“REFLECTION ON WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND ITS DIMENSIONAL APPROACHES IN PAKISTANI SOCIETY”

1. Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan
Department of Gender Studies
A Dissertation Entitled
“REFLECTION ON WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
AND ITS DIMENSIONALAPPROACHES IN
PAKISTANI SOCIETY”
Presented By:
Syed Burhan Rafay Bukhari
Supervised By:
Mr. Basit Habib

2. CONTENTS
1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. Theoretical Orientation
4. Research Strategy
5. Thematic Interpretation
6. Conclusion
7. Work Cited

3. ABSTRACT
Women constitute half of the total population of world thus should be considered
most significant part of our social strata but despite of having equality in
population scenario, she still face a lot of obstacles in achieving their rights and
social status. It is the right of women to exercise power, have equal social status,
economic independency, prestige and equality like their male counterparts.
Women should be granted the right of jobs because she has skills, quality
education thus should be given her status, security, nutritious health, and also
better standards of living like males. The focus of current research paper is on
empowerment of women and its strategic development in the uplifting of women’s
social status. To empower women of all classes is a historical concept which
emerged in mid 18th century. Initially it has different meanings, but in 19th century
meanings have been changed according to situational parameters.

4. INTRODUCTION
Women issues and empowerment are being discussed at all
forums like United Nations front and at national and
international level. Therefore, assessment of women among
other women is a big deal and it is the motto of all countries to
draw a plan in order to grant equal social and economic rights
to women of all states irrespective of their class. It is a fact that
roles in all societies assigned to women all based upon
mystical beliefs which address the inferiority of women, and
excluded from patriarchal and political realm because this field
is considered made for men not for women.

5. Continue…
Women who belonged to poor segments of society are highly vulnerable to
maternal mortality ratio because they are not born with sufficient resources for
those women thus women should be educated enough to deal with such matters of
health especially.
Education is not to get any certified degree from any institute from any
educational institute either public or private rather its meanings are so broad and
vast in its terms. It means to be acknowledged by the developing progress of the
country that it tends to increase the power of any one person of empowering by
her own.
Violence against women varies from place to place or region to region due to
variations in cultural norms as the females of rural areas suffer more than the
females of cities. According to a 2008 HRCP report, 80 percent of wives in rural
Punjab feared violence from their husbands, and nearly 50 percent of wives in
developed urban areas admitted that their husbands beat them thus the percentage
of urban violence cases is low due to somehow empowerment.

6. No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are
side by side with you in every field; we are victims of evil and
bad customs…
It is crime against humanity that our women are shut up within
the four walls of the houses like prisoners. There is no sanction
anywhere for the deplorable and inferior condition in which our
women have to live. You should take your women along with you
as comrades in each and every sphere of life.
(Muhammad Ali Jinnah, 1944)

7. CULTURAL PERCEPTION OF
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
 Empowerment includes access to options, information, education
and resources equal for women as provided to men. Decision
making power, authority, independence to spend life, not in
meaning to earn economically rather in terms of independence
over own life as social, political or economic independence and
control over one’s life should be the main motto of empowering
any gender.
 It is a fact that men are empowered, socially, culturally, legally
and economically, while women are not in any field.
 Culture of any society plays an important role in the
marginalization and uplifting of women because social norms are
main taboos which restrict women within its social culture to
participate in social affairs of life.

8. THEORETICAL ORIENTATION
 Measure the reports and action to achieve equality of both genders by the removal
of gender disparities.
 To establish high level, cooperate for gender equality and empowerment of women.
(Bhuyan, 2006)
 According to World Heath Organization (WHO, 1996), that at global level almost
585,000 women turned at death bed due to pregnancy related issues in 1990.
 From report, it is known that women depression rates 45% 57% in rural Pakistan.
And symptoms of depression lack of mood, low self-esteem, Lack of required
energies level and poor concentration on a required system. (Niaz, 2004)
 According to UNESCO report (2012), Pakistan is among the countries those have
poor literacy rate in the world due to low education of girls and drop-out rates,
 International Human Indicators database places Pakistan at 130th place out of
141 countries on the basis of adult literacy (above 15 years) in which Pakistan’s
female literacy rate was of most consideration and was found to be much lower than
men.

9. RESEARCH STRATEGY
Questionnaire
Data Collection
Sampling Technique
Data Analysis
Thematic Interpretation

10. DATAANAYLSIS
1. All questions are designed in a systematic way to know
the ideas and thinking of people regarding this research.
2. After collecting data, it has gone through descriptive
statistical analysis through a Statistical package of Social
Sciences (SPSS).
3. Analysis of findings and detail interpretation of data is
given below in form of tables.

11. Theme No. 1
Social Status

12. Theme No. 2
HEALTH

13. Theme No. 3
EDUCATION

14. Education’s Importance

15. Theme No. 4
VIOLENCE AGAIST WOMEN

16. Theme No. 4
VIOLENCE AGAIST WOMEN
Category Cases of June Cases of July
Rape 108 56
Honor Killings 75 24
Domestic Violence 81 81
Sexual Harassment 19 7
Suicide 22 6
Total 305 174
Descriptive Statistics of The Months of June and July, 2010
Source: 8 Urdu+ 5 English, Daily Newspapers of Pakistan

17. Theme No. 5
ECONOMIC DEPENDENCY

18. ‘Economic dependency is the degree in
which a person relies on others for the
purpose of fulfillment of his or her needs
either social, economic, political or any
other.’
(Romana Naz, 2013)

19. Theme No. 5
POLITICS

20. Dictator Regime Women
Legislation
Quota
National
Assembly
Quota
Provincial
Assembly
Quota
Senate
Quota Local
Body
Government
Commissi
ons
Or Plans
Gen. Zia-ul-Haq
(1977-1986)
 10% in
1981
20% in
1985
   
Gen. Pervez
Musharraf
(1999-2008)
 20% 17% 18% 33% 
Table.1 Dictatorships Regimes
Rafay, B. & Habib, B. (2016)

21. Dictator
Regime
Women
Legislation
Quota
National
Assembly
Quota
Provincial
Assembly
Quota Senate Quota Local
Body
Government
Commissions
Or Plans
Zulfiqar
Bhutto
(1970-1977)
 10% 5%   
Benazir
Bhutto
(1988-1990)
     
Nawaz Sharif
(1997-1999)
     
Asif Ali
Zardari
(2008-2013)
     
Nawaz Sharif
(2013-present)
     
Table.2 Democratic Regimes
Rafay, B. & Habib, B. (2016)

22. CONCLUSION
Women empowerment becomes a major concern in the country of globalization
because women constitute almost half of the world’s total population and it is very
necessary for the prosperity of any country to indulge women in the social and
economic structure by empowering her.
Either there is a western society or Muslim world, the condition of women regarding
her status is almost the same, underprivileged, submissive, inferior and less
empowered to men. Thus, the issues and debates regarding her life and status are same
everywhere in Muslim and non-Muslim world. Women issues and empowerment are
being discussed at all forums like United Nations front and at national and other
international platforms.
Domesticity is regarded the keen concern of women in her whole life span while men
are considered single bread earner of family. Women are forced to shut within the four
walls of the home to look after home, to nurture children and to fulfill all the domestic
responsibilities. Thus, in economic sphere women are invisible and only small
proportion of women are there, then they may not granted equal pay for equal work.

23. SUGGESTIONS
1. By mobility it builds confidence among
women because when she will meet with new
people her confidence will grow to a higher
level as compare to previous one.
2. Through access to economic, political and social
resources women get employed and contribute to the
nation’s economy and can add on to household economy to
meet their ends up and to fulfill their personal demands.
3. By providing the right to decision-making powers,
women can resolve half of their issues by themselves.

24. REFERENCES
1. Bhuyan, D. (2006). Women Empowerment. New Delhi: Discovery Publishing House.
2. WHO. (1996). Maternal mortality rate (or maternal mortality 1990); logarithm of the annual
number of deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes per 100,000 live births in 1990.
World Health Organization.
3. Niaz, U. (2004). Women's mental health in Pakistan. World Psychiatry, 3(1). Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1414670/
4. UNCF. (2014). All children in School By 2015. Global Initiative on Out- of-School Children.
South Asian Regional Study; Covering Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. United
Nations Children Fund. Retrieved from
www.unicef.org/education/files/SouthAsia_OOSCI_Study_Executive_Summary_26Jan_14Fi
nal.pdf
5. Ejaz Ashraf, Mohammad Younis Afzal, and Hafiz Khurram Shurgeel. (2015, February). A
REVIEW OF RURAL WOMEN EDUCATION IN PAKISTAN. Sci. Int (Lahore), 27(1), 555-
559.
6. Naz, R. (2013, February). Effects of Economic Dependency on Decision Making Power of
Women in Rural Areas of Tehsil Dera Ghazi Khan. International Journal of Academic
Research in Business and Social Sciences, 3(2), 203-224.
7. Burhan Rafay, Basit Habib. (2016, June). “Analysis on the Social Legislation and Women
Empowerment in Pakistan: Comparative study of Democratic governments and Dictatorship
periods (1947-2012)”. Journal of Research Society Pakistan (JRSP), 53(1), 13-26.

25. Contributed By:
MS. USHNA TARIQ
Visiting Lecturer
Dept. Gender Studies
Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan