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INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS VOL 5, NO 5

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT IN THE CORPORATE

SECTOR OF PAKISTAN
Dr. Yahya Rashid
Assistant Professor, Comsats Insitute of Information Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
Iqra Abdullah (Corresponding Author)
PhD Scholar, University of TechnologyMalaysia, (UTM)
Abstract

Empowerment of women in the corporate sector of Pakistan is very important for the
economic development of the country because women population is equally large as of men in
Pakistan. Empowering women may result in reaping number of benefits for Pakistan’s
Economy. But it is seen that women empowerment is not very common in corporate sector of
Pakistan as compare to the world economies where women are participating equally as men.
There are number of reasons behind this issue. But women empowerment can be increased in
corporate sector by taking some urgent steps for this cause that are discussed in this study.

KEY WORDS: Women Empowerment, Corporate Sector, Economic Development

Introduction

Since the creation of Pakistan the women’s population contributes a high percentage in overall
population of Pakistan. The historical data shows that women exist in majority. Therefore
there is a need of extensive participation of women in the economic sectors. Unfortunately the
role of women in the overall economic development of Pakistan is neglected and under
emphasised. But it is a fact that women contribution is equally important as men to include
the country in the list of Developed country. A very important concept to make the women
more participative in the economy is Empowerment. The term Empowerment is widely used
in Psychology field. But it lacks a clear definition. This word can be defined in number of
ways but in the perspective of this article empowerment refers to the power of people in
decision making process and in those processes that affect their lives (Nations, 1995b). A very
comprehensive definition of Empowerment given by Narayan shows “Empowerment is the
expansion of assets and capabilities of poor people to participate in, negotiate with, influence,
control, and hold accountable institutions that affect their lives”(Narayan-Parker, 2002). As far
as women empowerment is concerned empowering women refers to the process of making
women capable not only for their own sake but also for the economic and social development.
Different feminist activists explain another as aspect of women empowerment as “Women’s
empowerment should lead to the liberation of men from false value systems and ideologies of
oppression that should lead to a situation where each one can become a whole being regardless
of gender, and use their fullest potential to construct a more humane society for all”
(Batliwala, 1994).

The second part of the study is focusing on the corporate sector which refers to the segment of
society consists of business houses, industries and companies. This study is discussing that
whether the empowerment of women exists in corporate sector of Pakistan or not? If not then
what are the factors behind this issue?How the empowerment of Women can be increased in
corporate sector of Pakistan? And what would be the benefits of women empowerment in
corporate sector of Pakistan?

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Study Design and Conceptual Framework

The study is investigating the variable women empowerment in the corporate culture of
Pakistan by analysing the data gathered from different reliable sources as World Bank reports,
famous articles from periodicals, journal articles, conference proceedings and Labour force
surveys in Pakistan. Different causes have been identified in the study that effects the women
empowerment in Pakistan and possible solutions have been suggested to remove the barriers
in the way of women empowerment.

Discussion
Women Empowerment in Corporate Sector of World
There is a significant increase in the numberof women entering
in the corporate world and involving in economic activities.
In fact a report shows that the participation of women work force
is about 50% in the America (Luscombe, 2010).
In big companies as Pepsi co, Midland, W.L. Gore, participation
of women is veryremarkable. The right side graph shows the
employment rate of women in differentcountries. As we can see
that this participation is not equal in every region of world.
The greatestdifference exist in Italy although working women Adopted from “The Economists”
population is increasing day by day.

The second figure released by Eurostat shows that female

employment rate is constantly increasing from 1997 to 2008.
We can derive at two conclusions from these statistics.
1. Women are gaining more confidence toparticipate in
economic activities and the environment is getting more
favourable for women.
2. It has become the need of time for theAdopted from “The Economists”
women to participate in the economic activitiesto support their families financially.

On the other hand if we look towards the other picture of issue, we will come to know that the
women percentage is very less at boss level. There are only two percent women bosses in
Fortune 500 companies and only five percent bosses are women in FTSE 100 stock market
index. America that claims the 50% of their workforce consists of womenis having only
thirteen percent women in board of directors of their corporate world (The Economist,
2009).All the above mentioned statistics show that although women are participating more
and more in economic activities but concept of women empowerment is not recognized in the
advanced countries too. Women are very less as entrepreneur leader.

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Women Empowerment in Corporate Sector of Pakistan

The general perception of Pakistani women in the world is very narrow. It is considered that
the woman of Pakistan is restricted to stay in boundaries of their house. According to the
World Bank report the status of Pakistani women is the lowest in the world (United Nation
Development Program, 1996). But the ground realities are different from the international
reports. Misperceptions of Pakistani Women are prevailed due to unauthentic and
underreported reports and surveys. Women real contribution in GDP is not properly taken into
account. But no one can deny the contribution of Pakistani women in the economic activities
of rural areas. According to an Agriculture survey women contribution in agricultural
activities is about 79.4% as compare to rural men contribution i.e. 60.8% (Sustainable
Development Department (FAO), 2006). But on the other hand the contribution of urban
women in the economic activities of Pakistan is very low. The Labour force participation rate
of urban women is only 17% (Sustainable Development Department (FAO), 2006). The
women participation has increased only 6.6% from 1968 to 1997 (Ghouri, 2003).

(Ghouri, 2003)
As our major concern is on the empowerment in corporate sector, so if we move towards the
corporate sector the ratio of women entrepreneurs is very low as compare to the man. It is
observed that most of the upper class women with the higher education can reach to
managerial positions. Due to this lower rate of women entrepreneurs, the Government of
Pakistan took some initiatives to make the women more participative in corporate sector.
Some of the plans are: Punjab Small Industries Corporation, SME bank, SMEDA, Small
Business Finance Corporation, First Women Bank Ltd, Pakistan Association of Women
Entrepreneurs etc. As most of the efforts to mobilize the women entrepreneurs is concentrated
in Small and Medium Size enterprises therefore in Corporate sector most of the women
entrepreneurs are associated with SMEs as compare to men who are more associated with
MIEs (Sinhal, 2005).
Reasons of Less Women Empowerment in Corporate Sector of Pakistan
Different writers have indicated different reasons of less women empowerment. According to
(GCU, 2001-2004), the activities of women are more directed towards the low urban activities
e.g knitting, dress making etc so they couldnt recogize their entrepreneur skills. Secondly, the
entrprenuership of women is most hidden and thirdly women are mostly loyal to themselves,
they dont take much time to close thier business if for the time being it is not suited to thier
personal goals.
According to (Tambunan, 2009), the overall business enviroment consists of economic,
educational, social, cultural and psychological factors is the main barrier for women to
empower in corporate sector.

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One newspaper article (Butterworth, 2012) states the glass ceiling as a major reason to
promote the women at senior mangerial or board level.
Other reasons investigated by the different researchers are as follow:
Less literacy in women population, lack of confidence to reach at higher managerial positions,
male persons are eligible enough to take the responsibility of whole family, differnt ethnic
barriers, less support from the family, afraid from taking the risks and failures, lack of access
to the formal credit system etc.
Reasons of the females to be Inactive

(Analysis, 2009)
Suggestions to make Women more Empower in Pakistan
(Naz, Ullah, Naveed, Bedi-uz-Zaman, Farooq, & Nisar, 2010) state that the society of Pakistan
is male dominted and in this society if we want to make women more empower in future then
there is need to change the thoughts and perception of male youth about women. The results of
this research shows that the male youth is having positive attitudes and perception about
female empowerment in Pakistani society. So from this research it is concluded that there are
bright chances for women empowerment in the future.
According to (Khan, 2007), there is a need of properly following and implementing the
policies set by the Govermnemt to make women empower.
One of the report of (UNIFEM, 2004) indicates 7 Principles to make women empower in the
corporate world:
Firstly there is a need to create equality among man and women, and give equal respect to
both genders.
Secondly the top business leadership must promote the gender equality through thier policies.
Thirdly pormote healthy and safety measure to feel the women secure at workplace. And
develop 0% tolerance policy for the voilence at job place.
Fourthly Government should establish the programs and training plans that increase the
education and awareness level among women.
Fifthly promote the women owned businesses by expanding the relationships with their
companies.
Sixthly recognize the women leadership in communities and in public.
Sevently companies must be held accountable for their women empowerment and gender
equality policies. There must be proper check on company policies.
Other researchers have suggested that there is a need of motivating the women to reach at
higher level position, secondly there must be microfinancing schemes to support the women in
corporate sector.

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Conclusion
We conclude our discussion on the points that the present condition of women empowerment
and particpation is not so good in Pakistan’s Corporate sector as evidenced by (Ghouri, 2003).
Although the women labor force in agricultural sector is very active as the report of
(Sustainable Development Department (FAO), 2006) shows but in the urban sector women
participation is low due to the number of reasons indicated in the research. But these issues
can be overcome through the measures suggested in this research paper especially the
principles suggested by the (UNIFEM, 2004). The dream of empowering the women in the
corporate sector can be come true by increasing their participation in the economic activities.
And it can be hoped that in futre women empowerment condition will be better than the past.

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