Women's Contribution in the Socio-Economic Development: A Case Study of District Peshawar

Abstract

This research study was conducted to know the women’s contribution in the socio-economic development. Women constitute a good half of our country’s total population. They make direct and indirect contribution to the national economy in several forms, but much of it goes unnoticed and unaccounted even it is neither adequately assessed nor evaluated. In fact, the aim of the study is to highlight the two categories of women i.e working women and house wives (paid/employed and un-paid/un-employed) who also contribute in the socio-economic development. So the main objectives of the research are: to study the general condition of socio-economic characteristics of the sample: to analyze the status of working women: and to find out women’s contribution in the process of socio-economic development of Pakistan in general and target areas in particular. In the light of these objectives three hypotheses were developed which are: The incidence of paid employment of urban women is higher than the rural women; Women make a significant contribution in the (paid and unpaid) national economy; and the participation and contribution of women has a positive impact on the socio-economic development of a country. Both primary and secondary data were used to achieve the objectives and to test/justify the hypotheses in the research. For this purpose, Peshawar district was selected as a research area. Further three urban areas that is Gulbahar, University Town and Hayatabad and three rural areas, Kacha Garhie, Palosai and Achinie were selected. The sample size (age between 20 -60 years) was 450 which comprised of 300 urban and 150 rural households. However, from each urban and rural area 100 and 50 sample size was chosen respectively. A questionnaire was developed, pre-tested, distributed and collected in the selected research areas. To analyze the data three models were developed and regression test was run. Based on the findings of the research it is deduced that majority of the female respondents were of age (20-30) years in urban and (31-40) years in the rural areas. In both areas majority of the respondents approximately 50% were married and having male head of the household (75.6% in urban and 83.4% in rural areas). In urban areas most of the respondents are post-graduated (39.7%) while 63.3% were educated from madrassa in rural areas. In both areas 57.3% in urban and 98% in rural areas respondents contributed below or equal to Rs.10,000 in the family’s total income. About 60% in both areas respondents feel satisfied with their life and in the same way 80.3% and 66% in urban and rural areas respectively feel that their living standard or status is improved as before. The result of regression analysis for the three models were that Model 1 for both urban and rural areas shows significant and positive effect on the status of working women in the district Peshawar except participation in decision making (in Gulbahar, Palosai and Achinie) and ability to cope up with the situation in risk and uncertainty (in Kacha Garahie) show negative relation with the status of working women. While participation in decision making (in all three rural areas) and ability to cope up with the situation in risk and uncertainty (in University Town, Hayatabad and Palosai) show insignificant results. Similarly Model 2 also shows positive and significant effect on working women‘s share in family’s total income. However, number of earning members of a family in all the three urban areas and two rural areas i.e. Kacha Garahie and Palosai relate negatively. Similarly education of the head of the house hold (in Gulbahar and University Town) and total hours of work in a day (in Palosia) also relate negatively with the working women’s share in family’s Total Income. The last Model 3 for selected urban and rural areas of research shows positive and significant effect on the house wive’s share in family’s total income. Except Family Organization (in Hayatabad, Gulbahar, Kacha Garahie and Palosia) and number of family member (in Achinie) which shows negative relation with house wives’ share in the family’s total income. As a whole majority of the results in all three models for urban and rural areas are significant at 0.01 level of significance and also the results of Durbin Watson test in these three models for both urban and rural areas showed no auto-correlation because the estimated values are found in the range of dL=1.73 and du=2.3 .The value of R2 and Adj.R2 are found more than 70% in all three models both for urban and rural areas, even it is near and equal to 90% in Model 1 for both urban and rural areas, also in Model 2 for rural areas, which show that there is a strong relation between the dependent variable and independent variables in all the three models so the three models are good fit. The result of F-Statistics also shows that all the three models for selected urban and rural areas is significant at 0.01 level of significance. It is found and concluded from the result of the current study that generally working women (employed) and especially house wives (unemployed) also make a significant contribution in the (paid and unpaid) national economy in the form of their share in the family’s total income while they have a direct and positive impact on the socio-economic development of a country like Pakistan. The rate of economic participation of these women can be substantially raised through the introduction of appropriate measures. For most among the recommendations which are based on the current study are that it is suggested government may allocate more resources or funds in budgets generally in urban and especially in rural areas for female education, increase in quotas for their jobs and create more opportunities for their businesses so that it will enhance their literacy rate, status in jobs and businesses which would make them more empowered and independent in a society. It is also recommended that more GO’s, NGO’s and other agencies like US Aid, should provide and extent their cooperation in regard of women of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (i.e Qarz e Hassna for education, more loans for businesses at subsidize or free of interest rate).