Although male migration from rural areas of Bangladesh to various destinations abroad has been a common practice, there is, however, a dearth of studies to document the impact of such male out-migration on the left-behind wives who are supposed to shoulder the overall familial responsibilities left by their husbands in a patriarchal society. How does an absent husband contribute to changing gender roles for the left-behind wives? What are the challenges women face while performing the daily responsibilities left by their husbands? Do women feel a stronger sense of belonging to the family and a sense of empowerment through performing public space activities and exercising their agency? This study revolves around these questions and examines how male out-migration abroad has contributed to changing traditional gender roles in rural Bangladesh, and thereby empowered women in the family. Drawing upon a mixed-method approach with both quantitative and qualitative data, the findings of this study suggest that women feel empowered through the process of engaging in various activities previously carried out by their husbands, such as cultivating and managing land (p = .001), maintaining a house (p = .001), taking care of domestic animals (p = .030), ensuring health facilities for the family members (p = .001), taking care of social responsibilities (p = .001), ensuring family security (p = .001), and managing financial matters (p = .002). This study also reveals that women feel empowered when they do not need to seek permission to go outside the home (p = .001). Moreover, women whose husbands send regular remittances feel significantly more empowered than women whose husbands do not or inadequately send remittances (p = .001). This study further identifies significant barriers that women encounter while pursuing everyday tasks outside the home. These barriers include, but are not limited to the husbands' lack of willingness to send remittances (p = .001), non-cooperation from family members (p = .027), negative social attitudes and pressure to comply with traditional gender norms (p = .001), and religious disapproval of exposing women to public space (p = .001). The findings of this study provide a new theoretical argument on how women could be empowered through the process of male out-migration and absent husbands, which opens up space for the women to come out of their private sphere and engage in public activities to meet everyday family necessities, thereby positively impacting on decision-making, authority exercising, a better sense of belonging to the family, and overall empowerment of the women.