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The views and opinions expressed in blogs are solely those of the blog writers. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent the Women in Elections (WiE) staff.

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Electoral violence against women

Violence against women during elections is a grave issue with a long-lasting impact on women’s participation in politics and public life. In Pakistan, many women face obstacles to participating in elections. These include cultural and social barriers, lack of access to information and resources and physical threats and violence. Women are underrepresented in decision-making roles and have limited access to…

Women with disabilities need better representation in the electoral process

It is true that democracy depends on the participation of people in public office, regardless of their gender or disability. But in Pakistan, there is a dilemma in the country’s political sphere which means that persons with disabilities should be treated as dysfunctional liability and their right to hold any public office should be disregarded. The ICT Right of Persons…

Why we see fewer women contestants on general seats??

Women in Pakistan constitutes about 48.76 of the total population according to the 2017 census. Women, despite being in large number are still in gloom. According to several surveys done by organizations such as Pak Voter about 12 Million women are still unregistered and missing from the voter list and are unable to carry out their right to vote. A…

Women Leadership

Now, at state, national and global levels, women are increasingly realizing their leadership presence in industry, government, education, engineering, health, etc. Women are now determined to crack through the conventional glass ceiling that, even though they have the talents and expertise needed, has stopped  them from taking leadership roles.  Women in modern times are continually changing and hitting new benchmarks…

Women Empowerment

International Women’s Day is a global event dedicated to the rights of women in our society. In some countries, it is declared as an official holiday. There are various processions, movements and sequences of the event organized globally. In this generation, women have to face many problems as well like sexual assaults, rape and many more… Women mostly also lack…

Woman: a born leader

In a fast stridden and changing environment, the focus of attention is increasingly on the need for effective leadership not just good management, and women have recently proved that they are not only a good homemaker, but also good in leading the society and promoting inclusion. Women have made dramatic gains in electoral politics, winning a number of high profile…

Role of Women in Economic Development of Pakistan

There is no tool for development additional made than the authorization of women” Women represent half of the population in Pakistan. Women play a vital role within the economic development of any country/state. Any country’s gross domestic product can be boosted by merely reducing gender difference. Similarly, women authorization in Pakistan will bring a huge change. Many consultants offer proof…

Economic And Political Gender Inequalities

“I raise up my voice-not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard…We cannot succeed when half of us are held back” _ MALALA YOUSUFZAI When talking about gender inequality, it would not be wrong to say that it exists in every sphere, be it politics or whatever and each women is affected by…

Women’s Role in Politics Empowerment of Women towards politics

Women play a key role in society and politics, studies show great numbers of women in politics generally raising voice for harassment against women, participation in the basic requirement for gender equality. Political responsibility to women begins with an increasing number of women in decision-making. Several countries are led by women leaders some of the examples of which are Vice…

Aurat March

Aurat March 2019 was one of the foremost exciting feminist events in recent years. Its absolute scale, magnitude, diversity, and inclusivity were unparalleled. Women belonging to various social classes, regions, religions, ethnicities, and groups came together on a customary platform to protest the numerous patriarchies that control, limit, and oblige their self-expression and basic rights. From home-based workers to teachers,…

“Painful Ornament of Women”

International women’s day (8th March) is a global day celebrating the economic, social, and political achievements of women’ past, present, and future On this special day, I want to write something about different kinds of environments where women are constantly emphasized to wear a lot of heavy and painful ornaments like animals. The heavy ornaments is a campaign for me…

Woman: an equal human being

“I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.” – Mary Shelley Women have always been deprived of their due rights when it comes to leadership, social, economic and political matters. It could be a freedom of speech, leadership roles, workplace harassment, forced marriages, education barriers or basic gender discrimination. Women are usually considered as the…

Gender Equality; Still a far cry??

‘A woman is the full circle, within her is the power to create, nurture and to transform.’  Diane Mariechild Woman, making half of the world population, isn’t just an ornamental piece to be kept at home, neither is she a lesser-being for whom opportunities are never meant to be. She is as worth as men, an equal part of society…

Women Empowerment in all spheres of life

Empowering women is essential to the health and social development of countries. Women are a key contributor to the economy and producers of food. Throughout history, the central role of women in society has ensured the stability, progress, and long-term development of nations. Women remain a largely underutilized source of talent and labor. The more educated a woman is, the…

The need for Political Empowerment of Women

Once I read a quote that, there is no force more powerful than a women determined to rise. There is no doubt that mentally women are better than men. Being a woman, I was happy that Allah granted a woman more power than a man mentally, but unfortunately, girls in our country are not trained on these grounds so that…

Political Empowerment of Women

Women Empowerment refers to making women powerful to make them capable of deciding for themselves. Women have suffered a lot through the years at the hands of men. In earlier centuries, they were treated as almost non-existent. As if all the rights belonged to men even something as basic as voting. As the times evolved, women realized their power. There…

SHE (A Blessing)

Financial liability, burden, misfortune, tragedy and so on. These are the terms which people use when describing a woman in Pakistan. According to our society, a woman is merely born to do all the household chores and her aim is to be the best house wife. Don’t speak! You don’t have any right to question that why you are just…

Battling Through The Chaos, She Stood High And Won It All

The world has not been a happy place for many women out there but some still have been motivated to destroy the hurdles coming their way. Coming from a mediocre status, I have seen women settling for less and assuming it to be their destiny but in recent times, buds are blooming and one can expect the spring full of…

The possibility of Selective Activism

The status of women’s empowerment in Pakistan is alien to nobody and this has been reflected and continues to be reflected in the experiences and incidents that we see everyday- although this is an added debate that how many of them get reported and receive media traction and how many of them are hushed up. Recent motorway incident in Sep…

Women in Leadership Roles and Politics

A woman can be a great leader, run a business, be an entrepreneur, a politician, or choose the career of her own choice. There is a myth that needs to be smashed that women’s work is to only look after the homes and they don’t have any role other than doing home chores and serving the family. There is another…

Women in Leadership breaking stereotypes

When women do better, economies do better and ultimately countries do better. This can only happen when women are treated as equal to men in social, economic, and political terms. Women make up almost 50% of the complete population of Pakistan (48.8 percent) which implies that they are the genuine resource and strength of the country. In Pakistan, there are…

Women empowerment

In the modern era, continuing our ancestral life, we have suppressed women to a 4 walled prison which we call a house, this needs to change! As the technology of this world continues to grow, women are left behind as they are considered illiterate, which, in some places is correct, because women’s education is not given as much importance as men’s especially…

Women Leadership in the time of Covid: Breaking Stereotypes

Today’s business environment demands new ways of working and leading. An era like this demands emphatic leaders who are committed to communication, collaboration, and teamwork, focusing their attention on people. These skills have grown in importance in recent years, but the COVID-19 pandemic (along with the economic crisis and uncertainty it has caused around the world) has only highlighted their…

Women Leadership

A woman leading is often a pick up to one’s ear, ever wondered why? Women have brought powerful outcomes by the direction they have given as a leader and by the achievements they have brought worldwide. They have contributed enthusiastically to a variety of organizations and showed them the path of accomplishment. Women’s management involves nurturing and empathy which helps…

Social, Economic and Political Gender Inequalities

Even today, our society is based on the assumption that women are different from men in social positions. Laws, that give women rights, were not like men. People do not follow the principles of equality given to women by these laws because it is like a sentence written in law books. Society considers men strong and dominant and women weak.…

The way forward

It is a profound underlining truth, that women in Pakistan undergo subordination due to their sexuality. Since Pakistan is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideologies through which, men invariably dominate over the destiny and fate of women.  But it is to note, subjugation depends upon the region, class, rural/urban, and feudal system to which she belongs. Patriarchal culture is knitted in…

A change without women?

Various dominant groups have long been the creators of political elites. Scholars like Reynolds and Taylor-Robinson argue that women have usually assumed fewer positions in cabinets, and those they have been appointed to are mainly of “feminine characteristics and lower levels of prestige”. These scholars have drawn these conclusions based on historical analysis of cabinet formations. There are other scholars…

Women political agency at threat

I wonder how people used to say that women’s rights in the 21st Century will have an entirely new dimension. As it turns out; on a new level of inequality where women have assumed access and control over resources, have transformed to be on key positions, accelerated political movements, enhanced participation in the political process, yet the decision making remains…

Women in Politics

One field where the women’s movement has succeeded in Pakistan to a large extent is women’s political participation. Ayesha Khan’s perceptive book, ‘The Women’s Movement in Pakistan: Activism, Islam and Democracy’ (2018), deals with the larger woman question; however, we are going to focus on the women’s political participation aspects of it in order to have a focused debate. The…

Equality, Inclusion and Participation: Way forward to trans rights!

A visible number of the transgender community is to be seen in Pakistan. They come from all backgrounds of society, from a teenage kid to a 70-year-old person. They are a diverse community, representing all racial and ethnic backgrounds, as well as faith. Pakistan’s population of transgender people recorded in the sixth population and housing census in 2017 was 10,418.…

Women Representation in the Parliament

The Election Act (2017) forbidsany effort to hinder female participation in elections, nor as a voter or a candidate. The act also requires political parties to have a minimum of five percent of female candidates contesting in general elections for both national and provincial assemblies. In the 2018 elections, all mainstream national parties remained close to the minimum percentage, while…

Why does women’s empowerment matter?

Women’s empowerment is a complex and evolving concept that is constantly being defined and re-defined. It is said to be about women’s increased access to material resources such as land, money, credit and income, availability of decent employment opportunities that involve good working conditions, access to power through representation in political and decision- making bodies, the freedom to make choices…

Future is for Women!

  How many of us have ever thought through to run for an election campaign or run for the office? It is rare in the societies where democratic seats are gifted to the generations while political space shrinks for the women in general. This is not only because we have some people who would not allow aspirant women to enter…

Any Hope for Women?

An ex-colleague of mine asked me to write something on women in Pakistan and at that very moment, I found myself in a crossroads of thoughts about how and why women have been second class citizens in the world. So, the first thought that crossed my mind was ‘Women Suffrage’, which was about the voting rights of women in America.…

What COVID-19 reveals about gender inequality

There’s the pandemic you know about, and all too well. It’s rightfully crowding the headlines of your newspaper and occupying the minds of government leaders. It’s taking loved ones, imperiling heroes in scrubs, threatening neighbors at the cash register, and suddenly turning parents everywhere into teachers. Then, there’s the shadow pandemic, which is rapidly unraveling the limited, but precious progress…

Impact of COVID-19 on Women

March 2020 marked with the start of a global pandemic outbreak in Pakistan. In less than a month, COVID-19 led to the major economic recession, with potentially strong impacts on the livelihoods of vulnerable groups. In Pakistan, this pandemic further heightened the pre-existing gender inequalities. Almost half of the population of Pakistan is affected badly on the economic front, facing…

Women challenging the political stereotype in Pakistan

  “For me, a better democracy is a democracy where women do not only have the right to vote and to elect but to be elected.” Once said the Michelle Bachelet, current U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, former head of UN Women, and former president and defence minister of Chile. Women participation in legislative and political decision making has…

Women’s Electoral Participation – A Case Of Patriarchal Governance

Pakistan is blessed to have as many equally, if not more, talented intelligent and hard-working women as men. We have Oscar as well as a Noble prize-winning females in the country. We have Shiza Farhan, who added to the global recognition of Pakistani women’s talents by making it to Forbe’s list of 30 under 30 entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, when it comes…

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