With the exception of a few, gender inequality has plagued society for centuries, with women being consistently denied access to positions of true power and influence. There have always been the more obvious and visible barriers which we are well aware of, but much more powerful and troublesome are the invisible barriers that have systematically held back qualified women from reaching the highest levels of leadership. 

In the case of Bangladesh, the preconceived notions, and biases regarding traditional gender roles and stereotypes appear to be even more deeply ingrained in the culture and this can make it much more challenging for women to break into leadership positions, especially in the workplace.

It is unfortunate but also quite clear that many people still believe that women should prioritise family responsibilities over their careers and that men are supposedly better suited for leadership roles.

Despite legal protections against discrimination, women in Bangladesh and across the globe still face prejudice and discrimination in the workplace and it is those "not so obvious" and hidden societal and cultural barriers that are most operative in holding women back.

One highly prevalent example of this at the workplace is when qualified women are often passed over for promotions or even paid less than similar male colleagues for doing the same work, due to the false perception that women are less competent or less committed.

Women in our society are often automatically subjected to a greater share of caregiving responsibilities at home, which can make it difficult to balance work and family responsibilities.

Even though well-intentioned but this unconscious bias of line managers or leaders hoping to "facilitate" their female colleagues' duties at home also become the reason for not giving them more responsibilities at the workplace. Without having greater responsibilities and being engaged in real leadership roles, it will be much more difficult to create women leaders.

In a more traditional society such as Bangladesh, when a female professional is career-driven, she may also be seen as being aggressive and over-ambitious, not just by her professional peers but even by her own family. For example, a wealthy husband may fail to understand why his wife has to work so hard and the same could happen with a rich father who can't see any reason why his daughter needs to have a professional career.

Traditional diversity and inclusion initiatives are not enough to address the hidden barriers as they fail to deal with the systemic issues that underlie them. Investigation and understanding of the deeper and more psychological barriers that negatively impact women are required and then new ways of training and education, especially geared towards top-level leaders of organisations, need to be developed.

Such training sessions may be designed to help senior management let go of traditional ways of thinking and let them be more empathetic towards the struggles and barriers that women face.

Business enterprises have to redesign and re-learn the way of working to not only fully support work-life balance but also address the underlying problems by rethinking performance evaluations and addressing systemic issues that impact women's ability to rise up.

Tides seem to be slowly turning and an era of female empowerment and representation is on the horizon. From the boardroom to the political arena, women are increasingly breaking the barriers and shattering stereotypes, proving that they are just as capable and deserving of success as their male counterparts.

However, overcoming the unseen barriers that hold women back from top leadership positions requires a holistic approach that addresses the root causes of gender bias and inequality in the family, society and workplace.

The author is an economic analyst