POLITICAL CHALLENGES OF

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
IN PAKISTAN

RESEARCH PROJECT
BY
MAHGUL GHAFOOR
 OBJECTIVES
To evaluate challenges faced by women
to reach upper political hierarchy of
Pakistan
General Objectives:
To find out the factors which impede women’s
effective political participation in Pakistan

To discern the attitude of relevant stakeholders

towards women’s leadership

To ascertain the stereotypes that couch such

attitudes
 OBJECTIVES
Specific Objectives:
To gather information in six areas to assess women politicians’
needs regarding their
1. Enhanced ability to run for elections
2. Equal opportunity to run for Elections
3. Support from party leaders to hold important positions
4. Support from male counterparts for women at all levels of
electoral and government structures
5. Establish operational relations with government officials
6. Increased media engagement to portray women politicians
as effective leaders and decision-makers in Pakistan
SCOPE: Women MNAs, MPAs, and district level politicians from
All provinces as well as Federally Administered Tribal Areas
(FATA) Pakistan.
 JUSTIFICATION OF THE TOPIC

The research considers a wide range of factors that

influence women’s effective political empowerment in the
complex dynamics of Pakistan, therefore this study will
persuade

 To engage relevant stakeholders to facilitate the integration of

women in decision-making processes for effective democratic
governance in Pakistan
 To mainstream the women politicians in the realm of political
leadership, good governance and policy reforms
 To change mindset of general public so that they can motivate
their families’ women to participate in political process to
acquire a better position
 To initiate women for a separate political party to overcome the
inherent injustice system existing in male dominating political
parties
 Non Government Organizations (NGOs) working for women
issues in social system
 JUSTIFICATION OF THE TOPIC
 The findings of this study will further be used to design
training and capacity building activities of women politicians
 Understanding the importance of women empowerment will
ultimately lead to reforms, practically and strategically, for
future plans along with competitive edge
 Students of social sciences may also get benefit through this
literature for general guidance
 This study is generalized and helpful across the globe
although it is focused on political system of Pakistan but it
also depicts world wide trends and issues related to women
politicians and their numerical strength in parliament.
The research work consists of two primary steps:
 An extensive desk review on women’s political participation
in Pakistan.
 Primary data collection to identify issues and bottlenecks
which impede women’s participation in politics and
democratic governance
Literature Review
LITERATURE REVIEW
 Literature Review
Table 2.4. Women’s participation in South Asia Legislation Source (IPU, 2016)

National Assembly / Lower House Senate / Upper House

Rank Country
Election Seats Women % Election Seats Women %

48 Nepal 2013 595 176 29.6% - - - -

52 Afghanistan 2010 249 69 27.7% 2015 68 18 26.5%

85 Pakistan 2013 340 70 20.6% 2015 104 19 18.3%

89 Bangladesh 2014 350 70 20% - - - -

143 India 2014 543 65 12% 2016 244 27 11%

165 Bhutan 2013 47 4 8.5% 2013 25 2 8%

176 Maldives 2014 85 5 5.9% - - - -

177 Sri Lanka 2015 225 13 5.8% - - - -

Figure 2.2 Seats held by women in parliament – global perspective (world Bank,
2016)
 Literature Review

Figure 2.3 Seats held by women in parliament – Regional perspective (world

Bank, 2016)
 Literature Review

Litracy

Personnel Politics

Economic /
Psychological
Poverty

Social /
Religious
Cultural

Figure 2.4 General elements for Women empowerment

Figure 2.5 Literacy Rate of Pakistan (1951 to 2009) Source: (Riaz Haq, 2014)
 Research Methodology

 This research is a descriptive research as the design is particularly based on

questions regarding research problem to obtain the current opinion of politicians of
Pakistan with respect to challenges faced by women in the political environment.
 The descriptive research provides general overview after quantitatively testing of
variables measured from certain system.
 In this case, important recommendations have become possible on the basis of rich
data and detailed analysis. Furthermore, cross section interpretations and
philosophical design of this research covers the mix approach model to investigate
the variables.
 Epidemiologically, it is not experimental but observational study in descriptive design
with cross sectional view point as male and female politicians in addition to their area
of representation are considered as respondents against each query designed to
collect valuable data.
 Exploration of phenomenon affecting women empowerment on qualitative methods
and conclusive with respect to statistical analysis as quantitative methods categorize
this research as mixed design.
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
 The basic methodology of research design is summarized into ontology,
epistemology, methodology, methods and techniques
 Ontology is a philosophical method used to summarize the truth and facts on the
basis of realism, internal realism, relativism and nominalism
 Epistemologically, Positivism and social constructionism approaches are used to
investigate the world through observational study where researcher attempts to
uncover the truth
 This study is a mixed approach as relativism approach ontologically and social
constructionist view epistemologically as it starts with questions through survey
based questionnaires to collect relevant data in numerical orders on a scale which
further defines that research analysis methodologically fits into quantitative
methods
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

 The relationship between theory and research through inductive or

deductive approaches is considered as complementary
 Inductive approach is initiated by collection of relevant data against
subject study and on the basis of data interpretation, researcher may
develop theory
 Deductive approach is a reverse process as compared to inductive
approach as the researcher starts with theoretical analysis and finds
research gaps and consequently designs questions / hypothesis in order
to investigate specific objectives. Subsequently, the researcher tests his
information against hypothesis for acceptance or rejection
 This project is based on deductive approach as shown in the figure below
 The study is administered by quantitative survey in order to conclude
numerical results for realistic conclusions
 Research Methodology
Initially 60 numbers of questions were designed to explore
the attitude and these were distributed to people but
satisfactory responses were not obtained hence number of
questions were reduced in order to increase response rate

 Although 1170 politician participated in 2013 election

out of which 228 were women, but this strength refers
to overall population appeared in political legislation
process

 sample size is n=88 including male and female

participants

 secondary data is available scholastically to support

research significance

 The data collection instrument of this study is a

questionnaire based on five point Likert scale
Analysis
 FINDINGS
 Accumulatively, 43% people rated that equal rights and justified
quota is not available for women
 Cumulatively, 62% agreed and 36% strongly agreed that gender
discrimination is highly influenced by the illiterate cultures
 Cumulatively 63% agreed that socio-economic factors and existing
structure of the political system hinders women participation
 75% respondents declared that women have leadership capabilities
 85% agreed that there is lack of full and equal participation in
policy making process
 99% people agreed that there is no existence of a particular
institution to promote women empowerment in political system
 75% participants agreed that women wings do not have influence
on decision making process
 94% agreed that successful participation of women from lower
hierarchy to upper tier significantly correlated to ancestor’s
heritage
 36% agreed that women are treated as mere fillers instead of real
political and economic power
 99% agreed that women pay more cost for their engagement in
politics in the process of national development and progress
 FINDINGS
 Accumulative 51% participants agreed electorate’s lack of confidence in
women
 Cumulatively, all people agreed that women have insufficient quota
 59% agreed that some sections of the society consider women’s political
participation as anti-Islamic
 43% participants agreed that political parties continue to resist the granting
of party tickets to female candidates
 Cumulatively, 67% agreed that there is lack of appreciation for women and
no standardized method of performance evaluation exists
 48% participants agreed that female become president/ prime minister of
the country
 76% agreed the culturally accepted principle that women must first fulfill
their responsibility at home and to their families hinders their entry in politics
 30.7% thinking that lack of mechanisms for protection of women within the
political parties
 36% responded that nominating women candidates in areas where it is
difficult for them to win
 Women vote decision is also influenced by the head of family especially in
joint family system
 Lack of unity among women parliamentarians and not showing keen interest
to take up women’s issues because of party politics is regretted by 36%.
 FINDINGS

 Political parties continue to resist granting of party tickets to female candidates

 Women mostly do not have information or access to information about the
political, civil and electoral processes in Pakistan
 Women vote casting ratio is very limited
 Root cause of women discrimination is mainly linked with social
system/culture, economical, religion interpretation and political factors
 Women of Pakistan do not have potential leadership capabilities to participate
at equal level of representation in political system
 Low men literacy rate has led to old naïve traditions about women capabilities
and confined them to the discriminating environment
 In truthful and real perspective, women do not have proper economic
resources and socio-economic factors are highly influencing women
representation in all aspects like lower membership, fewer campaigns and
absence of legislative offices
 Social subjugation of women is manifested by inherent gender discrimination,
racial, feudalism based domestic violence and psychological factors
 Sexual harassment in gender non-segregated environments is a big challenge
to women’s political participation
 RECOMMENDATIONS
 Cumulatively all people agreed that awareness campaigns must be initiated to create
opportunities for women’s political participation

 Almost all people agreed related to increase membership of women in each party to a minimum
of 40% and representation in the central working committee to a minimum of 30% to ensure
that women participate in the process of decision

 98% people agreed that there must be allocated a specific budget for development projects for
women

 85% people agreed to promote gender free government by ensuring full and equal participation
of women in policy making procedures as equal participation is considered as pre-requisite for
real democracy

 Standardized performance indicator for analysis and evaluation for women politicians’ work for
actual realization is need of the hour

 Mentorship programs may be organized to develop strategies for capacity building of women
politicians

 Well developed strategies to increase the level of women’s participation in decision-making

bodies and bring quality representation is agreed by 97% people

 Quality is the best concept which may be helpful for standardization of political framework,
political parties organizational structure should be purely structured where ISO QMS provide
detailed procedures and guidelines to handle resource management

 Quality management practices by parliament of Pakistan will be helpful for women political
empowerment with significant impact
 RECOMMENDATIONS
 Education is the first and foremost step as educated women can
participate with strategic decision power with appropriate knowledge
based thoughts
 Cumulatively, 95.5% agreed that necessary laws must be regulated
to declare women political participation as mandatory
 Political wings of all parties are required to support women’s
participation with incentive approach
 Women efforts must be appreciated and accepted being an asset
instead of liability
 Political arena representing women’s strength with expertise and high
literacy level requires improvement
 70% agreed that gender action development plan must be initiated
to overcome any type of harassment and gender discrimination
 97% participants agreed that there is a dire need to strengthen
existing women wings of all political parties in order to accomplish
women empowerment goals
 There is a dire need to put maximum efforts to change the mindset
of illiterate as well as orthodox people through proper counseling
regarding women’s role from home making to nation building
Questions session ?