their personal, social and political life than the women who are not currently working. This paper recognizes that there is a strong relationship between decision making power and women empowerment.

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The main focus of this research study is to investigate the determining factors affecting the awareness of HIV/AIDS among ever married women in Bangladesh. To accomplish this task fruitfully, the study uses the nationally representative BDHS 2014 data set. The finding of this study illustrates that about 70% of the respondents have heard of AIDS. Among the respondents who have heard of AIDS, 97.4% and 92.5% of them have HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention knowledge respectively. Bivariate analysis states that the variables type of place of residence, division, respondents’ education and access to mass media are significantly associated with the awareness of HIV/AIDS and also its transmission and prevention knowledge. The multivariate hierarchical logistic regression analysis reveals that respondents’ education has a significant impact on HIV/AIDS awareness and its transmission and prevention knowledge. The odds ratio in all the models indicates that respondents who are highly educated and have access to mass media are more knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS. Type of place of residence and region has significant effect on the awareness of HIV/AIDS, and also its transmission and prevention knowledge. Age of the respondents, husband education and occupation also have significant impact on the awareness of HIV/AIDS. Finding of this study further reflects that use of contraceptives is a predominant significant factor influencing the awareness of HIV/AIDS. Therefore, based on the findings it can be concluded that appropriate steps should be launched across the country to raise the awareness level of such a deadly disease for the reduction of its spread in Bangladesh. The Chittagong Univ. J. Sci. 43(1): 93-112, 2021

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