The constant influx of women in politics might suggest that the glass ceiling is a thing of the past. But still, it is very much a reality in the political arena. There is a dearth of women politicians in upper-level positions globally and specifically in Pakistan. The focus of this research is on the fact that a large number of women have entered the political arena through the quota system and due to the pressure of international organizations, but does it indicate that barriers for women‘s upward mobility have been diminished? And if they exist, in what ways do they create hindrances for women to get decision-making positions? A qualitative phenomenological approach and method were used, to explore the lived experiences of women parliamentarians, facing barriers in their political careers and to examine the possibilities of women to advance to leadership positions in Pakistan. Participants were purposefully sampled to get to the core of common lived experiences of women parliamentarians. Data was collected by conducting in-depth interviews with twenty women parliamentarians who have spent either one or more tenure in parliament and whose careers could provide an insight regarding the presence or breaking of the political glass ceiling. Findings of the present study indicated that women face barriers at every level of their career from induction to get to advanced positions these are based on three major themes or levels, including the 1st level of the glass ceiling as a barrier in their way to politics, then the 2
nd level of the glass ceiling in the way to their upward mobility after entering the parliament, and that organization again has more and more layers of barriers that hinder women to reach specific decision-making positions and the third theme is based on coping strategies adopted by women to deal with glass ceiling and for their career persistency. The first type of barriers are those which they face in their pathways to politics, at this stage some elements pave the way for their entry into politics, these include family as a ladder or hurdle, political familial lineage, solitary striving and impediments, behavioral modification of family members, career aspiration, gender quotas in assembling social support and redesigned religious notion.
In addition to that, after crossing these barriers, and reaching parliament, they face the second level of the Glass ceiling as a barrier in the pathway to upward mobility or the advancement of their careers. Women have to go through extra scrutiny, face objectification, sexism, and gender discrimination, along with less support from the party leadership as well as intrafemale political discredit, marginalized decision participation, media personification of women as a politician, political false consciousness, party ideology in taking women as a proxy politician, gender stereotyping and prejudice on their way to politics. Then if a few of them rise to a higher position, other parliamentarians view it as favoritism, nepotism, and preferential treatment given to them from party leaders due to their strong family background. Besides, media does not play a significant role in portraying a positive image, rather works for their pity vested interest that adds to their less participation at higher posts. Women parliamentarians on reserved seats do not get funds, they are not considered suitable to be the chair of different committees and are not given strong ministerial portfolios. While facing these barriers, women parliamentarians adopt some coping strategies to survive in parliament and struggle for upward mobility, their coping strategies data indicated, that they struggle to keep themselves up to date with the national and international scenario and to have desired knowledge, so they would also be considered for some decision making positions. If this strategy does not work, then most of the parliamentarians are compelled to comply with the patriarchal structure, they start adopting a media-friendly attitude or show minimum visibility to at least maintain their seat, which gives them hopes of reaching higher positions. Last but not least they have to adopt a very optimistic attitude, as the only way to reach a higher post is to keep on struggling. The study concludes with the idea that women now have entered the second level of the glass ceiling, where party politics and male leaders of the party create hindrances for women, women were unable to achieve their desired roles in politics. This research recommends that women parliamentarians form legislations to improve the situation of women in all fields, they should draft laws to strengthen their position in the parliament because very few legal reforms are introduced to improve the status of women parliamentarians. This study has contributed to show the real scenario of women in parliament, as well as their struggle to reach higher positions. The present study is a new contribution to the existing literature by adding lived experiences of women parliamentarians regarding the phenomena of the glass ceiling and indicate the areas where improvement is required to aid them in improving their status. These findings can be validated further by focusing on the large size of parliamentarian through survey, to get generalized empirical evidence that was not the focus of the current study.