Women Participation in Parliament: A Case of Socio-Political Empowerment of Pakistani Women (2008-2018)

The Islamia University of Bahawalpur
Political Science
By: Muhammad Madni Asghar
Supervised By: Dr. Safdar Hussain
Academic Level: PhD
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Abstract

Parliament plays a crucial role in democracy as it serves as the legislative branch of government responsible for creating and passing laws. It is a platform for debate and discussion on key issues provides a voice for citizens through their elected representatives and serves as a central platform to empower women politically and socially. Moreover, parliament is an important institution for addressing women issues, as it can create policies and laws that protect women rights, promote gender equality, and hold the government accountable for implementing these measures. The Pakistani parliament can also play an important role in promoting women social and political empowerment by increasing their representation at decision-making levels, helping them to raise their voice, ensuring that their voices are heard, and their concerns are addressed as legislation for their protection is made in parliament. Parliament helps to create an environment where women can fully participate for development of society and country. When women are socially and politically empowered, they are better able to participate in both political and civic life, which leads to more inclusive and democratic societies. The core objective of this research study is to analyze the participation of women legislators in National Assembly of Pakistan from 2008 to 2018. A questionnaire tool was developed to collect primary data from women parliamentarian. Through in-depth interviews participants were asked to share their knowledge and experience about participation in parliament, opportunities they have, challenges faced by them and what social and political steps they suggest for women socio-political empowerment in Pakistan. Data was collected from a sample of 39-member parliament from 2008 to 2018 tenures. The sample was measured form simple random sampling from population of 212 women parliamentarians ensuring representation from general elected seats and reserved quota from all provinces and all political parties. Collected data was cleaned and analyzed by using MS Excell. Study findings were discussed in reference to secondary data. Study findings reveal that there is positive relation between women participation in parliament and their socio-political empowerment. There are suggestions including women participation at gross root level politics, decision making positions in party and parliament, positive role of media, collaboration among stakeholders and elimination of social barriers.

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