Women's Experiences During COVID-19 in Bangladesh

Abstract. This study is a content analysis of women's experiences during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic in Bangladesh, using a unique data set from Bangladesh's only emotional support and suicide prevention helpline. Each call to the helpline has a written description, completed by the individual answering the call, of the caller's condition and reasons for calling. We coded descriptions of calls received from female callers in the first 6 months of the pandemic ( N = 276) and in the same 6-month period from the previous year ( N = 224) for comparison. Findings revealed that for the most part, reasons for calling were largely similar across the 2 years, with the majority of calls involving relationships of various kinds (namely, parents, husbands, or romantic partners). Key differences between 2020 and 2019 include mental health concerns in relation to the pandemic and academic concerns being absent from the pandemic year. These findings contribute to the emerging literature of women's experiences during the pandemic and have implications for intervention and future research.