Patriarchal Pakistan: Women’s Representation, Access to Resources, and Institutional Practices

Pakistani society is strongly patriarchal in the way that women’s positions are mediated by zar (wealth), and zamin (land), and in the way that the degree of men’s honor depends on the possession and control of wealth, women, and land (zar, zan, zamin) (Haeri 2002: 36). Development policies that prioritize women’s integration and representation in institutions (WID), women’s access to resources (WAD), and transformation in institutional policies (GAD) have seldom been practiced in the public sector of Pakistan. As to the issue of the representation of women in the public sector, the chapter points out that while women work in all sectors of the economy, their representation in the public sector is abysmally low. This poor representation is despite constitutional and international guarantees, the recommendations of development agencies, and commissions set up by the state of Pakistan to look at the issue. It is due in part to the lack of a comprehensive government policy and program on the equitable representation of women in public sector organizations. Similar to many other developing nations affirmative action programs in Pakistan focus on ethnic and income inequalities rather than gender inequalities as such. This point has not received sufficient attention from researchers and academics, who invariably focus on the representation of women in political institutions.