Abstract
Active participation of women in political process is one of the key indicators of
women empowerment. It has been observed that despite the 33% quota reserved
for women in the local government system in Pakistan, and despite the fact that a
large number of women were elected as councillors during the local bodies
elections held in 2002, no substantial results were recorded with regard to
women’s political empowerment in the country. Using qualitative methods, this
study was conducted with elected women councillors in order to explore the way
women entered politics, their experiences as councillors, and the hurdles they
encountered during their tenure at the union council level. The article explores a
number of institutional and cultural hurdles in the way of women’s political
empowerment. For examples, most of the women elected through reserved quotas
were usually uneducated and came from very low socio-economic backgrounds.
On the other hand, some of them belonged to established political/feudal
families: they were the wives, daughters and sisters or sisters-in-law of those
who are already stakeholders in the power structure of the state. The
representation of both kinds of these elected women is merely numerical, leaving
no real impact on the lives of ordinary women.
Nasira Nasreen, Noor Sanauddin, Seema Gul. (2016) Patriarchal Politics: Factors Limiting Women’s Participation in Local Government in Pakistan, Putaj Humanities And Social Science, Volume-23, Issue-2.
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