Women Empowerment in Pakistan: Assessing the Socio-Economic Determinants

Abstract

The present study is an effort to explore the important factors that contributes to the women empowerment in Pakistan, with an obtained the objective this study classifies the women empowerment into economic and social empowerment. For this purpose, the data is collected from the Pakistan Demographic Health Survey (PDHS) for the year 2017-18. The sample of the study is 10,935 married women and the current research utilizes multiple regression analysis for empirical analysis. The results of the regression analysis show that women education, women occupation, wealth index and men occupation have a positive and statistically significant effect on women empowerment, whereas women age and residence have a positive and insignificant effect on women social and economic empowerment. From the result, we found that educated and self-reliant working women are more empowered, and she can play important role in decision making process vis-à-vis to support household level. In sum, women participation in a decision at household is important, as women can smoothly manage domestic chores more confidently.

Exploring the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on women entrepreneurs in Pakistan

“…Therefore, finding finance is a huge challenge for an entrepreneur, particularly, women entrepreneurs face severe challenges than male entrepreneurs in terms of lack of access to finance, cultural restrictions on mobility and lack of spouse support (Memon, 2020). For the progress of an economy, women’s participation and empowerment are recognized as a significant tool and to achieve this objective, entrepreneurship is known as the most suitable option (Muhammad et al , 2020; Khursheed et al , 2021). In developing countries, women entrepreneurs usually need small loans for launching their startup while banks are reluctant to provide a loan without any security (Rashid and Ratten, 2020).…”

“…For getting deeper insights into the experiences of women entrepreneurs, we considered histories of women borrowers along with their lived experiences and social interactions. Past studies have explored different dimensions of women entrepreneurship and there are various underlying principles for supporting women entrepreneurship and empowerment (Muhammad et al , 2020; Bongomin et al , 2020). Further, microfinance is known as an effective tool for increasing household income, improving living standards by providing finance and reducing mental stress by providing interest-free loans and creating jobs (Rashid and Ratten, 2020).…”

Are Women Entrepreneurs’ Business Performances Influenced by Financial Resources? Empowering Women Entrepreneurs in Malaysia Through Financial Resources Post-Covid-19 Pandemic

“…The probability of enhanced performance is substantially more arduous for a women entrepreneur, who has to face and overcome business difficulties besides the complications associated with operating a business in a male governed business environment (Mustafa et al, 2021;Al-Shami et al, 2019;Selvadurai, 2019;Aliyu et al, 2019;Alam et al, 2011). Still, many women have chosen to run their businesses on their own (Khursheed et al, 2021;Muhammad et al, 2020;Hisrich & Brush, 1984). Additionally, women entrepreneurs have been traumatized by the shock of the Covid-19 pandemic and have had constraints accessing financial capital, which affected their business performance (Chipfunde et al, 2021;Welsh et al, 2018) Furthermore, (Dy & Jayawarna, 2020;Seetharaman, 2020;Werner, 2020;Bartik et al, 2020) elucidated that the Covid-19 pandemic has affected the micro-enterprises of all entrepreneurs as well as women entrepreneurs tremendously.…”

Women Economic Empowerment in Pakistan: A Critical Analysis of Legal Framework

“…This economic uncertainty and food insecurity increased violence in the sole bread earners of the family that ultimately leads to communal corruptions. One antagonistic form of which is honor killing that not only helps to reduce economic burden but also give satisfaction to the male arrogance (Muhammad, 2021).…”

“…In 2008, the organization for economic cooperation and development defined that while woman service rates have extended, gender employment and salary gaps have tightened nearly everywhere, and on average, women have 20% less chance to have occupations and are paid 17% less than males. Therefore, performance pressure, social separation and role capsulation create hindrance in economic authorization of females that can unchain women from the rancorous cycle of reliance (Muhammad, 2021).…”