From Shadows to Leadership book brings to light the untold journeys of women who power Bangladesh’s informal and marginalised formal economy yet remain largely unseen in national statistics, labour systems, and policy debates. Nearly 85% of Bangladesh’s workforce is informal, and this invisibility is overwhelmingly a women’s story—of work without written contracts, livelihoods without protection, and leadership without recognition.

 The photographs and stories featured in the book emerge from the Empowering Women through Civil Society Actors (EWCSA) initiative, co-funded by the European Union and implemented by Oxfam with 33 civil society partners in Bangladesh. The project has reached more than 45,000 women—domestic workers, home-based garment workers, fisherwomen, and tea garden labourers—many of whom began this journey unaware of their rights or excluded from decision-making spaces.

 The images and stories capture transformation at its most human scale: domestic workers negotiating written contracts, tea garden workers leading their networks, fisherfolk women securing long-denied identity documents, and home-based workers organising for safe workplaces and living wages. Each story reflects how a feminist leadership approach turns marginalisation into agency.

 From Shadows to Leadership is evidence of what becomes possible when women organise, when communities shift norms, and when institutions listen. Many stories also reveal ongoing challenges—sustaining women’s collectives, ensuring policy implementation, including marginalised groups, countering backlash, and protecting progress from economic and climate shocks. These underscore that leadership gains remain fragile and require continued advocacy and accountability.

Above all, the book honours the women whose courage has opened pathways for others. Their leadership calls on all of us to sustain the momentum toward a more just and inclusive Bangladesh.