01 Women’s Education in Pakistan: Cultural Constraints & Social Challenges

Abstract

Women’s empowerment is a long awaited goal in Pakistan which cannot be accomplished without quality education. Women comprise more than half of the population in Pakistan. Ignoring their education not only deprives them of their basic right but also paralyzes the already staggering economy by increasing the number of dependent people. Nonetheless, the education policies given by different governments in different periods had potential to produce good results but they could hardly deliver. One of the major reasons for this failure was the social set-up that proved to be a serious challenge to attain a gender egalitarian society. This study highlights those social-economic and cultural challenges which the Pakistani women have been confronting for the last sixty-five years since independence. It concludes that the prime challenges to women’s education are our cultural values having stronghold especially in rural areas of Pakistan.