Socio-Economic Well-Being and Women Status in Pakistan: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

This study has analyzed the effect of socioeconomic well-being on women's status in case of Pakistan. To overview the women's status in case of Pakistan, a comprehensive index is constructed by using social, economic and political status of women. This study follows the methodology of United Nations Development Program (UNDP) gender inequality index. Globalization, financial development, economic deprivation, secondary school enrollment and human development index have some selected explanatory variables, whereas gender inequality index (women's status) is dependent variable. The data has been used from the period of 1980 to 2014. Following the properties, differentiation of the data, Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF), Philips-Perron (PP) and Dickey-Fuller Generalized Least Squares (DF-GLS) unit root tests have been applied to check the stationarity of the variables. All variables have different order of integration, which support for Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) for observing the co-integration between the variables of the model. VECM model is used for short-run relationship of the variables. The findings of this study approve the presence of co-integration among the selected variables of the model. The results of the study illustrate that globalization has significant and negative long run relationship with women's status. This explains that by increasing the globalization the level of women's status is falling in Pakistan. The long run results reveal that economic deprivation is negatively related to gender inequality index which shows that by rising economic deprivation women's status also rise in Pakistan. The secondary school enrollment and human development index have a positive relation to the women's status, it explains by educating society and by increasing the human development the women's status can be improved. Economic deprivation has a significant and negative relationship with gender inequality index in Pakistan. This reveals that when level of economic deprivation decreases, more women join the labor force and this increase the overall women's status in case of Pakistan. The financial development has negative and insignificant relation to the gender inequality index. The study suggests that for attaining the desired level of women's status, Pakistan should improve its socioeconomic structure.