The Relationship between Higher Education and Women Empowerment in Pakistan
Abstract
Abstract Views: 1714
Women empowerment is one of the critical dimensions of a feminist perspective. In patriarchal societies, women are oppressed and suppressed; hence higher education is considered a remedy to equip them to deal with issues arising from undue oppression and suppression. This study aimed to find the relationship between the attainment of higher education among women and women empowerment. The study has been carried out in Central Punjab, Pakistan. The study was framed under a correlational research design. Data was collected from a sample of 200 respondents equally selected (50 from each) of four different universities, including the University of Gujrat, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, University of Minhaj, University of Lahore. A stratified random sampling technique has been utilized, whereby 200 samples were questioned through a structured questionnaire. The collected information was analyzed by using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings showed a strong correlation between the attainment of higher education and women empowerment. The correlation was determined among one independent variable (attainment of higher education) and four dependent variables, including the power of decision making, increased political participation, economic independence, respect, and self-esteem.All variables have been found significantly associated with each other, which provides evidence that higher education attainment leads to women empowerment. Based on the findings of the study, it is concluded that higher education plays a significant role in liberating women from oppression and suppression.
Downloads
References
Aggarwal, M. (2014). A study on challenge for women empowerment. Abhinav National Monthly Refereed Journal of Research in Commerce & Management, 3(5), 70–73.
Ahmad, F. (2001). Modern traditions: British Muslim women and academic achievement. Gender and Education, 13, 137–152.
Akhter, N., & Akbar, R. A. (2016). Critical analysis of life of Pakistani women: Views of educated women. Journal of Elementary Education, 26(1), 111–121.
Akkermans, J., & Kubasch, S. (2017). Trending topics in careers: A review and future research agenda. Career Development International, 22(6), 586-627. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-08-2017-0143
Al-Deen, T. J. (2019). Agency in action: Young Muslim women and negotiating higher education in Australia. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 40(5), 598–613.
Anderson, T. W. (2003). An introduction to multivariate statistical analysis (3rd ed.). John Wiley.
Arif, S. (2011). Broken wings: Problems faced by Pakistani lady doctors in career development. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 1(1), 79–101.
Arif, S., Ejaz, A. & Yousaf, N. (2017). Career aspirations and opportunity for FWAS: Perceptions of Pakistani women. Journal of Management and Research, 4(1), 59–76.
Asghar, A. (2018). Empowering women still a challenge in Pakistan. Pakistan & Gulf Economist, October, 4–6.http://www.pakistaneconomist.com/2018/10/29/empowering-women-still-a-challenge-in-pakistan
Batool, S. A., & Batool, S. S. (2018). Impact of education on women's empowerment: Mediational role of income and self-esteem. Journal of Research & Reflections in Education (JRRE), 12(1), 33–51.
Batool, S. Q., Sajid, M. A., & Shaheen, I. (2013). Gender and higher education in Pakistan. International Journal of Gender and Women’s Studies, 1(1), 15–28.
Bushra, A., & Wajiha, N. (2015). Assessing the socio-economic determinants of women empowerment in Pakistan. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 177(July 2014), 3–8.
Butt, B. I., & Asad, A. Z. (2016). Social policy and women status in Pakistan: A situation analysis. Orient Research Journal of Social Sciences, 1(1), 47–62.
Chaudhry, I. S. (2007). Impact of gender inequality in education on economic growth: An empirical evidence from Pakistan. The Pakistan Horizon, 60(4), 81–91.
Fabre, A.,& Augersaud, E.-V. (2004). Education, poverty and child labour. Econometric Society.
Fava, J. L., & Velicer, W. F. (1996). The effects of underextraction in factor and component analyses. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 56(6), 907–929.
Friedman, M. (2004). Autonomy and male dominance. Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal., 87(1/2), 175–200.
Gujarati, D. N. (2003).Basic econometrics. McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Henslin, J.,& Nelson, A.(1996). Sociology: A Down-To-Earth approach (Canadian ed.). Allyn & Bacon.
Jayaweera, S. (2010).Women, education and empowerment in Asia. Gender and Education, 9(4), 411–424.
Joseph, J. (2015). Sexual harassment in tertiary institutions: A comparative perspective. TEMIDA.
Khan, A. U., Saboor, A., Hussain, A., Karim, S., Hussain, S. (2015). Spatial and temporal investigation of multidimensional poverty in rural Pakistan. Poverty & Public Policy, : A Global Journal of Social Security, Income Aid and Welfare, 7(2), 158–175.
Khokhar, A. J. (2018). Women academic leaders in higher education in Pakistan: Perspectives of female students enrolled in higher education degrees. Pakistan Journal of Women's Studies, 25(2), 59–76.
Latif, K. F., Latif, I., Sahibzada, U. F., & Ullah, M. (2019). In search of quality: measuring Measuring Higher Education Service Quality (HiEduQual). Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 30(7-8), 768–791.
Leach, L. (2013). Participation and equity in higher education: are Are we going back to the future? Oxford Review of Education, 39(2), 267–286.
Malik, S., & Courtney, K. (2011). Higher education and women’s empowerment in Pakistan. Gender and Education, 23(1), 29–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540251003674071
Malik, R., & Rose, P. (2015). Financing education in Pakistan: Opportunities for action. Country case study for the Oslo Summit on Education for Development. https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/pakista.pdf
Marie, A. G. (2003). Women's education and political participation. UNESCO.
Mehmood, S., Chong, L., & Hussain, M. (2018). Female higher education in Pakistan: An analysis of socio-economic and cultural challenges. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 5(6), 379–397.
Mendoza, B. E.-C. (2018). Transforming 'everyday Islam' through feminism and higher education: secondSecond-generation Muslim women in Spain. Contemporary Levant, 3(1), 44–55.
Moghadam, Z. B., Khiaban, M. O., Ordibeheshti, M. & Salsali, M. (2017). A review of the high level of education and reduced fertility in Iranian women: Have women been empowered? International Journal of Women's Health and Reproduction Sciences, 6(2), 106–112.
Murtaza, K. F. (2012). Women empowerment through higher education in Gilgit Baltistan. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2(9), 343–367.
Nawaz, M., Ramzan, B., Nadeem, M., Bhatti, G. A., &Nadeem, A. (2017). The influence of higher education in improving women's social status: empirical Empirical evidence from Lahore, Pakistan. International Journal of Research-Granthaalayah, 5(7), 252–261.
Naz, A., & Rehaman, C. H. (2011).Developing gender equality: An analytical study of socio-political and economic constraints in women's empowerment in Pakhtun Society society of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan.Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing, 2(1), 259–266.
Noreen, G., & Khalid, H. (2012), Gender empowerment through women's higher education: Opportunities and Ppossibilities. Journal of Research and Reflections in Education,6(1), 50–60.
Packianathan, N., Anushree, S. M., & Manjunatha, B. (2016).The role of higher education in empowering Indian women. International Journal of Health & Allied Sciences, 5(3), 135–141.
Qureshi, N., & Shaikh, B. T. (2007). Women's empowerment and health: the The role of institutions of power in Pakistan. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 13(6), 14–59.
Qureshi, R., & Rarieya, J. F. (2007). Gender and education in Pakistan. Oxford University Press.
Saleem, H., Shabbir, M. S., & Khan, B. (2019). Re-examining Mmultidimensional Ppoverty in Pakistan: A new assessment of regional variations. Global Business Review,20(3), 1–18.
Sengupta, N. (2013). Poor women's empowerment: The discursive space of microfinance. Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 20(2), 279–304.
Sharma, R., & Afroz, Z. (2014). Women empowerment through higher education. International Journal of Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Studies (IJIMS), 1(5), 18–22.
Syed, I. (2018). Shall I feed my daughter, or educate her? Online available at:https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/11/12/shall-i-feed-my-daughter-or-educate-her/barriers-girls-education-pakistan
Ullah, R., Richardson, J.T.E.,& Hafeez, M. (2013). Variations in perceptions of the learning environment and approaches to studying among university students in Pakistan. Prospects, 43, 165–186.
Yasun, S. (2018). Does education enable underprivileged women to achieve real equality in property rights? A case study of inheritance rights of women in Turkey. Women's Studies International Forum, 69, 100–114.
Yousuf, P. (2019). Role of education in women empowerment (A sociological study of the women Professors of Gwalior city MP India). Research Journal of Social Sciences, 10(1), 4–8.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
UER follows an open-access publishing policy and full text of all published articles is available free, immediately upon publication of an issue. The journal’s contents are published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY 4.0) license. Thus, the work submitted to the journal implies that it is original, unpublished work of the authors (neither published previously nor accepted/under consideration for publication elsewhere). On acceptance of a manuscript for publication, a corresponding author on the behalf of all co-authors of the manuscript will sign and submit a completed Copyright and Author Consent Form.
Copyright (c) The Authors
