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Impact of Indigenous Culture on
women leadership in Pakistan
How does indigenous culture of Pakistan restricts
career progress and leadership abilities of females
of Pakistan
Master thesis
Author: Shafta Manzoor
Supervisor: Pr.Dr. Philippe
Daudi
Examiner: Pr.Dr.Björn Bjroke
Date: 15.05.2015
Subject: Business
Administration
Program:Leadership and
Management in International
Context
Level: Masters
Course code: EALM1
i
Abstract
Although the subject of female leadership is very well documented on international level,
Pakistan still lacks enough research in this area. This scarcity of research gave rise to a
commonly held belief that gender equality has been achieved in Pakistan which hides the
gender stereotypes and discrimination practices prevailing in the country.
Digging in the experiences of thirty working women this study examined the effect
indigenous culture of Pakistan had in shaping their life experiences as well as career
success. The study followed a qualitative research approach with phenomenological
theoretical framework. Fifteen females were interviewed from urban areas and fifteen
from rural areas to draw a holistic picture of the indigenous culture and underlying values
in Pakistan.
Females were interviewed on skype and data gathered was analysed using thematic
analysis approach. Interviews were taken in Urdu and transcriptions were prepared in
English to conduct analysis for the study. Findings of the study indicate that indigenous
culture strongly effects the career success of working women in Pakistan.
Indigenous culture brings mobility issues for women which restricts the possibility to get
better jobs at other places instead of their home town and it also restricts entrepreneurs to
the small cities they live in. Apart from social mobility, culture restricts the decision
making power of females which effects their self-recognition and vision development and
other skills necessary to become a better leader.
Females also face difficulty managing work and family life because of the uneven
domestic work burden on females and the concept that women is the caretaker of house
no matter how tough her job gets. Single females don’t face the problem of managing
house work and family life however they face issues such as social mobility, preference
of male colleagues over them because of their perceived short work life, lack of decision
making power and lack of self-confidence.
The participants were of the view that despite of all the challenges brought by culture,
they are still struggling for their career and fighting against the taboos put by culture.
The study indicates that there is a need to change the mind-set that female is a creature
who has to be agreeable and caretaker of family and who is responsible for saving
relationships. Although efforts have been done to give women equal rights in Pakistan,
these efforts will become more meaningful if general perception of society about women
and their role starts to change which will require awareness programmes and cooperation
from academic institutions and policy makers.
ii
Keywords
Indigenous culture
Female Leadership
Decision making power
Social immobility issues
Patriarchal Culture
Cultural taboos
Leadership skills
Role expectancy of females
Work and family life balance
iii
Thanks
“Glory to Lord who gave me courage to get the best out of my time in Sweden and stay
resilient despite of all the hardships I faced.
This study could never been possible without assistance of some important people.
I wish to express my heartiest gratitude to Linnaeus University which offered me
opportunity to study in such a competitive, multi-cultural and open environment full of
learning and motivation.
Special thanks to my supervisor, Associate professor Philippe Daudi who has not only
been a professional guider and invaluable advisor but a fatherly figure for me throughout
this programme and has taught me how to look at life from a different perspective. I
appreciate his efforts in me and all the trust he always puts in me as a student and the
potential he sees in me. He helped me hone my skills in the most effective way and
encourages me through the times I was about to give up and it is his constant struggle in
me that I am here today submitting this research successfully. ”
Special thanks to all authorities who reviewed my thesis during submission sessions and
gave me important feedback.
I am thankful to all the participants who are also my friends for sharing their valuable and
personal stories with me. I appreciate the fact that they trusted me enough to share all the
private and personal stuff with me which is not an easy job.
To my future husband Waleed and my family I am deeply indebted for all the support and
encouragement. Waleed, you have always trusted in me and told me I can make it and
this is one very reason that I am here today despite of all the hard times we have seen.
Thank you for always believing in me. My family, you have made sacrifices for me and
have always encouraged me to get the best out of my life. I am grateful for all the love,
care and for everything you have done to help me become who I am.
Special thanks to Philippe Daudi, My family and Waleed once again.
iv
Contents
1 INTRODUCTION __________________________________________________ 1 1.1 Leadership studies and Women: My inspiration _________________________ 1 1.2 Introduction _____________________________________________________ 3
1.3 Context of the study _______________________________________________ 5 1.4 Statistics of Pakistan ______________________________________________ 6 1.5 Statement of the study _____________________________________________ 8
1.6 Research questions ________________________________________________ 9 1.7 Significance of this study ___________________________________________ 9
2 LITERATUR REVIEW _____________________________________________ 11 2.1 Introduction to section ____________________________________________ 11 2.2 Literature study _________________________________________________ 12
2.2.1: Working women in Asia _______________________________________ 12
2.2.2: Indigenous Culture and its impact _______________________________ 13
2.2.3: Literature summary table ______________________________________ 29
2.3 Literature conclusion and deduction__________________________________ 38
2.4 Major concepts for this study _______________________________________ 38
3 RESEARCH DESIGN ______________________________________________ 40 3,1 Methodology ___________________________________________________ 40
3.1.1 Qualitative research __________________________________________ 40
3.1.2 Phenomenology ______________________________________________ 41
3.2 Research approach _______________________________________________ 42 3.2.1 Interviews __________________________________________________ 42
3.2.2 Validity and trustworthiness ____________________________________ 43
3.3 Data analysis strategy _____________________________________________ 45
3.4 Research Process ________________________________________________ 46 3.4.1 Thematic analysis ____________________________________________ 46
3.5 Research design _________________________________________________ 47
3.5.1 Research approach ___________________________________________ 48
3.5.2 Selecting the participants ______________________________________ 48
3.5.3 Conducting the interviews ______________________________________ 49
3.5.4 Preparing the transcripts ______________________________________ 50
3.6 Data analysis ___________________________________________________ 50
4 FINDINGS ________________________________________________________ 52 4.1 Introduction to the section _________________________________________ 52
4.2 Participants of the study ___________________________________________ 52 4.3 Theme of the study: Indigenous culture _______________________________ 58
4.3.1 Indigenous Culture and Decision making power _____________________ 58
4.3.2 Indigenous culture and Social immobility issues _____________________ 59
v
4.3.3 Indigenous culture and Role expectancy for females __________________ 60
4.3.4 Indigenous culture and Female Subordination ______________________ 61
4.3.5 Indigenous Culture and status of females __________________________ 62
4.3.6 Indigeous culture, Family and work life balance ____________________ 63
4.3.7 Indigenous culture’s effect on skills of females ______________________ 64
4.4 Summary ______________________________________________________ 67
5 DISCUSSION _____________________________________________________ 69 5.1 Introduction to the section _________________________________________ 69
5.1.1 Indigenous culture____________________________________________ 70
5.2 Summary ______________________________________________________ 75
6 CONCLUSION ____________________________________________________ 77 6.1 Introduction ____________________________________________________ 77 6.2 Recommendations _______________________________________________ 78
6.3 Limitations _____________________________________________________ 79 6.4 Future research implications _______________________________________ 79 6.5 Conclusion _____________________________________________________ 80
References__________________________________________________________ 81 Methodology literature _______________________________________________ 92
Appendices __________________________________________________________ I Appendix A Interview Sheet ___________________________________________ I
Appendix 2 Consent Form _____________________________________________II Appendix 3 Interview questions ________________________________________ III Appedix 4 Statistics of Pakistan ________________________________________ IV
1
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Leadership studies and Women: My inspiration
I was born in France and spent ten years of my early age in French culture. At the age of
eleven, I shifted to Pakistan with my family and this brought a new dimension to my life.
I lived in Pakistan for fourteen years and shifted to Sweden for my Masters in 2014.
Having experienced two different cultures, I have always had difficult times
understanding the role culture plays in our life and if that role works in our betterment.
Cultural shift I witnessed during my life often left me in chaos when it came to differing
practices in Pakistan and France. Gender discrimination is one such cultural shift I
witnessed in my life which left me upset sometimes.
I never believed in gender inequality in different nations until I started witnessing it
around. I grew up in a culture where females were treated equal to women, from doing
groceries to washing clothes and working females had the same opportunities as men and
they were as safe as any man walking down the street. Being in the culture of equal gender
opportunities, I assumed the whole world works this way but my perception didn’t remain
the same when I moved back to Pakistan in 2000.
My time in Pakistan became a life changing journey for me because of the culture I
witnessed and the gender inequality I saw in Pakistan. Although on Women’s day
television shows used to be full of females who were entrepreneurs, who achieved
something in life and statistics which showed how the country has overcome gender
discrimination and gives equal opportunities to females I used to wonder why the real
world is so different from the TV shows.
Although Pakistan passed equal women rights law in (1958) which ensures that females
get equal opportunities of employment as men do, I witnessed the inapplicability of this
law in Pakistan. However, truth is that females although are progressing in businesses and
making professional careers, they have to face many social taboos and cultural dogmas
throughout their career.
Everything we face in our life effects our consciousness and sometimes our
unconsciousness and defines our actions in short as well as long term as the great
Newton’s law says “every action has a reaction”. I witnessed the reaction in Pakistani
females in the form of either retaliation or a stubborn attitude towards their career where
2
they were ready to give up on everything for their dreams or a life of struggle for couple
of years and giving up later because they realized they cannot take the society anymore.
While I was doing my Bachelors from Lahore School of Economics which is one of the
best business schools in Pakistan and it had greater percentage of female teachers as
compared to male teachers, I felt the difference in my grooming as compared to my earlier
life. Seeing my teachers getting equal opportunities and being judged on basis of their
skills rather than gender, I felt attracted to the institution as a female and I dreamed of a
day when all the institutions in Pakistan will treat females the same way. However, this
is not easy because even if the evident cultural values change, females have to face glass
ceilings which are still ignored and strongly rooted in the culture.
The urge to work on female’s development increased in me when I got admitted in
Masters Programme in Sweden and had to face obstacles due to closed culture. I was
questioned by people if I was married, if an unmarried girl can travel this much for just a
master’s degree, if a girl needs this much of education in her life and this is the time when
I realized that our society takes the value of education different for girls and boys. For
boys, education is important to make their life but for girls education serves the purpose
of getting knowledge about the world, being able to communicate and that’s why females
are restricted to certain fields of education.
In Pakistan, females are associated to few professions and those who don’t adopt the
professions are not considered a “Marriage material” because they are assumed to be
spoiled girls. I faced this situation when I choose Business studies as my career and all of
a sudden I was the bad girl of my family, someone all kids were asked to refrain from.
However, I saw the other side of my parents who have lived a very religious yet liberal
life and they supported me throughout my life to accomplish my dreams.
I remember when people told me my religion restricts me from travelling abroad, I went
to my father who is a role model for me and asked him if that was the case and he was all
like “you know what kid, your religion emphasized on getting education and without
discriminating females from males. Your religion never had any saying which benefited
males over females, the things people say are culture, it’s not religion, it’s the closed
culture, and the one we have inherited being part of Asia.” He told me that in my religion
and in every true religion, females are equal to males and they are asked to rule their life
instead of sacrificing for others and choosing wrong over right for the sake of their family.
This is where I realized that culture plays a strong role in life of Asian people and in
everyone’s life and for us gender discrimination is a culture not religion.
3
Being part of two different communities and having witnessed different situations of
gender discrimination I feel my personal responsibility to conduct an in depth study on
why females are not given equal opportunities and how facing inequalities effects females
attitude towards their professional as well as personal life. As I have myself experienced
different events of gender discrimination, I feel I can unveil hidden aspects of gender
discrimination in Pakistan and compare it to countries with more equality like France,
Sweden and Finland.
As I have been part of international class in my Masters I had the chance to interact with
females from different cultures and I feel this experience will help me adding crisp to my
study. Being part of Pakistan for 14 years, I have witnessed that Pakistani Females are
capable enough and sometimes more capable and hardworking than males. However, the
cultural values and societal norms restrain them from progressing in different fields.
This study will uncover these hidden aspects and try to explain way to break the glass
ceilings faced by females and therefore will contribute to widening paths for female’s
development in Pakistan as well as other countries with almost similar culture like India,
China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Turkey etc.
1.2 Introduction
“Women, who make up half of society, suffer from discrimination and inequality in all
societies, especially in the developing world. They are disadvantaged, marginalised and
invisible in many aspects of life; and their poor representation in leadership positions is
one form of such discrimination.”
(Ngan Thi ,2011,Pg.2)
It won’t be wrong to say that females now days constitute half of the population of any
country and in most of the developing countries they face inequality and gender
discrimination. It’s not an exaggeration to say either that women have evolved to
contribute half of the potential human capital that can be availed in any economy founding
the basis for competitiveness. In such situation it is impossible to eliminate the
phenomena of gender parity because in the current competitive world one cannot afford
to leave any resource unutilized and women workforce is the very prominent one of them
(Tran, 2001).
President of World Bank Robert Zoellick pointed out that “the empowerment of women
is smart economics”. As Ambassador Verveer highlights, “[Women] are significantly
4
outnumbered in the chambers of parliaments, provincial councils, and more often than
not missing from the negotiating tables where conflicts are to be resolved. All too often
decisions that affect women, their families, and societies are made without women having
a voice”.
Despite of the societal and economic merits of non-partial employment of women in
organization and despite of the globalization bringing all the businesses to one economic
forum, it is generally evident that the enrolment of women in entrepreneurial activities
and upper level leadership hierarchy is deteriorated under influence of various social,
cultural and ethnic norms.
Studies suggest there is lesser number of female entrepreneurs in Asia or the less
developed countries of the world. Asian societies have male dominant culture where
females are disadvantaged, and are not allowed to participate in many aspects of life. Poor
representation of females in entrepreneurial positions and professional life is one form of
this discrimination.
Discrimination in Asian societies is a consequence of masculine culture which is based
on patriarchal ideology. Patriarchal ideology is defined by Chesney-Lind (2006) is an
ideology of “Seeing the world through men’s lens”. This ideology exists in the form of
class and gender privilege and it increases dominance of males because of their authority
and role as family owners and capital owners of the family.
Walby (1990) identifies six patriarchal structures which prevail in the society and effect
females of the society at personal as well as professional level. These levels are:
patriarchal mode of production, patriarchal relations in paid work, patriarchy relation in
the state, and male violence, patriarchal relation in sexuality and patriarchal relation in
cultural institutions including religions, media, and education.
Anita Weiss (2002) explains patriarchy as a system of social interaction between males
and females based on inequality and gender prejudices which are evident through male
violence and lesser economic opportunities for females of the society.
Patriarchy prevails in two forms, Classical which is total domination of women by man
and Bargaining which is more about cooperation and conflict between roles. Walby
(1990) describes this aspect as a system of social values and structure which brings male
domination, oppresses females and exploits their basic rights to take decisions and decide
their life.
Pakistan follows a system of classical patriarchy in which females are married at a very
early age, are made subordinate to their husband, his family especially the elder females
5
of the family and are rarely given any part in inheritance. Males earn and they spend,
females have no role in family except upbringing of children and husbands family.
All over the world, females are indulged in a continuous fight to get equal rights and
opportunities and be judged on the basis of their capabilities instead of gender. At the
same time, many researchers have been contributing to this effort of increasing gender
equality by digging deep in the topic and showing the hidden walls of the concept.
However, very little documentation has focused on indigenous culture and the underlying
beliefs of societies like Pakistan and the reason of existence of this culture.
This chapter provides an overview of the situation of females in Pakistan especially
working women.
1.3 Context of the study
Gender is one of the most important aspects of culture. The culture we follow determines
our understanding of different gender roles and presumed responsibilities. At the same
time, gender relations which are the way genders interact also play an important part in
shaping culture (Moller Okin, 2003).
In Patriarchal societies, women are treated as powerful symbols of Collective unity, have
to follow strict cultural codes and are not treated equal to men because they are dependent
on men for power and resources. Gender roles are traditionally defined, with females
being associated to reproductive and sexual capacity and this gives them inferior position
and no power to influence culture in any way. Therefore, patriarchal culture sustains male
power and their interests and maintains inequality and subordination in society (A Phillips
2003).
All over the world, struggles of women empowerment have gained importance since 1911
and it’s since the time that females have been fighting for equal rights and opportunities.
There has been constant effort by females and different women empowerment institutions
to help females get higher position in society and getting their abilities recognized.
One of the main resources females are using to empower themselves is by networking
and changing perception of other females and male members of the society. Being a topic
of great attention, female development has been researched for quite a while now and
most of the research has contributed to elimination of female discrimination from the
world.
6
Although efforts have been done to give females equal status, different regions across the
world have different levels of success in this regard.
The world has witnessed a very positive progress in European region where few countries
like Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden are the top ones with almost no gender
discrimination. While these countries have overcome the problem of female
empowerment, there are those at other extreme like Mali, Syria, Chad, Pakistan and
Yemen which are on lowest ranks of gender parity as per World Economic Forum’s report
(2014).
This being said, Pakistan has been ranked on the second last position (141 out of 142) in
gender parity and this is one of the major reasons I find ambitious to conduct this research.
Although in Pakistan, there are many organizations working on female development, few
have been able to solve the problem and bring significant difference to the situation.
Research conducted on this issue also focuses on the different conditions females have to
face in everyday life and how culture and society restricts their career progress. However,
there is very little research on the effect of culture on potential female leaders of tomorrow
and very little study is conducted on the effects current culture has on female leadership
skills and their view about life and career development.
This is why I feel the need to conduct an in depth study on the experience of different
female leaders, both in top positions and in middle positions and their effect on female’s
self-recognition and resilience towards achieving their goals. Through this study I aim at
uncovering the glass ceilings, also known as hidden, unknown forces (Hallinger &
Leithwood, 1998) currently faced by females of Pakistan and will examine their impact
on women’s perception about leadership and their behaviour towards career development.
1.4 Statistics of Pakistan
This section provides brief overview of Pakistan and current situation of gender parity in
the country, particularly in labour force.
Pakistan is a developed country in South Asia, with a population of more than 190 million
people it is the world’s sixth most populous country. Women make 52.3% of the total
population and most of them i.e. 71.5% of these are young ranging from 15-35 years age.
Figure 1 (Appendix 1) describes the current world economic forum statistics for Pakistan.
According to these statistics, Pakistan scores 0.552 in Gender Gap Index, Female labour
7
force participation rate is 39%, literacy rate of 0.63, 26% female presence in parliament
and 5 years of female leadership in state out of the last 50 years.
Apart from these significant figures, Pakistan occupies 141th position out of 142 in
female participation to economic development, 132nd in equal educational attainment,
119th in health and survival of females and 85 in political empowerment thus scoring a
total of 141 out of 142 countries which is very worrying and upsetting despite of the
efforts being done by institutions and foreign agencies like United Nations, World bank,
Asian development bank etc.
Pakistan accepted Benazir Bhutto as first female prime minister of Pakistan and 11th
prime minister of the country after independence in 1988. So far she is the only elected
female prime minister in Pakistan. Although females like Hina Rubani Khar, Reham
Khan, Shereen Mizare are members of different political parties, most of them joined
politics because of their family circumstances and because the male members either died
or were unable to fill the position (Roomi, 2010). Since 1945, the status of females in
Pakistan has varied considerably and although females today enjoy better status in
society, the situation of females is still “gender subordination”.
Pakistan follows patriarchal culture that is a culture where males are the “primary
authority figures” and females have to be the subordinates. Females are usually given the
“Reproductive role” only which means they are the mothers and wives and are supposed
to stay at home, take care of men and children.
The role of females as economic contributors has long been denied and this is why
females lack social as well as economic value and status. The tradition is to give male
members better education and equip them with skills necessary to compete in professional
life while female members are imparted the domestic skills which can help them play the
role of mother and wife better. In Pakistan, good woman is the one who is unselfish,
selfless, calm, tolerant to all violence, compromising and who is able to maintain and
sacrifice for her relationships.
Females of Pakistan are usually not allowed to have a say in one of the most important
decisions of their life such as marriage, education, career etc. Because of prevalence of
high gender role division, Pakistani females have to face the problems of limits
opportunities in job market, social mobility restrictions, cultural barriers and lack of
necessary education which restricts their progress in professional life.
Pakistani people according to Gallup Pakistan (2014) believe that females and males have
different role for society and females have to stay house wife throughout her life thus
8
prioritizing males in politics, employment, educated and other walks of life. This being
said, such closed culture affects females in a very negative way with most females
demotivated and unaware of their dreams and even if they are aware, most females don’t
feel the need to struggle enough to accomplish their goals.
Females in Pakistan grow up in closed cultural walls and glass ceilings which restrict their
progress and development of a successful career. Most of the females grow up with
dreams of becoming successful with their life, achieving high standard of education and
high positions in their career but they are restricted because of the cultural taboos.
Overtime, growing up facing all these restrictions females either give up on their dreams
and totally submit themselves to their families or they go against their relationships and
choose career over family.
1.5 Statement of the study
Females in Pakistan constitute more than half of the population, yet because of cultural
taboos and societal restrictions, they constitute only twenty five percent of the total labour
force of the country. This is an alarm that a massive amount of human resource in yet
untapped in Pakistan which is neither contributing to economic development nor helping
enhances the overall status of the society because of lack of education and necessary
grooming.
Pakistan is among few nations in which labour force participation (LFP) of females is
among the lowest in the world and is less than world average of 52% (Pakistan’s is 26 -
30%). In the same region as Pakistan, there are countries like China who has overcomes
this problem and their LFP is now as high as 67%. LFP denotes the total amount of female
working right now to the total amount of females who are capable of working and have
the necessary skills.
The ratio for Pakistan denotes that females are capable of working, yet they are unable to
and that is primarily because of cultural and societal barriers they have to face. Apart
from labour force participation problem, inequality also exists in the form of access to
education, financial resources and entrepreneurial opportunities where females are unable
to raise capital for their entrepreneurial ventures because their business plans are not
“Taken seriously” by most of banks and therefore they have to raise capital on their own,
from their family and sometimes start up at a very small scale because of capital raising
issues.
9
Even though more and more females are part of higher education, there is no guarantee
that these females will become part of the main stream because most of them get married
at an early age and are not allowed to join professional life and this increases the education
and employment gap. It is clear by now that females of Pakistan don’t lack necessary
education and abilities to work rather the major thing which restricts them are the “unseen
barriers from society and prevalent gender discrimination in labour market”.
The purpose of this study is therefore to explore the conditions faced by females of
Pakistan which restrict their contribution to Labour force participation. This study will
focus on cultural conditions specifically including societal norms and values and their
impact on female evolution as females. Culture is chosen because culture covers all the
day to day beliefs, norms, hidden values and practices which shape our lives and in
Pakistan “Closed culture” is one of the major barriers to development of females in
professional life as leaders and successful managers.
This study will rely on different female stories and see how their culture and underlying
glass ceilings have affected their personality and their struggle against cultural barriers.
Bennis (2011) highlights that leader needs to possess a vision, be able to convey that
vision to fight with resilience and patience. Through this study, I aim to explore how
cultural barriers faced by females have effected their leadership skills; development of
vision, self-recognition, self-confidence and resilience towards their vision.
1.6 Research questions
To unveil the objectives discussed above, following research questions will be addressed
through this study.
1. What are general norms in indigenous culture of Pakistan?
2. How does indigenous culture effects career success of Pakistani women?
1.7 Significance of this study
This study is conducted on the female leaders of Pakistan with a focus on the constraints
they face during their development as leaders. Looking through the lens of a country
where 52.3% are females and most of them i.e. 71.5% of these are young ranging from
15-35 years age, I find this research a glimpse of a future where females should be treated
10
equal in professional life as they can turn into a future human capital that can’t be
neglected.
I expect this study to be a good contribution towards the current efforts of bringing gender
equality in the countries with highest ratio of gender inequality by providing a clear
current picture of female leadership situation.
Firstly this research will be useful for different institutional authorities currently working
all over the world to help females fight with gender discrimination. This study will help
the authorities understand the “glass ceilings” that females encounter and which are
invisible from above.
Secondly, this study will help future researchers conducting research on Asia and
especially countries with high gender inequality. This study will help them explore the
underlying barriers which females face and what steps need to be taken to change the
mind-set of people in these countries in order to be successful in bringing gender equality.
This study will be very useful contribution because so far, literature on condition of
Pakistani females is very less and therefore this literature will be an addition to the country
specific research.
Lastly, this study will help the young, bright females by increasing their awareness of real
issue they have to fight for and help them get inspired of the females around them who
faced similar barriers yet they were successful in achieving their goals.
11
2 LITERATUR REVIEW
2.1 Introduction to section
Times have come when women have started to proliferate in almost every kind of
business occupation from entrepreneurship to management and leadership jobs and that
too in almost every sector of business. This proliferation has increased researchers interest
in studying various aspects of women leadership and work life from their leadership styles
to employee satisfaction, work life balance and challenges faced by females to evolve in
societies used to see men at top positions.
There are authors who have studied leadership styles of females intensively (Eagly &
Schmidt, 2001; Hall, 1996; Grogan & Brunner, 2005; Morris, Low & Coleman, 1999)
and others who have focused more attention on the experience of females as leaders and
response of society towards them (Acker & Feuerverger,1996; Cooper & Strachan, 2006;
Court, 1997; Davis & Johansson, 2005; Lyman, Athanasoula-Reppa & Lazaridou, 2009;
Neville, 1988; Strachan et al., 2010).
There are still other growing number of researches which have focused on studying the
barriers women face in accessing higher leadership positions at work (Brown, 1997;
Cubillo & Brown, 2003; Shakeshaft, 1987; Weyer, 2007; White, 2003). These thematic
studies however doesn’t fully encompass all the issues on women leadership and leave a
room for more insight and study in this area. This section summarizes the past literature
consulted so far for this study.
Literature studied for this research is used for two purposes: First is to dig deep in the
theory on the particular issue being studied in this research that is effect of culture of
development of female business leaders. Secondly the methodologies of all the studies
consulted gives a background to develop methodology for this research.
Literature consulted for this research paints a picture of current situation of females in
Asian countries especially Pakistan. Along with current situation of females in Pakistan,
this literature constructs the variables existent that lead to the current situation and helps
dig deeper in those variables. The variables extracted from this literature are digged
further in the methodology section.
12
2.2 Literature study
2.2.1: Working women in Asia
Significant efforts have been done so far to explain why females are left behind in
different leadership positions and most of the studies conducted till date mostly focus on
the barriers faced by females in accessing leadership and climbing the ladder of higher
position in organizations. These barriers are identified as either internal/external
(Brown, 1997; Sperandio & Kagoda, 2008), or vertical/horizontal (Weyer, 2007) or
cultural and societal (Norris & Ingleghart, 2000) and they are believed to impact females
leadership skills development in positive as well as negative ways (Pounder & Coleman,
2002).
Among these barriers, culture is believed to be the most important once because culture
shapes life of people, their beliefs, the system and structure of a society which impacts
female development in personal as well as professional life (Shakeshaft, 1987).
Along with culture, another important dimension which affects the proportion of females
in higher levels of hierarchy is their approach towards life. Tate and Yang (2014) argue
that payroll plays great role on employee’s motivation and therefore it is very important
to make sure employees feel they are getting the right amount of payment.
However in Asia, females are not only very less in number in upper levels of corporate
hierarchy but they receive 22% lower wage as compared to their fellow men. Evidence
also shows that organizations in which females are on top positions have less discrepancy
in wages and have more equity in payroll of new members as well.
Tate and Yang (2014) believe that part of the reason for this discrepancy is the assumption
of employers that “Nature of females” is different from males and “their way of doing
things is different” too therefore restricting them to only few managerial positions which
are not very well paid. Also, females have a very short work life in Asia with most of the
females working either at the age of 20’s or after 50’s. In between these two ages, females
mostly stay at home and look after their family.
This shorter expected work life of females makes companies in these countries reluctant
to invest capital in their training and skill building. Also a general believe in Asian
countries is that females need flexible hours at work because of uneven distribution of
family burden and they avoid risk due to their upbringing of protection and safety. Males
on the other hand prefer to take risks and therefore they occupy higher positions and are
13
more in number in risky industries such as investment banking as compared to females.
These habits of females are because of their upbringing which shapes them in a way that
they are significantly different from males and are not given higher positions in
corporations.
2.2.2: Indigenous Culture and its impact
Culture comprises of the different beliefs people from a particular community hold which
shapes their behaviour and approach towards life. Liu (2014) in her research studies the
impact of Chinese culture on perception as well as behaviour of females of the society
and determines how the perception restricts or helps in their journey at work place.
Global economic downturn in the recent years has brought a significant increase in
number of females at top management positions across various countries. In an attempt
to inspire and encourage females of China to contribute in economic development,
Chinese government started “Mulan in business” since 2009 awards which give 30
awards to female entrepreneurs. This effort was introduced keeping Mulan as a role
model who was a legendary heroine from 5th century and fought for twenty years in army.
Although this initiated many new women entrepreneurs in China who contributed
significantly to the economic development, women managers are still facing many
barriers which hold them from reaching higher levels of hierarchy.
The authors highlight that there are three barriers to female success; the concrete wall,
glass ceiling and labyrinth. Concrete wall consists of the explicit rules in society which
restricts female actions such as their participation in various industries and working hours.
Glass ceiling on the other hand includes all the invisible barriers which cannot be seen
from the society’s eyes but are prevalent largely and restrict female’s access to top
management levels. Third barrier is labyrinth which consists of the reasons glass ceilings
exist strongly in the society. These barriers exist in Social, Organizational as well as
individual context.
In social context, they take the form of gender role stereotypes such as assuming that
females cannot work for long hours, they cannot work in manufacturing industries etc.
Social norms and stereotypes affect the way organizations operate and therefore have
significant impact on organization’s culture. In China, because of female stereotypes,
male dominant organizational culture exists where HR practices are mostly in male’s
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hands and females are not seen as suitable for leadership in organizations thus not been
given the chance to excel in high levels of management.
Organizational culture shapes the way individuals thinks of themselves as well as their
surroundings and has an impact on their actions. In male dominant cultures, females face
inequality which demotivates them when it comes to career development and reduces
their efforts to become successful.
Females from these countries feel themselves as weak creatures that have to obey and
take care of their family and therefore they perceive themselves as care takers not bread
earners. This decreases their efforts to have a successful career and usually females who
are working in companies retire at an early age.
Therefore, In China and Asia, the prevalence of concrete male dominancy walls keeps
females from emerging to top levels of management and leading the companies. Although
government has been making efforts to encourage entrepreneurship in females of China,
the underlying “individual perception” designed because of male dominance keeps them
from availing the opportunities they are being given.
Another important addition to the current literature is the study conducted by Chou et al
(2005) on Taiwan and how Taiwanese culture puts glass ceiling on emerging female
leaders. Taiwan is a country which has undergone significant changes in women right
during 2001 when the country approved Gender equality in Employment Law. This law
aims at ensuring equal opportunities at work for both males and females to increase
women ratio in labour force and their positions in top management. However since its
approval this law has been criticized by society as well as employers who don’t consider
it while recruiting people at their companies.
In Taiwan, female’s role is still seen as family care takers and they are allowed to work
only when there is a need to supplement family income. As females are the family care
takers, single females are not preferred for job because employers think they will get
married and leave the job while for married females the perception is that they would not
be loyal to the organization because of being occupied in family care and upbringing.
Another important aspect is the restriction of females to few sectors such as food,
education, nursing, consulting etc. According to the researcher, in Taiwan, as per 2002,
number of male managers was 361951 while that of female managers was only 69399
and these were also restricted to few sectors and didn’t occupy positions in agriculture,
manufacturing and engineering sectors. Authors interviewed 14 female managers in
15
Taiwan and asked them about the opportunity to climb management hierarchy in their
organizations.
All the females were of the view that there has always been existence of an invisible
ceiling culturally and socially which prevents them from succeeding and achieving their
goals. Also, because of these ceilings female face hard time proving their abilities at job
and therefore they have to be more obedient and agreeable to their bosses which affects
their self-leadership as well as motivation.
Overtime, females get the feeling of being used and therefore they usually resign from
the job. The females of Taiwan also believed that ceiling exists in few sectors more than
other. For example, in Hotel industry there are fewer ceilings for females as compared to
automobile industry. Interviewees believe that Taiwanese cultural values play strong role
in female subordination and restriction to become successful in professional life. They
believe the culture plays big role in bringing family and Work conflict which has strong
impact on women’s career patterns and females usually are left with low level of career
ambitions.
Culture assigns role to females and the ones who try to overcome the barriers and excel
in their career usually face number of difficulties and 80% give up due to the difficult
times and tensions of family and work. Females are assumed to be the relationship
builders and savers, therefore they are expected to make sacrifices to keep the relationship
stronger and most of the times the sacrifice is of their work and career.
In another research, Wirth (2001) highlights that gender gap in countries increases as
females start to progress through management levels. Females in the lower levels of
management are more likely to face less gender gap as compared to those moving in
higher levels of hierarchy. Women have to face invisible bars which keep them from
climbing higher levels of management in organizations and very less females try to fight
against these glass ceilings.
In Pakistan, the share of females in upper level management showed a slight increase of
only 2% from 1988 till 1995 which is very less as compared to European countries for
example Norway which should 30% increase and Republic of Korea which showed 40%
increase in female managers.
The reason for this small increase in Pakistan is according to author because of presence
of strict glass ceilings in the form of norms and values which restrict the activities of
females and restricts their journey in managerial positions. One of the major barriers to
female appointment at managerial roles is the lack of sufficient education and skills. In
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Asian countries, girls are usually preferred to take certain areas of education and business
studies are considered more of boy’s subject.
Since 1994, however the ratio of female students in business studies has started increasing
but still the taboo of “Girls don’t need to work” exists in Pakistan. In Pakistan, role of
boys and girls are divided at an early age; females are given the role of family care takers
and therefore they study the courses which bring empathy, patience and skills related to
house work in them while boys are more interested in business studies and professional
life development. Although females represent 40% of labour force in many countries they
still occupy 20% of top management positions in these countries.
Even in multinationals, females make only 2% of top managerial positions. One of the
reason of this low percentage is the disproportionate division of family roles where
females are given strict child care roles and therefore they cannot give as much time to
managerial work as it demands. Females usually have to leave early because their kids
are home and therefore they are considered not suitable for managerial jobs because
managerial jobs demand long hours stay at office.
Females are restricted to work for long hours, travel to far places and relocate their
resources. The research highlights that females usually get so stressed by work and family
balance that they give up on their work and they don’t show motivation to reach top
positions which is why more men can be seen in these positions as compared to women.
I find the study conducted by M Azam Roomi & Guy Parrott (2008) very useful for my
research because the authors cover the real barriers faced currently by females of Pakistan
both invisible and visible ones. According to the authors, one of the reason females lack
in top management positions is because they are not encouraged enough because of
prevalence of a number of “Deeply rooted discriminatory social and cultural values as
well as traditions”.
In Pakistan, females have to face social and familial control and are therefore not allowed
to take decisions on their own. Most of the females accept decisions made by others for
them. Females have to accept the societal norm of being dependent on males
economically.
Females are given the impression that males are their controllers and owners of their fate
therefore they have to accept their rules as well as decisions. Males prefer to be the bread
earners and therefore don’t like females to work and have a contribution in family income
because it’s considered “Being coward” and “eating your wife’s money”.
17
Females also face restrictions on their mobility and they are not allowed to move freely
and travel freely without any male member. In bigger cities of Pakistan, the trend is
changing, however staying out for long hours is still considered a social taboo and females
who don’t stay at home for long hours are culturally unacceptable.
Mobility problem determines the differential access that males and females have to
education as well as other services which are necessary to build a managerial career.
Roomi points out the presence of strong patriarchal culture in Pakistan which brings the
norm of “Systemic subordination” and the belief that females are Izzat “Honor” of the
family and therefore they have to stay at home so family doesn’t have to face anything
disrespectful because of them. In Pakistan, Pardah “Veil” is used to secularize females
from certain roles, to keep them at home, within the family and restrict their social
activities which are the reason why females are very less at managerial positions.
Because of the restricted society and culture, female’s mind-set about life changes and
their interests become highly family oriented. Females accept the fact that they are to be
blamed for everything wrong that happens to their family and they are made to sacrifice
their wishes and career for family and husband. This underlying though affects female
leadership and entrepreneurial ventures in Pakistan.
Most of the entrepreneurs and females in managerial positions occupy the position
because of some unforeseen event such as death of their family breeder and earner which
leaves the responsibility on them.
As they are compelled by circumstances to occupy a certain position females are usually
not motivated enough to bring creativity and diversity in their business and therefore
restrict it to the amount of growth which gives them sufficient money to carry family’s
living. Therefore, in the study Roomi and Parrott (2008) highlight social mobility issues,
cultural norms, given roles and structurally enforced inferior status of females as the
barriers to evolution of female leaders in various sectors.
Valerie Keller (2012) writes that females are usually outnumbered in parliament
chambers, councils and they are more often than not missing from negotiating tables.
More important is the fact that in everyday life, often the decisions that affect women,
their life are made by society and culture without females having a voice.
In another study Saadia & Klaus (2009) found out after a survey on 600 employees that
in females are concentrated in entry or middle level positions and are very less in number
in the higher leadership positions. The authors highlighted few barriers to leadership of
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females being culture and norms of the particular country, lack of role models, lack of
political voice of females and roles assumed by society.
According to Runcan & Ielics (2012), since 2010 there has been significant increase in
number of women occupying leadership positions in Romania. In Romania, only one third
of the active and newly created firms had females in their management teams in 2010.
Although the country is improving and measures are being taken to ensure gender
equality, there is strong evidence that female managers are discriminated against male
managers and have to face many difficulties associated to assumed gender roles created
by society.
Authors tried to compile a profile of successful female managers in Romania to observe
obstacles faced by these females and how they overcame those obstacles during their
career. According to the researchers, females struggling to reach top positions have to
face greater number of challenged because they have to prove constantly that they are
more capable as compared to the male counterparts. Females have to prove to their family
that they can manage both family and work and have to prove to employers that they can
work late hours and ensure effectiveness at work.
Due to this constant struggle, females mostly appear in management positions at an age
from 45-60 years when their kids are usually grownups and have their own life and their
husbands have a stable job. Females choose to work only because they are bored at home
and therefore they need a life and the best way is to join an organization. Many females
give up after years of effort because of the cultural difficulties such as assumption that
they are emotional as leaders and are unable to take rational decisions.
Also many females don’t have anyone to look up to as a role model and all they see is
suffering struggling females around them who have broken relationships or are tired of
their life which keeps them demotivated to join profession of their choice.
Females in Romania have tried to struggle through adopting mentors, appealing to
personal relations and overcoming the cultural obstacles as much as they can. Authors
conducted research on 1500 subjects who were interviewed to study the necessary
characteristics they have. The study reported that females have most of the characteristics
which they are blamed of not having.
Most of the females had excellent professionalism, self-confidence, communication
skills, and diplomacy and negotiation skills while a few had empathy which they are
blamed to highly possess. Therefore, the study concluded that the fault is not in female
managers, It is in the fact that "women managers have to adapt in the world of male
19
managers, therefore, we can say we are dealing with a tendency of women managers
becoming more masculine in order to achieve success in their chosen career".
Cheung, F. M., & Halpern, D. F. (2010) write that it is for the first time since 2000 in
American history that females are surpassing the number of males in workforce. The
reason however is not that females are more in jobs but it is because in recent recession,
most jobs were lost in manufacturing, engineering and fields where males were employed.
The number of females in middle management is increasing to great extent however the
bad news is that only few females make it to higher levels of management including CEO,
CFO, CMO etc. and higher political positions.
In US, females make 49% of workforce however 2% of females are in fortune list which
shows how males surpass females in higher positions. Although males and females have
almost similar style of leadership, Eagly and Carli (2007) observe that females are more
Collaborative, Democratic and use Participative style of leadership.
Females have a high sense of conviction and self-worth and they use family roles as
metaphors in their leadership thus keeping their feminist role in leadership. Most of the
females in China and Asia believe in leading as “grandmothers” and “mothers”. For most
of the females, leadership is all about “being serious about their work, maintaining the
highest personal standards, promoting communication, and being considerate and
respectful of their staffs” and Asians consider leader to be someone who acts as a role
model for others.
In females leaders of Asian culture, competition and power rarely mean anything.
Therefore, Asian female’s leadership style can be defined as “transformational
leadership” which is “engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise
one another to higher levels of motivation and morality” (Burns 1978, p. 20).
Most of the females climb their career by hard work and working smart and they usually
don’t have big dreams of achievement which is why they usually restrict themselves to
be small sized entrepreneurs or lead small companies. One of the most important thing
which helped females emerge as leaders was their higher education as compared to other
females of their age.
These females had to face social barriers however they kept fighting and therefore they
had to work hard for their education and skill development and at the same time they had
to fight with their societal values and cultural norms. Female’s development as leaders
and their leadership skills also depends upon their cultural context (Avolio, 2007).
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Females in individualistic society grow up as free, independent and the only responsibility
they hold is towards their immediate family which includes their spouse and children.
And there are collective cultures like Asia which are based on collectivism. In these
cultures, females have to follow extended family concept and they are supposed to stay
loyal to their family and this is why they have to sacrifice their aims for their family. This
is why most females don’t strive for high positions and bigger businesses instead they
struggle enough to make a living of their own. Cultural settings therefore affect self-
esteem and self-efficacy of females, their level of motivation and definition of successful
business.
Albertyn (2009) explain the situation of patriarchal culture in South Africa and its effects
on female empowerment. According to the author, in South Africa and similar countries,
although laws of equality have already been passed to secure equal rights of females, yet
these laws are not applicable in public and private life. Males have power over most of
the land, property and community despite of equal property rights. Culture is a positive
recognition and helps in making sense of the world by raising important questions about
nature of and relationship between our norms and practices.
Culture shapes the way we treat people around us which builds their view point about
life. In South Africa and most Asian societies, there is prevalence of patriarchal culture
in which females are defined in terms of their reproductive and sexual role and they are
seen as objects and status symbol for men, instead of equal human beings with equal
rights and dignity.
Although democracy prevails in these societies and their constitution is based on equal
women rights and equality of gender, these aspects of constitution are overlooked and
hardly followed because of prevalence of strict male dominant society which doesn’t
allow authorities to interfere between a male and female’s relationship. Culture is defined
as the particular way of life of people which encompasses the values these people hold.
Culture is given high importance and is embedded in people of a particular group; it is a
way of making sense of the world, a frame of reference for people of particular group.
Chandra Mohanty (1991) believes that women in third world are not agents of their own
destiny but they are victims, their destiny is pre-decided by their family members and
they are not allowed to refuse the decisions taken for them. Females in third world are
considered domestic, victimized, tradition bound, poor, ignorant and family oriented and
they are supposed to be agreeable to the norms and values already prevailing in society.
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Authors of the research examine “Women movements” in third world countries and their
impact on female development and betterment in these countries. The way females are
treated changes their view about themselves, their needs, desires which affects their
identity as an individual and their approach towards life. Despite many women
movements trying to fight for women rights in third world, females in the third world
countries are still deprived of their rights to make their own decisions, decide their life,
choose the career they want and build a vision.
Another research (M Azam Roomi & Guy Parrott, 2008) examines effects of patriarchal
culture of Pakistan on female’s domestic life as well as work life. The study starts with
a general introduction of the term patriarchy and describes purpose of the research which
is to demonstrate societal values and culture of Pakistan and its effects on female
subordination and male superiority in the country.
Moving on author introduces the term patriarchy by using different literature from past
researches. This study analyses the experiences of inequality and discrimination that most
Pakistani women face within the household and society as a result of unequal gender
power relations. In South Asian societies, of which Pakistan is part, there are different
social controls applied to control women’s social and economic behaviour at every level
of society.
A central and systematic form of control is patriarchy, which, as argued in this study, is
the main cause of women’s subordination. With regard to women’s position and status in
Pakistani society, women still find themselves struggling to be treated as gender equals.
Despite the acknowledgement of women’s productive potential and their different
economic roles, Pakistani women still face seclusion and exclusion due to socio-cultural
norms based on patriarchy which deny them access to the benefits of development.
Therefore, the analysis of patriarchy and its repercussions on the various aspects of
women’s lives informs the analysis of the study.
Female labour force participation is highest in Barani areas because males in these areas
don’t like to work, they usually stay at home beat their females and females have to do
most of the work. In these areas, patriarchy prevails in male dominance, violence towards
females and their justification to treat females the way they want however it doesn’t affect
the labour force participation of females. Therefore patriarchy as a whole prevails in
Pakistani culture; however it takes different forms depending on the type of male
dominance.
22
In Pakistan, age of female also affects her mobility and access to work. Older females are
free to go out, work and they can have access to rights which most of males enjoy while
younger ladies are prohibited from going out and are not allowed to participate in labour
force. Vlassoff: 1992, Caldwell et al: 1982 cited in Sathar and Kazi: 2000. Structure of
family also affects the access of females to liberty and their equal status, females in
nuclear families are freer while those living in collectivist societies are restricted and not
allowed to take their decisions.
Lim 1997 points out that societal relations and patriarchal institutions are entirely
responsible for secondary and inferior status of females in countries. Patriarchy is seen as
class and race privilege not just gender privilege (Chesney-Lind: 2006).
Rosaldo (1974) describes female’s subordination as a historical phenomenon. Since old
times, female inferiority has been prominent in the societies where there is a clear split
between private and public life and where females are restricted to house.
Boserup (1970) believes that females used to be discriminated in agricultural societies
where males used to do all the land plowing work while females were allowed to do
plucking and cleaning work only. In societies like Pakistan, women lacks education and
training which effects their skills development and also creates a hierarchy of male
dominance because females are not considered capable enough to occupy certain
positions in the work force.
Walby (1990) identifies six patriarchal structures which prevail in the society and effect
females of the society at personal as well as professional level. These levels are:
patriarchal mode of production, patriarchal relations in paid work, patriarchy relation in
the state, and male violence, patriarchal relation in sexuality and patriarchal relation in
cultural institutions including religions, media, and education.
Anita Weiss (2002) explains patriarchy as a system of social interaction between males
and females based on inequality and gender prejudices which are evident through male
violence and lesser economic opportunities for females of the society. Patriarchy prevails
in two forms, Classical which is total domination of women by man and Bargaining which
is more about cooperation and conflict between roles.
Walby (1990) describes this aspect as a system of social values and structure which brings
male domination, oppresses females and exploits their basic rights to take decisions and
decide their life. Pakistan follows a system of classical patriarchy in which females are
married at a very early age, are made subordinate to their husband, his family especially
the elder females of the family and are rarely given any part in inheritance. Males earn
23
and they spend, females have no role in family except upbringing of children and
husbands family.
Levent et al, 2003) through their research investigated the phenomenon of ethnic female
entrepreneurship in urban economic life. The focus of the research is on the attitude and
behaviour of Turkish female entrepreneurs in Amsterdam. The main fascinating question
is: Are ethnic female entrepreneurs’ special ethnic entrepreneurs or special female
entrepreneurs? This paper provides an answer to this question on the basis of field
surveys.
The results of the case study research on Turkish female entrepreneurs in Amsterdam
show that the “ethnic female profile” is a “special female profile” and those Turkish
female entrepreneurs are “special female entrepreneurs”, particularly in terms of personal
and business characteristics, driving forces and motivations. They appear to combine their
ethnic opportunities with their personal characteristics (and other opportunities) in the
urban market, and to have a successful performance. This is also caused by the fact that
they have become service providers not only for their own ethnic groups, but also for
other groups in the city.
In another study conducted by Xavier Giné, Ghazala Mansuri (2014), the authors argue
that almost 40 % female entrepreneurs in Asia report that their (male) spouses hold the
responsibility to take the major business decisions from joint ventures to budgeting,
marketing activities and planning etc. Women are only allowed to be involved in minor
decisions and they spend less time in managerial decisions than their male counterparts.
Females perform the informal work which is not major to the company and therefore they
usually are not employed full time, but are usually employed part time.
The reason for low decision making power of females is the culture of Asia which
promotes female subordination and submission to males. The culture emphasizes that
females are owned by males and therefore they should not be on main stream rather they
should stay in easy work because they cannot do main stream work. Males ensure that
their female subordinates are not praised more than them and don’t get higher wages than
them because of closed culture in these countries. Males are reluctant to let females make
decisions and come on main stream because they try to make sure their power is not
divided with another gender.
According to Gelfand and her colleagues, cultural tightness comprises of two key
components. The first aspect deals with the extent to which norms within societies are
clear and pervasive – the second concerns the strength of sanctioning (i.e., how much
24
tolerance societies have for deviance from commonly held norms; Gelfand et al., 2006).
Tight cultures are “rigid in requiring that in group members behaves according to in group
norms” (Triandis, 1989: 511).
Norms are clear and reliably imposed with severe sanctions administered to those who
deviate. Loose cultures, on the other hand, have unclear norms, and are more tolerant of
deviance from the norms (Triandis, 1989). Out of the 33 countries studied by Gelfand and
her colleagues, Pakistan, Malaysia, Norway, and Japan score high on tightness, whereas
Ukraine, Israel, Netherlands, and Australia score low (Gelfand et al., 2011). Countries
with cultural tightness believe that leadership is masculine because they believe that
leaders should be physically strong to lead and therefore they usually have greater number
of male leaders.
In tight cultures, men and women continue to view masculinity more than femininity as
leader-like. In tight cultures, men and women are likely to share the view that effective
leaders are men, causing men to less likely elect women as leaders and women less willing
to take on leadership positions in organizations (e.g., Japan, China, and Malaysia).
Consequently, women are less likely to emerge as leaders in tight cultures.
Elmuti, Jia and Davis (2009) emphasize the face that females are not able to get enough
representation and this can be justified by the fact that females contribute 1.8% of the
total CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Authors believe that female presence in different
business sectors is gender specific. Females usually choose specific fields of education
which effects their presence in different business sectors.
The reason for the low representation identified by this research are the existing glass
ceilings which as defined by the research are “The glass ceiling effect is defined as an
unofficial barrier to opportunities within an organization or company preventing a
protected classes of workers, particularly women, from advancing to higher positions
(Glass Cliff, 2008; Olin, et al., 2000).” Glass ceilings act as a societal blocker which
effects organizational culture and brings organizational barriers to female progress in
different managerial positions.
Another research conducted by Claudia Peus, Susanne Braun and Kristin Knipfer (2013)
is very useful to build frame of reference for this study as it categorizes barriers faced by
female managers at four levels and identifies gender stereotypes faced by females at each
level. The categories these authors have developed help reader see the real picture clearly
and identify glass ceilings which have not been identified in many researches. Identifying
25
the current barriers as well as stereotypes regarding female participation in management,
the study draws a comparison between America and Asia.
According to authors, females face specific conditions which sometimes act in their
benefit and other times act as barriers to become successful managers. These conditions
appear in four categories; Individual level which is the female’s personality, her aims,
vision etc. Interpersonal level which is relationship with peers, subordinates,
organizational level which is where organizational policies play its part and social level
which is where society comes and plays its role.
In a nutshell, society is the outermost circle which influences all the circles inside and
therefore glass ceilings appear from females in conservative societies such as India,
China, Pakistan etc. Gender stereotypes start at the level of society which is the biggest
level and build their roots at every proceeding level. According to the authors, Gender
stereotypes are “Attributes about females and males which prevail in a particular society
and are composed of both descriptive and prescriptive components thus determining how
different genders are and how they should behave.”
Stereotypes play more positive role for males in Asian societies because all the attributes
and skills needed to be a successful manager and leader are associated to male personality.
Therefore females are believed not to possess enough qualities to be appointed at higher
position of management. Authors conducted a qualitative study because they believe
quantitative study was not able to capture true picture of reality.
The study was conducted on 76 female leaders across three countries India, China and
Singapore. After interviewing 76 females, authors conducted cross cultural inductive
analysis of the data collected and concluded that females in Asia don’t encounter quite
different values and problems at work as compared to females is US. Difference mainly
lies in their leadership style, definition of themselves and their interpersonal skills
however at organizational and social level, females faced almost the same challenges.
The study also concluded that females of India and China are more similar to each other
as compared to females of Singapore and US. The reason is high social awareness and
cultural similarity is these countries. According to the study, barriers emerge at two major
levels:
Personal level and societal level and according to most of the interviewees personal
determination is very important to overcome barriers at social level. If females are
motivated enough, they will have to stand by and fight against the barriers however if
they are not determined they will give up their vision to society’s challenges. This study
26
is very useful because of two reasons; Firstly it uses qualitative approach to dig deeper
into personal lives as well as professional life cross-culturally and secondly because it
identifies barriers at personal level and sees how self-recognition and various leadership
skills (Bennis, 2009) are used by successful managers to overcome social barriers and
constraints.
One of the researches very relevant to this study has been conducted by Pathan,
Moinuddin and Rashidi (2012), three locals of Pakistan who have highlighted the deeper
issues faced by entrepreneurs in Sindh. The authors are highly valuable to my study
because of the fact that they are part of Sindh and being there they have pictured reality
in a very different way highlighting issues overlooked and ignored by some researches.
These authors highlight that females make 3€ of total entrepreneurs in Pakistan and these
3% are restricted to some specific fields such as Fashion designing, Garments, Food and
Make-up business. The reason is because females are preferred to adopt professions in
which potential customers are usually females as culture of Pakistan doesn’t find it
appropriate that a female has to deal with males all the time at work.
According to the authors, business environment for women in Pakistan constitutes of two
categories. First category is social, cultural and traditional elements and this category is
engraved in society for centuries. Second category consists of the constitution, structure,
policy and institutional mechanisms and this category is shaped rigidly by first category
which is why businesses in different cultures have different approaches towards women
managers and women empowerment. As first category is traditional and rigid, it poses
difficulties for females in the form of social restrictions, restricted funding opportunities,
lack of information and infrastructure, low level of education and insufficient skills, and
low level of networking.
The research used questionnaire approach to collect data from different areas of Pakistan
regarding female managerial experiences as well as their entrepreneurial experiences.
From the data collected, authors conducted regression analysis to find out causal
relationship between constraint to females as dependent variable and other factors
mentioned above as independent. From the regression analysis, authors found out that
there is significant relationship between culture and the challenges faced by female
entrepreneurs. This study recommends that government should design policies which
favor female leadership.
Güney, Gohar, Akıncı & Akıncı (2013) conducted a comparative study between Pakistan
and Turkey to see how those two countries differ when it comes to female leadership.
27
According to the authors, although industrialization has increased the need to have
females in top managerial positions, however stereotypes still exist which restrict women
from holding executive positions as men are always seen as more suitable for executive
positions as compared to females. The reason for this difference is that ambition,
objectivity and authority are considered necessary for leadership and these characteristics
are considered suitable to males and masculinity only.
Females are universally seen different from men, and therefore stereotypes still exist
regarding their suitability to work. These stereotypes prevail in many societies and they
play a role in restricting females to reach top managerial positions and also effect the
progress of females in organizational hierarchy.
According to an attitude survey conducted in 1965, 54% of males and 50% of females
perceive that females don’t expect a position of authority and they don’t expect higher
positions. According to this study, the surprising factor in Pakistan and turkey is that
females show a more negative response towards female presence in top managerial
positions as compared to males.
In Pakistan, there are two views prevailing about women one is conservative and second
is liberal. According to conservative view, females stay home and are not allowed to take
part in anything where society interaction occurs while in liberal view females are allowed
to work, they can take part in labour force as well as society’s different activities.
Therefore, in Pakistan majority categorizes females are mothers and wives while men are
categorized as owners of the faith of whole family both their females as well as their kids.
Pakistan is the society where “A majority of women live in a world structured around
strict religious, family and tribal customs and they are subjected to discrimination and
violence due to cultural and religious norms. In organizations and educational institutions
people are still facing difficulty in accepting women as an asset toward development.”
(pg.3)
Females make 43% of total work force however only 3% occupy top managerial positions
which is of serious concern. Authors conducted the study in universities as they have
usually greater number of female employees as compared to males. The study was
conducted on 200 academicians, MATWES was used to collect data about attitude of
females in universities.
From the analysis conducted, authors conclude that female managers in Pakistan and
turkey have negative perception regarding female leadership and their contribution in
economy and this is a very significant reason that females lack is the existence of
28
situational and cultural constraints which build overall negative beliefs and emotions in
the society.
In another study, Karelaia and Guillén (2013) write that
“Women leaders have to navigate between the requirements of their work and personal
roles, which at times may be neither easy nor pleasant” (pg.5)
This is what brings the concept of integration of leader personality and profession is very
crucial as emphasized by Bennis (2009) and DePree (2005). Although research has been
done on development of leaders, there is little literature on how female leaders see
themselves and how leadership concepts in society effects their success as
leader/manager. According to the authors, positive gender identities and leadership
performance of females is effected by the identity conflict faced by females which
according to the authors “occurs when women leaders perceive an incongruity between
being a leader and being a woman”.
The conflict between leadership performance and gender prevents women from reaching
higher in ladder of leadership. In societies where identity conflict is resolved and there
are positive perceived gender roles females find it easy to represent diverse range of
industries and organizations as leaders. Authors conducted three studies to test the effect
of identity conflict on female leadership performance. The study concludes that
“Positive gender identity may reduce perceived conflict between being a woman and
being a leader and thereby increase women’s well-being and cause them to construe
leading as an attractive goal as opposed to a duty”. (pg.11)
Conducting a regression analysis on women who currently are leaders and those who are
about to be leaders, authors conclude that although women’s access o leadership positions
is increasing, very little is known regarding the impact of identity processes of leaders on
women’s motivation to lead in their personal as well as professional life. According to
this study, most of the respondents feel that;
‘‘It seems to me that to stand out in a man’s world, women have to compensate for their
gender with outstanding performance every single time. It is good in the sense that
women get better and better [in] what they do, but, on the other hand, it is extremely
tiring . . .’’ (pg. 4)
29
Therefore, there is a need of positive gender identity to increase female participation in
professions and their success as leaders.
2.2.3: Literature summary table
The following table provides a summary of the literature consulted for this study and
categorizes factors as identified by authors.
Name
of
author
/s
Date Name
of study
Factors
identified
Methodolog
y used
Conclusion
Room
i, M.
A., &
Parrot
t, G
2008 Barriers
to
Develo
pment
and
Progres
s of
Women
Entrepr
eneurs
in
Pakista
n
Gender neutral
as well as gender
related issues:
Gender neutral
include: Access
to capital, lack of
business
management
skills, and
restrictive
government
regulations
Gender related
issues include:
Structural
immobility
issues, Pardah
and Izzat
restrictions
The method
used to
collecting
primary
information
was a series
of in-depth;
one to one
semi-
structured
interviews
conducted
with a
sample of
256 women
entrepreneu
rs
(individuall
y) in the five
major
metropolita
n cities of
Pakistan.
As a consequence of mobility
restrictions women
entrepreneurs are forced to
operate in specific businesses
sectors including, education,
health and beauty, where they
can provide the vast majority
of their services to female
customers. The research
suggests that many of the
problems/challenges faced by
Pakistani women
entrepreneurs originate from
the structurally enforced
inferior status of women.
Female entrepreneurs have to
overcome the significant
challenges they face in respect
to the mores of “Pardah” and
“Izzat”, both of which place
severe restrictions on their
mobility and their interaction
with men at work, as
traditionally doubts could be
cast on their good reputations
30
and even reduce their
marriage prospects in some
quarters of society (Shabbir,
1996; Shah, 1986; Hibri,
1982).
Tate,
G., &
Yang,
L.
2014 Female
leaders
hip and
gender
equity:
Eviden
ce from
plant
closure
Asian females
work on lower
pay roll as
compared to
males. Females
have a short
work life due to
unequal family
burden in Asia.
Used
worker-,
firm-, and
plant-level
data from
the US
Census
Bureau to
estimate the
impact of
gender and
female
leadership
on wages.
Improving the ability of
women to break through the
glass ceiling and attain top
leadership positions has
positive externalities on other
women. In particular, it
improves the opportunities of
women lower in the corporate
hierarchy. Thus, changing
leadership could be a
mechanism to change the
culture of the firm in a
direction that is friendlier to
female workers (or other
workers impacted by labour
market discrimination). And,
recent gains by women in
representation on corporate
boards could have important
spill overs to other women in
those firms.
Chou,
W. C.
G.,
Fosh,
P., &
Foster
, D
2005 Female
manage
rs in
Taiwan
:
Opport
unities
and
Work family
conflict and the
cultural values
associated with
that area of
women’s lives
Interviewed
a total of 14
female
managers in
Taiwan. Of
the 14
female
managers,
Work–family conflict and
Taiwanese cultural values
contribute to the barriers
female employees encounter
in their climb up the
organizational hierarchy and
may lead to the depression of
their career ambitions.
31
barriers
in
changin
g times
11 were
established
in their
managerial
careers and
3 were
beginning
their careers
(all were
graduates).
Wirth,
L
2001 Women
in
manage
ment:
Closer
to
breakin
g
through
the
glass
ceiling?
Wome
n,
gender
and
work
Education and
skills are an
important factor
for female
progression to
upper levels of
management.
Negative social
attitude effects
women’s
education and
qualification as
well as skill
development,
Disproportionat
e family
responsibility
Collected
data from
ILO,
analysed
statistics
available.
Conducted a
statistical
analysis
over time
for different
countries.
Females have been doing
enormous progress in Asian
countries for decades to obtain
greater share of professional
and managerial positions.
Education has played great
role in bringing gender equity
however unbreakable glass
ceilings still exist and effect
female’s progress in
professional life. The higher
the position of management,
more glaring the gap becomes
and lesser becomes the
chances of females getting
successful in higher positions.
Ielics,
B., &
Runca
n, P.
L.
2012 The
profile
of the
success
ful
woman
manage
Prove constantly
they are more
capable as
compared to the
male
counterparts.
Females have to
Authors
conducted
research on
1500
subjects
who were
interviewed
The study reported that
females have most of the
characteristics which they are
blamed of not having. Most of
the females had excellent
professionalism, self-
confidence, communication
32
r in
Romani
a
prove to their
family that they
can manage both
family and work
and have to
prove to
employers that
they can work
late hours and
ensure
effectiveness at
work.
to study the
necessary
characteristi
cs they
have.
skills, and diplomacy and
negotiation skills while a few
had empathy which they are
blamed to highly possess.
Therefore, the study
concluded that the fault is not
in female managers, It is in the
fact that "women managers
have to adapt in the world of
male managers, therefore, we
can say we are dealing with a
tendency of women managers
becoming more masculine in
order to achieve success in
their chosen career".
Cheun
g,
Fanny
M.,
and
Diane
F.
Halpe
rn
2010 Women
at the
top:
powerf
ul
leaders
define
success
as
work+
family
in a
culture
of
gender
Women’s
concern majorly
include: Work–
family balance,
No family and
spousal support,
Females grown
up as family care
takers while
males as earners,
Concept that
females work
only if the
family needs
money,
Underlying
thought that
females lead in
different way
Used semi-
structured
open-ended
interviews
approach,
conducted
study on 62
women who
either were
or had been
married and
who had
significant
family care
responsibilit
ies.
Conducted
comparative
study on
A very important factor that
leads to women success is
Education and skills
development. Although
culture prescribes the
expectations for gender roles
and behaviours, there are
differences within the culture
in the way in which
individuals play out these
roles. We recognize that there
are also ethnic, regional, and
class differences within the
larger cultural group.
33
than males
therefore they
are suitable to
only limited
areas of
business.
three
countries
China,
Hong Kong,
and the
United
States to get
comparison
in terms of
cultural
context and
socioecono
mic milieu.
Vecch
io, R.
P.
2002 Leaders
hip and
gender
advanta
ge
Perception that
females lead
differently than
men, making
them unsuitable
for certain
positions.
Used a mix
approach,
compared
different
studies and
concluded
based on all
studies.
Females and males are
perceived to possess different
leadership abilities which
leads to gender advantage in
some cases while in others it
leads to gender
discrimination.
Patha
n, Z.
H.,
Moin
uddin,
Q. M.,
&
Rashi
di, R.
S
2012 Proble
ms
Faced
by
Female
Entrepr
eneurs
of
Sindh
Lack of
Technology;
Social Capital,
Low
Government
Support and
Financing
The analysis
was based
on primary
data
collection
through
structured
questionnair
e. The total
sample size
(29) twenty
nine female
entrepreneu
This study conveys the
message that if the female
entrepreneurs of Sindh are
provided appropriate training,
technical knowledge, local
administrative support from
public institutions, free
collateral loans, social
security, protection and
encouragement from their
families, flexible business
environment etc. they will
enter in to the entrepreneurial
34
rs of 04
districts of
Sind i.e. are
(Karachi,
Hyderabad,
Sukkur &
Matiari).
occupation in a large number
and will prove their worth to
contribute to the economy of
the country.
Peus,
C.,
Braun
, S., &
Knipf
er, K
2014 On
becomi
ng a
leader
in Asia
and
Americ
a:
Empiric
al
evidenc
e from
women
manage
rs
Achievement
orientation,
learning
orientation, and
role models
emerged
In-depth
interviews
with 76
mid- to
upper-level
female
managers in
Asia (China,
India, and
Singapore)
and the U.S.
were
conducted.
Significant differences exist
between females of Asia and
Europe when it comes to
understanding the concept of
leadership. Females of these
regions perceive meaning of
life, family and relationships
differently and also perceive
relationships at job
differently. These regions
however face almost the same
glass ceilings and barriers
when it comes to
advancement of females to
upper levels of management.
Karel
aia,
N., &
Guillé
n, L.
2014 Me, a
woman
and a
leader:
Positive
social
identity
and
identity
conflict
Gender identity
and self-concept
play crucial role
in development
of women as
leaders and their
success.
Hypothesis
testing by
conducting
three studies
with three
different
audiences
Women with a more positive
gender identity reported less
identity conflict, which
consequently improved their
psychological well-being and
made it more likely that they
construe leadership as a
pleasant activity
35
Güne
y, S.,
Gohar
, R.,
Akınc
ı, S.
K., &
Akınc
ı, M.
M.
2013 attitude
s
toward
women
manage
rs in
Turkey
and
Pakista
n
Cultural barriers
, Societal
barriers
This paper
examines
managerial
attitudes
toward
women
managers in
Turkey and
Pakistan by
using
“Managerial
Attitudes
toward
Women
Executives
Scale
(MATWES)
” and draws
a cross-
cultural
comparison
between
these two
countries’
respondents
.
For years the role that a
woman played as a citizen, a
member of the family or a
homemaker in Pakistan has
been highly undermined and
today it has turned into a
tradition to degrade a
woman’s abilities. However,
over the years this scenario
has begun to change, and the
awareness of women’s
abilities, rights and status
pervades popular
consciousness in almost all
parts of Pakistan.
Shaht
alebi,
S., &
Yarm
oham
madia
n, M.
H.
2012 Barriers
to
women
manage
rs climb
the
peaks
The negative
attitudes of
authorities about
women,
Authorities
preference to
choose men for
key positions
Qualitative
in nature,
descriptive
phenomenol
ogy. Seven
steps
Colizzi
method was
Obstacles in the way of
university female managers'
success can be classified 3
components include
Organizational Elements,
Social Elements and
Individual Elements.
Organizational Elements has 3
36
of
success
because men are
the final decision
makers in
society, Social
difficulties and
complications
also used for
data
analysing
subcomponents include high
rank managers' outlook
(include 7 subcomponents) ,
negative condition & situation
(Include 6 subcomponents)
and university laws &
procedures (include 6
subcomponents). Social
Elements has 2
subcomponents include Social
miseries & problems (include
7 subcomponents) and
Negative society outlook
(Include 8 subcomponents).
Individual Elements has 2
subcomponents include
individual problems (include
12
subcomponents), family
problems (include 3
subcomponents ) and job
problems
Hoqu
e, M.
J.,
Rahm
an, M.
A., &
Razia,
S..
2014 Women
Entrepr
eneursh
ip
Develo
pment
under
Islamic
Perspec
tive-A
Study
on
One’s own
family, their
society, their
business
enterprises,
administrative
inferiority,
financing,
political and
religious culture
The study
through
extensive
survey from
two
important
cities of
Bangladesh
involved
qualitative
research
It is found that there are no
religious barriers for women
to choose entrepreneurship
which is permitted in Islam.
The study found that of the
various critical factors for
success of women
entrepreneurship namely,
sharing success/profit with
employees, hard labour,
sincerity and honesty,
37
Some
Selecte
d
Muslim
Women
Entrepr
eneurs
of
Bangla
desh
using
Questionnai
re Survey by
using both
open and
close end
questions.
The total
sample size
is 350
women
entrepreneu
rs of
Bangladesh
pleasant behaviour,
availability of sufficient start-
up capital, entrepreneurship
skill, experience and quality of
products and services have
been recognized as the most
significant factors.
Norris
, P., &
Ingle
hart,
R.
2001 Cultura
l
obstacl
es to
equal
represe
ntation
structural and
institutional
barriers
Levels of
socioeconomic
development
and the
proportion of
women in
professional and
managerial
occupations,
cultural factors
include the
predominance of
traditional
attitudes toward
gender roles
Data
analysis
38
2.3 Literature conclusion and deduction
The research studies consulted for this study helped me develop a background on the
native culture of developing countries especially Pakistan and how this culture effects
equal gender treatment and equal opportunities. From the literature studied so far,
developed categories ad their relationships to dig deeper in this research using primary
research techniques mentioned in section below.
The categories identified so far are; relationship between gender and culture,
relationship between gender and leadership and relationship between culture and
leadership skills.
The results of the literature review in the field of “female leadership in Asian countries”
has concluded that females are usually given inferior status in developing countries, are
excluded from higher positions and restricted from getting involved in society and
economic development because of societal and cultural barriers.
Females face barriers at three levels, Personal level, Family level and societal level which
includes organizations as well as rest of environment outside home. Literature emphasizes
the fact that despite of continuous and increased efforts of gender equality, many nations
still couldn’t bring 100% gender equality and this shows a general negative attitude of
society towards females.
The literature also highlights an important fact that current situation of females in Islamic
countries especially Pakistan and Bangladesh are confused with Shariah law and
restrictions while the restrictions are solely cultural and societal. Moreover, literature on
these countries also shows that Islam as a matter of fact promotes entrepreneurship in
females and therefore the only thing happening is men using religion because of low
education of women in this field.
Females are taught subordination through culture and therefore they don’t question men’s
attitude and barriers imposed on them by family as well as spouse.
2.4 Major concepts for this study
This study aims at exploring the condition of current Pakistani females and their evolution
in leadership positions. The major themes extracted from the theoretical framework are
listed below:
1. Effect of Indigenous culture on:
a. Social immobility problems (Pipp Norris & Ronald Inglehart, 2001), (M
Azam Roomi & Guy Parrott, 2008)
39
b. Gender assumed roles: Role expectancy for females (Gross & Linehan,
2006)
c. Structurally enforced inferior status of females (Xavier, Gine & Mansuri,
2014), (M. Azaam Roomi & Inglehart, 2001)
d. Decision Making power of females (M Azam Roomi & Guy Parrott, 2008)
e. Female subordination to males (Gelfand, 2006)
2. Leadership
a. Leader’s qualities (Bennis, 2009)
i. Vision development
1. Dedication to transform vision into reality Eikenberry, K.
& Harris, G. (2011).
ii. Self-recognition
From the empirical research conducted so far, I have tried to grasp, have a painting to
describe the landscape of potential female leader condition within Pakistan hierarchy. The
research conducted so far has given me a good idea of the major constraints faced by
females and helped me design our research questions which I am digging into.
Next section describes the methodology used to conduct this study to dig further deeper
into the facts gathered by literature consulted.
40
3 RESEARCH DESIGN
3.1 Methodology
Every research is a creation of knowledge, every methodology is “Me” as emphasized by
Philippe Daudi (Lecture: 2014). Aim of every researcher is to create something new, a
new form of knowledge and this is the very reason why research should not just be
confined in terms of data collection and theory development.
The first part of this chapter illustrates various research approaches and justifies the
approach used for this research as well as research methods this study is based upon. As
this study explores the effect of culture of Pakistani female leadership experiences,
qualitative research approach in a phenomenological framework is considered
appropriate for this study.
Semi-structured interviewing is considered as an effective method to dig deeper in the
various aspects of female’s lives. To ensure high quality of the research, validity,
trustworthiness and ethics are highly considered since the first step of research. In final
section, thematic analysis is conducted with an illustration of research process.
3.1.1 Qualitative research
Abnor & Bjerke (2009) argues that “Methodology is a language, a language which is
determined by one’s attitude towards the particular research and a tool used to build
knowledge through the creator.”
The purpose of qualitative research is to explore “unique lived experiences of participants
in order to enhance the understanding of particular phenomena” as argued by Mutch
(2005).
Researcher of qualitative study acts as “Research instrument” too because he/she does
data collection and analysis at the same time (Tolich & Davidson, 2003, p. 98).
Mutch (2005) strongly opposes the general belief that qualitative studies are generalized
and argues that “It is important to bear in mind that generalisation is not the ultimate aim
of qualitative research, rather elucidating “the experience or understanding for others” is
(Mutch, 2005, p. 43).
According to Strauss, A., & Corbin, J (1990), open methods such as case study,
observation, interviews and documentation used in this study approach allow rich data
41
collection and analysis. There are three basic components of qualitative research; data,
procedures and written reports. Data is the first component and can come from various
sources such as interviews, observations, documents, records, and films. Second, there
are the procedures that researchers can use to interpret and organize the data.
These usually consist of conceptualizing and reducing data, elaborating categories in
terms of their properties and dimensions, and relating through a series of prepositional
statements. Written and verbal reports make up the third component. These may be
presented as articles in scientific journals, in talks (e.g., conferences), or in books.
While conducting a qualitative research, the most important concern a researcher has is
how to gather data, and how to use this data to get something out of the research. Data is
kept descriptive in this research approach and is analysed thematically. The open and
thematic analysis of data results in emergence of a theory later which makes qualitative
research interpretive and inductive Strauss, A., & Corbin, J (1990).
According to (Burns, 2000) qualitative research enables the researcher to picture
participants’ view about their world and to get a better understanding of the ongoing
situation by their viewpoint because the investigator “stands in the shoes of those being
studied” (Davidson & Tolich, p. 103).
The following characteristics of qualitative research methodology makes it the most
suitable approach for this research which aims to uncover the effect of culture on
Pakistani female leadership experiences.
3.1.2 Phenomenology
Burns (2000) argues that qualitative investigator base the research upon thorough
understanding the audience and recognizes the value of the participants real experiences
which makes phenomenology a fundamental aspect of this approach. Phenomenology is
about the “lived experience” of a person (Giorgi, 1997), which is “the consciousness that
emerges from personal participation in events” (Foss & Foss, 1994, p. 39).
“Phenomenology is a theoretical point of view that advocates the study of direct
experience taken at face value; and one which sees behaviours as determined by the
phenomena of experience rather than by external, objective and physically described
reality”
(Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2007, p. 22)
42
The focus of phenomenological study is to observe and understand the personal meaning
derived from direct experimentation of participants and reality is “perceived and
interpreted in correlation to the “meaning derived from these structures” (Burns, 2000, p.
11).
Johnson and Christensen (2008) argue that in order for phenomenology to happen,
investigator must enter in the world of the subject to experience their own perspective
therefore leaving no room for self-interpretation and categorization.
As this study aims to study female leaders of Pakistan by understanding the effect of
culture on their experiences, behaviours and attitudes, phenomenological framework is
considered the most suitable for this study.
3.2 Research approach
3.2.1 Interviews
Using a phenomenological approach, the investigator understands and describes the
subjects’ experiences to ensure that the data is “as valid, ethical and faithful as possible”
(Giorgi, 1997, para. 27) and to obtain such data, semi-structured interviewing is the most
appropriate approach and this approach is used as a central data gathering technique
academic studies for years (Tierney & Dilley, 2002).
Kvale (1996, p.2) defines interviewing as “An interchange of views between two persons
conversing about a theme of mutual interest” and according to Walford (2001)
interviewing allows subjects to express perspectives on various issues.
Data collected through this approach is very rich because interviewing is assumed to
“reach the parts which other research methods don’t reach” (Wellington, 2000, p. 73).
Also, interviewing is known as an approach which is “flexible” because of the use of
multiple channels including verbal and non-verbal channels (Cohen et al., 2007, p. 349).
Of the various types if interviews that can be conducted, the approach most appropriate
for this study is in depth semi-structures interviews.
To conduct a semi-structured interview, a set of structured and planned questions are
asked in an open ended pattern (Mutch, 2005) letting the partici3.1.pant express their
viewpoint in many different ways possible providing the investigator “a sufficient
opportunity to understand and observe reality from different viewpoints extensively”
(Giorgi, 1997).
43
As questions in interview guide are kept open and sometimes unstructured too and the
investigator has to cleverly “improvise follow-up questions” sometimes to dig deep in
hidden terms and achieve clarification in the areas of interest (Arskey & Knight, 1999, p.
7).
Though interviews is a useful approach especially in qualitative research, there are still
few shortcomings of this approach: Firstly, there is a high probability of getting biased
responses because interviewer’s perception and interpretation cannot be fully neutralized
(Wellington, 2000, p. 73). Secondly, as the interviewer has better knowledge than the
interviewee, interviewer can take powerful position sometimes and can “attempt to define
and control the situation” (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009, p. 3). Thirdly, respondents might
not give honest and true information because of the fact that keeping anonymity of
respondents in interview approach is highly impossible (Cohen et al., 2007). Fourthly,
interviewer might find it tough to get participants because people usually don’t like to
talk to strangers, especially about their personal thoughts and beliefs (Wellington, 2000,
p. 73).
One way to overcome the barriers discussed above is by “establishing trust and good
rapport” with the interviewee (Johnson, 2002, pg.11).
Despite of the challenges discussed above, interviewing is still considered a very
important instrument by many qualitative researchers and as a matter of fact “many
qualitative methods rely heavily or solely on them as the primary mechanism for data
collection” (Knox and Burkard, 2009, p. 571).
As this approach is especially considered powerful when researcher wants to investigate
the “true opinion of participants and their experiences”, therefore it is considered the most
suitable data generation method for this particular study.
3.2.2 Validity and trustworthiness
Validity and trustworthiness throughout all the stages of an interview research project
ensure the quality of the research (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009). According to Wellingten
(2000) validity is “extent to which what we investigate reflects what it is supposed to
investigate” (Wellington, 2000, pg.36) while Mutch (2005) define trustworthiness as the
condition when “the research decisions, research design, data collection and analysis
strategies have been clearly documented and the study is ethically conducted” (Mutch,
2005, pg. 71).
44
In order to ensure validity and trustworthiness at every stage of this research, this study
was carefully designed at every step. While thematising, it was made sure that the
theoretical presuppositions of the study are sound and research questions were logically
derived as emphasized by (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009).
After carefully reviewing literature, research questions and major concepts of the study
were redesigned and made more focused and clear. In next stage, it was made sure that
the research design and research methods fit purpose of the study and as described below,
qualitative approach and semi-structured interviews were chosen as the most suitable
approach to this study.
To ensure quality of interview research, participants were chosen very carefully, making
sure they are “interested in becoming part of the research, open to the topic, experienced
and knowledgeable” (Rubin & Rubin, 2005, p. 64-70).
Purposeful sampling was done for this study which allowed me as a creator of knowledge
to select the participants intentionally and carefully (Creswell, 2002).
While conducting interview, validity and trustworthiness depends on the subjects and the
interview structure as well (Kvale, 1996). According to Walford (2001) there can be
situations where “respondents may lie or withhold information because they have little to
gain from telling an interviewer their innermost secrets” (p. 90).
To avoid such situation, it is important to build a good relation with the interviewee by
creating a relaxed environment and stress free discussion. This can be achieved by careful
pre-planning, good communication skills, keeping the questions simple, modifiable yet
open and careful preparation (Johnson, 2002).
After collecting rich data from interviews, interviewer needs to do careful transcribing of
the interviews. According to Wengraf (2001) “The only point of doing the slow work of
transcription is to force the delivery to your conscious mind of as many thoughts and
memories as you can…while your mind has time to think fast and widely about the
material and the event in which the material was gathered” (p. 209).
After finishing transcribing successfully, next step is to analyse the data. In data analysis
stage, investigator has to make sure that data interpretation is sound and unbiased
therefore bringing the need to treat the data collected with considerable scepticism as
emphasized by Walford (2001).
Lastly, communicating findings with integrity brings trustworthiness in last stage of the
research. In this stage, investigator must be able to integrate the research aim with
45
respondents’ responses and must answer underlying research questions (Williams and
Morrow, 2009).
3.3 Data analysis strategy
According to Rubin and Rubin (2005) “data analysis is the process of moving from raw
interviews to evidence-based interpretations that are the foundation for published reports”
(p. 201) and therefore it is essential to consider data analysis at a very early stage of
research design.
As this research is qualitative in nature, it is based on a thematic analysis approach to
analyse descriptive data gathered from interviews. Thematic analysis can be defined as
“a method for identifying, analysing and reporting patterns (themes) within data (Braun
& Clarke, 2006, pg.34) and according to Mutch (2005) thematic analysis is named as
grounded theory because “it develops the theory inductively” (pg.177).
Grounded theory is a thematic approach which “employs theoretical sampling in which
emerging analysis guides the collection of further data” (Ezzy, 2002, p. 87).
In order to be a grounded theorist, one need to have the ability to step back and critically
analyse the situation, recognize the tendency towards bias, think abstractly, be flexible,
open to criticism and be sensitive to the respondents (Strauss, A., & Corbin, J, 1990).
For data analysis “Data familiarization” is the first step a researcher takes in order to
engage in the process. Data familiarization starts with transcribing the verbal interviews
which although is a very lengthy and frustrating sometimes (Wengraf, 2001) but it “ is an
excellent way to start familiarizing with the data” (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 87).
Once transcription is done, the next stage is developing codes from the data (Strauss, A.,
& Corbin, J, 1990) which Kerlinger (1970) defines “as the translation of question
responses and respondent information to specific categories” (cited in Cohen et al., 2007,
p.369). Categories and concepts are predetermined through literature and by consulting
the initial interview scripts (Rubin & Rubin, 2005).
The second stage is to modify and redefine the categories developed through initial stage
and this is why grounded theory uses three types of coding techniques; open, axial and
selective (Strauss, A., & Corbin, J, 1990).
Open coding starts at the initial stage when investigator looks for themes in open literature
and categorizes the literature. Once open coding has been done and interviews are
46
transcribed, next step is axial coding in which investigator tries to retrieve themes out of
the data.
According to Rubin and Rubin (2005), data should be organized systematically, grouping
data and comparing it and looking for patterns and linkages in data. Once themes are
retrieved, selective coding is done in which according to Braun & Clarke, (2006) themes
are refined, redesigned and reviewed carefully.
In this phase, researcher ensures that the entire data set answers research questions and
data is not being missed out. In cases where research misses on some points, further
recoding is done and analysis is done again to obtain a satisfactory thematic map (Strauss,
A., & Corbin, J, 1990).
3.4 Research Process
This section talks about the research process of this particular study. As this study focuses
on exploring the effect of culture of Pakistani female’s leadership success stories, the
research started with carefully identifying and selecting subjects for this study. The next
sections’ describe selection of participants, interviews and data analysis process for this
research.
3.4.1 Thematic analysis
As a researcher, I did not begin with a theory already developed, instead I started by
gathering information on current situation of females in Pakistan focusing on the barriers
they currently face and how culture challenges success of females. This research started
by conceptualizing facts and in order to do so open coding has been done by developing
categories and information gathered from secondary sources as well as primary
interviews.
Categories were developed in literature framework development and the next thing was
to further information about the categories and to do so, sampling was to be done very
carefully and data collection was organized and based on the categories already defined.
From the data gathered, axial coding is done to create sub categories of the categories
already developed and linking both of them.
After axial coding, the next thing done in this research analysis is dig deeper into the
categories and sub-categories developed through selective coding. This phase integrates
all the categories along their dimensional levels to create a theory out of my research,
47
validate the statements made already through open and axial coding and the relationships
made and fill in categories which need to be worked upon.
Sampling was done very deliberate at this point and as a researcher I looked for events,
incidents instead of focusing on people. This phase lead me to the development of theory
on development of female business leaders. For this approach, data was gathered through
many sources including people, sites, and related documents.
Sampling changed from the start of the study till the development of a theory based on
the mode of coding starting from random and becoming more purposeful and focused as
the research would progress.
From the research conducted, I developed a framework and a theory which will is left
open for further research and study. Therefore, as a grounded theorist I used the general
information on gender related leadership and made a theory emerge out of the data I
collected throughout the research.
3.5 Research design
With an aim to explore the conditions effecting females of Pakistan to evolve as leaders
in their professional life, I started digging in the study by consulting various sources. For
a grounded theory, the underlying assumption is that data collection and analysis process
are not separate but rather are connected and guide each other.
The research problem didn’t begin with just coming up with a situation instead I started
with consulting various sources to collect relevant data on female leadership in Pakistan
and digged deep in the researches to come up with my research questions.
I consulted official reports on World economic forum, World Bank and Lnu Portal which
gave me some statistics on current situation of Pakistan and helped me draw a trend of
female leadership in Pakistan. The data collected was quantitative and was used to build
background of the study and justification for the study.
This research is based on exploratory philosophy with an aim to highlight the conditions
effecting females of Pakistan to evolve as leaders. As the research is being conducted for
one point of time (cross sectional) the multi data collection method i.e. qualitative and
quantitative approach is being used to get the reliable data.
48
3.5.1 Research approach
Since quantitative approaches are insufficient to capture and paint the particular picture
of this study, I have chosen a qualitative approach fir this study. Qualitative analysis as
Strauss and Corbin (1990) defines it is "a non-mathematical process of interpretation,
carried out for the purpose of discovering concepts and relationships in raw data and then
organizing these into a theoretical explanatory scheme".
3.5.2 Selecting the participants
Choosing right participants is an essential step to make the study credible (Rubin &
Rubin, 2005). Keeping this statement in mind, I started selection of my research
participants very carefully. Since the research aims to explore effect of culture on
women’s situation and experiences, I chose participants from rural and urban areas in
order to draw a picture of the effect of culture in these two areas.
Participants for this study were working women with a minimum of two year experience
in their current job. Shortly for this study participants were chosen who were experienced
enough in their profession so that the data collected from them could be meaningful,
thoughtful, rich and full of experiences.
Additionally, I contacted people I have known for years and who are now pursuing
professional life. This helped me gather data which was deep and personal and sensitive
to some people too and which wouldn’t be possible to get from strangers because
Pakistani culture is closed and people don’t prefer to share their experiences to strangers
openly. Therefore, I knew most of the people I interviewed and the rest were referred by
my friends so they didn’t have any confidentiality issues either.
I chose a sample size of thirty working women, fifteen from rural areas and fifteen from
urban area. As I knew these people, I had the benefit of conducting interview in the form
of a discussion which helped me dig deeper in my research and examine the situation with
more open mind. The procedure used to invite participants was to phone them, explain
the situation briefly and ask for their permission to conduct an interview.
The ones who agreed were emailed the research aim sheet (Appendix 1, Figure 2) which
helped them understand the questions before the interview so they don’t become blank
during the interview. The sheet also ensured the information would be kept confidential,
highlighted how information will be used to ensure participants know their information
49
is protected and not misused in any aspect. In the email I asked them about the date and
time of interview.
As I was in Sweden, the interviews were conducted through skype and recorded using
voice recorder. The response of my respondents was surprisingly very positive, they were
very open and clear about the information they were sharing and very happy about
becoming part of a research which can help other brilliant females to develop their career.
3.5.3 Conducting the interviews
For this study, interviews were designed to explore how culture has effected the personal,
interpersonal and external development of females. The interview script included open
questions covering general information, stories of career development and how culture
affected their skills and career opportunities.
Interviews were conducted through skype and time was set up to the convenience of
participants. Females were told at the start of interview that the participation was
voluntary and not forced and meant no harm to them or their information in any way what
so ever. Participants were allowed to feel free to decline any interview question and
discussion they didn’t feel comfortable talking about.
It was made sure that females don’t become upset talking about their personal life and it
was made sure that no offensive language is used against anyone. Each participant was
interviewed individually for approximately 30 minutes and some interviews took 40
minutes too.
To generate a conversation and discussion instead of structured interviews, order of
questions was changed and questions were asked not exactly as written but were melded
in different ways to extract information from different participants. Moreover, follow-up
questions were added wherever needed in order to keep the conversation going and to
avoid ambiguous and short responses.
While conducting the interviews, I took notes as some respondents didn’t agree to record
their voice, therefore I made careful memos and took notes for everyone so I can listen to
audios again and compare transcriptions to my memos and notes. All the interviews took
two month time to be conducted.
50
3.5.4 Preparing the transcripts
Once interview data is obtained, the next step is to transcribe the material gathered from
interviews (Wengraf, 2001). Once I had the verbal data in recorded form, next step I took
was sitting down and transcribing the data. Although it was time consuming and grew
frustrating sometimes, it helped me revolve my research while I was transcribing and
rethink on the discussion with subjects.
One interview took four to five hours to transcribe. While transcribing, I looked back at
my notes and memos I had prepared and tried to relate the events when I was taking notes
and the tone of my subject. Transcription of every interview was done right after the
interview was conducted and this helped me reflect on my work with more depth and
clarification.
Transcription was in English and Urdu mixed because most of the women interviewed
used a mix of both languages and later it was translated into English. I took care of the
fact that wrong translation will affect my research quality and therefore selection of words
was done very carefully and accurately.
3.6 Data analysis
Once transcribing was done, next phase was to analyse the data collected and for this
research analysis, thematic approach was used. As the study aims at uncovering the effect
of culture on women’s experiences and career development, analysis was not conducted
in one stage rather it was conducted in many different stages to ensure validity and
trustworthiness of the results.
This study is based on analysis model proposed by Braun and Clarke (2006). In the first
step, transcripts were read many times to familiarize myself with data and to refine the
concepts emerging out of the data. In second step, information was searched for and coded
in a systematic way to ensure it matches the themes discussed in literature review.
This saved my time by helping me extract useful information out of the interviews. In
third step I moved on to rereading the transcripts carefully and the notes and memos I
took earlier. This helped me ponder upon the themes and codes already developed and
look for new themes if any.
In fourth stage, I matched the themes emerging to my research questions in order to
ensure that my research is valid and is measuring what it is supposed to measure. In this
51
step, I also built relations between my themes, sub-themes and came up with a thematic
map. In fifth and last stage, I reported the findings and began with discussion of my data
analysis.
52
4 FINDINGS
4.1 Introduction to the section
This section illustrates the findings of my study. The ultimate goal of this research was to
examine the effect of culture on Pakistan working women lives and their experiences both
at work as well as at home. The study focused on two crucial factors including hidden
cultural values and social taboos.
The research questions for this study are:
1. What are general norms in indigenous culture of Pakistan?
2. How does indigenous culture effects career success of Pakistani women?
The research analysis begins with general background information of the participants
continuing to the results of interviews with regards to cultural taboos and societal values
effect on these females. The first section includes the ages, current occupations, beliefs
and perceptions of females interviewed and second section includes the experience of
these females and effect of culture on their career experiences as well as personal life.
4.2 Participants of the study
Thirty women participated in this study where fifteen were from major cities while fifteen
were from smaller cities. Fifteen females interviewed were from Gujranwala,
Sheikhupura, Sialkot, Multan and Bhawalpur while rest of fifteen females were from
Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi and Faisalabad. Participants ranged from an age of 26 years
to 42 years. They have been working in different organizations both small and large for
atleast two years. The table below describes the degrees held by participants.
Name of
participant
Age Occupation Marital
status
City Years of
experience
Education
Aqsa Khan 29 y Department
head at
National
Model
College
Sheikhupura
Engaged Sheikhupura 4 Masters in
Commerce,
Punjab
College,
Sheikhupura
Maryam
Virk
32 y Faculty
Administrator
Married Sheikhupura 3.5 Masters in
Commerce,
53
at National
Model School
Sheikhupura
University of
South Asia
Lahore
Fatima
Ahmad
Virk
28 y Trade
marketing
executive at
RedBull
Pakistan
Single Lahore 2.2 Master’s in
Business
Administration,
Lahore School
of Economics,
Lahore
Pakistan
Aamna
Sattar
30 y Corporate
social
responsibility
manager at
HSY (Hassan
Sheharyar
Yasin
Fashion
designer)
Married Lahore 3.8 Masters in
Business
Administration,
LUMS
Pakistan
Anum
Sheikh
34 y Associate
manager at
Fauji
fertilizer
Pakistan
Married Multan 3.1 Master’s in
Business
Administration,
Lahore School
of Economics,
Pakistan
Maiha
Ammar
36 y Research
supervisor at
AC Nielson
Pakistan
Married Lahore 5.2 Master’s in
Business
Administration,
Lahore School
of Economics,
Pakistan
Rabbiya
Khan
28 y Senior
lecturer at
Punjab
University
Fashion
Designing
Married Lahore 2.1 Masters in
Consumer
Psychology,
University of
Manchester,
London
54
campus
Pakistan
Momina
Mohsin
26 y Faculty
administrator
at
Sheikhupura
college of
commerce
Single Sheikhupura 2.2 Bachelors in
Business
Commerce
Amina
Arshad
26 y Operations
manager at
Silk Bank
Sheikhupura
Branch
Single Sheikhupura 2.1 Bachelors,
BSC(Honours)
Double Majors
in economics
and Finance,
Lahore School
of Economics,
Pakistan
Farkhanda
Jabeen
39 y Owner of
school ICI
learning
Sheikhupura
Pakistan
Married Sheikhupura 8 Master’s in
Business
Psychology,
University of
Gujrat
Komal
Malik
31 y Accounts
manager at
Summit Bank
Lahore
Branch
Married Lahore 2.7 Masters in
Accounting,
LUMS,
Pakistan
Hajira
Imtiaz
28 y Student
counsellor at
University of
South Asia
Sheikhupurs
branch
Married Sheikhupura 3.2 Master’s in
Business
Administration,
Virtual
University,
Pakistan
Junnat
Imran
28 y Marketing
executive at
RedBull
Pakistan
Engaged Islamabad 2.4 Masters in
Marketing and
Strategic
Management,
Warwick
55
Business
School, UK
Amina
Tallat
36 y Human
resource
manager at
Karma
Fashion
designer
Married Faisalabad 6 Masters in
Human
Resource
Management,
University of
Strathclyde,
Scotland
Maryum
Fatima
27 y Administrator
at Heritage
International
College
Multan
branch
Single Multan 2.3 Masters in
Commerce
studies, Punjab
college, Multan
Zubeda
Harris
37 y Owner at
Hina beauty
saloon
Gujranwala
Married Gujranwala 5 Masters in
Commerce,
University of
Gujrat
Maryum
Amer
36 y Assistant
manager at
Khaadi
Pakistan
Married Lahore 4.3 Master’s in
Business
Administration,
Lahore School
of Economics,
Pakistan
Sana
Ahmad
36 y Sales
executive at
Engro foods
Pakistan
Married Islamabad 3.8 Master’s in
Business
Administration,
FAST Pakistan
Maida
Khan
30 y Marketing
executive at
Porshe
Pakistan
Married Lahore 2.1 Master’s in
Business
Administration,
NUST,
Pakistan
Hira
Chaudhary
32 y Sales
manager at
Married Multan 5 Masters in
Economics,
University of
56
Telenor
Pakistan
Education,
Multan
Umaema
Aslam
32 y Operations
manager at
Bank Al-
Falah Multan
branch
Married Multan 3.1 Masters in
Finance,
University of
Education,
Multan
Zara
Shahrukh
29 y Owner at
Learning
languages
Sialkot
Single Sialkot 2.4 Bachelors in
Economics and
Finance,
Lahore School
of Economics,
Pakistan
Hira Fazal 31 y Head of
marketing
department at
Junaid
Jamshed
Fashion
designer
Pakistan
Married Karachi 3.5 Master’s in
Business
Administration,
Lahore School
of Economics,
Pakistan
Ayesha
Ahtasham
28 y Marketing
executive at
Nestle
Meethay
Pakistan
Single Karachi 2.4 Master’s in
Business
Administration,
Lahore School
of Economics,
Pakistan
Komal
Javed
26 y Marketing
executive at
Emco tiles
Pakistan
Single Lahore 2.7 Masters in
Business
Administration,
Lahore School
of Economics,
Pakistan
Anum
Ahmad
Khan
30 y Human
resource
manager at
Married Lahore 2.6 Masters in
Business
Administration,
Lahore School
57
Emco Tiles
Pakistan
of Economics,
Pakistan
Arooj
Aslam
32 y Owner at
Rooj
Boutique
Gujranwala
Married Gujranwala 3.8 Masters in
Commerce,
Punjab
College,
Gujranwala
Sania
Moazzam
29 y Marketing
executive at
Service Shoes
Pakistan
Single Sialkot 2.3 Masters in
Business
Administration,
Lahore School
of Economics,
Pakistan
Aimen
Wali
28 y Accounts
manager at
Citibank
Lahore
Branch
Single Lahore 3.1 Masters in
Business
Administration,
Lahore School
of Economics,
Pakistan
Shama
Rizwan
34 y Product
manager at
Mitchell’s
Pakistan
Married Gujranwala 5.4 Masters in
Business
Administration,
Lahore School
of Economics,
Pakistan
Almost all the women held significant positions in their teams and were performing
significant leadership responsibilities in the team. Of the females interviewed, six were
holding different positions in academic institutions and were working in different
academic institutions, four were entrepreneurs and had businesses of their own while the
rest twenty were working in different fast moving consumer goods companies (FMCG’s).
Out of the thirty participants, eighteen were married, three were engaged and nine were
single. In general all these females held business degrees (Bachelors, Masters) from
different business schools of Pakistan and three held Master’s degree from London.
The section below presents theme that emerged out of the study.
58
4.3 Theme of the study: Indigenous culture
4.3.1 Indigenous Culture and Decision making power
All the participants for this study agreed that culture at their home had a very significant
impact on their activities, choices and life as a whole. Umaema Arslan is currently
working as operations manager at Bank-Al-Falah Multan Branch and living with her
husband in Multan. She admits the fact that her family has great impact on her every day
decisions as well as most important decisions of her life. She believes that she always
gets the feeling of being controlled by first her primary family and now her secondary
family (her husband and his family) and the fact that she has to give arguments for every
step she takes demotivates her sometimes and she gives up on many important decisions.
She regarded “inability to take decisions on her own” as a very common thing at her home
and explained:
“I always feel like I hardly lived my life… At home we share a culture where my parents
get to do all my decisions and I am not allowed to say no to them. In my teen age used to
become rebellious but after certain number of years I became okay with this thing and
started accepting their decisions. They have always decided everything for me. They
decided that I cannot go to a bigger city for getting my university degree and therefore I
had to join University of Education for my Masters although I got admission in Punjab
University, Lahore. After my education, they didn’t let go for a job instead they had
planned to get me married and I had to accept their decision. When I was getting married,
no one asked me what kind of guy I want to spend my life with instead my parents decided
my groom for me and when everything was decided for me, I was still expected to be
happy on my wedding day. I hoped things might change after my marriage but they are
still the same. My husband wants me to report everything to him and do everything from
his consent and his consent doesn’t only means him but includes his whole family. So,
when I was offered a position at Bank al-falah my mother in law got mad because I didn’t
tell her I was looking for a job and it became an issue in our families but finally I decided
to go for the job and my husband was angry at me for some time. But later, he started
facing some financial troubles and that’s when he realized that we needed my job. As a
couple, I feel he gets to do the decision and I get to accept them. Not only him, through
all my life have had this feeling that although I have everything yet I never lived my life
59
and this is because of our culture which restricted me from doing anything on my own
and anything I wanted to do.”
Along with Umaema, Shama Rizwan shared the same opinion and so did Hira Fazal and
Zara Shahrukh. These ladies pointed out that their major as well as minor life decisions
are effected by their families and in fact these decisions are made by families mostly and
they are informed once the decision is taken.
4.3.2 Indigenous culture and Social immobility issues
Participants were asked if social immobility was a taboo existing in Pakistan and all the
participants agreed to this stance. Most of the participants told that they were not allowed
to move freely in fact they always have to give a reason for leaving house.
All the participants believed that the conservativeness of Pakistani culture restricts their
free movement in society. They are not allowed to go out after sunset usually and it is
preferred that females take a family member along when they go out. Most females also
associated the social immobility issues with security issues in Pakistan too as kidnapping
is common in Pakistan and this is why families feel reluctance in letting females hang
around freely.
But security problems are not as influensive as conservative culture is because this culture
brings the rituals of “covering head after sunset, not going out alone after sunset, taking
family members along because they cannot protect themselves. Females from rural areas
claimed the existence of more social immobility problems than those from urban areas.
According to most of the participants the immobility issues restricts their career growth
and opportunities of expansion as an entrepreneur. Here are some comments of the
participants which describe how social immobility issues effect their personal as well as
professional development.
Maryam Fatima said:
“My family is from Multan and they didn’t let me move to Lahore for better job at a
multinational corporation. I am not allowed to go out without permission from my family
and I always have to take someone along especially if I am going for shopping or would
be staying out for long time. Our culture is very conservative, everyone stares at girls
walking down the streets and that’s why parents feel they shouldn’t let their girls go out
alone. I had three job opportunities in Lahore but no allowed me to live alone and I had
to restrict myself to job of administrator at nearby university.”
Komal malik also told:
60
“In Pakistan, it’s impossible for a girl to stay out without work. We have to tell everyone
where are we going and why and most of the times we are not allowed to go alone
especially to other cities. I live in Lahore and I can go out during the day but at night I
cannot go out alone and I cannot move across cities alone. I had a dream of opening my
own Candy shop however I realized I won’t be able to expand my business outside Lahore
because of immobility issues and I had to give up on my dream. I think culture is more to
blame instead of terrorism and kidnapping because if we talk about terrorism, males are
equally prone to it. However females face a specific type of restriction to mobility for
years and this is because of over protective and conservative culture of Pakistan”
Farkhanda Jabeen said:
“ In Pakistan it is very difficult to go out alone, even if family permits us, women of a
certain age, above 40 years usually can only go out and feel safe because when we go out
we are stared at, checked out and we have to face groups of males chanting at us and
staring us like we aliens.”
Four participants told they couldn’t go for a managerial job because it was offered in
Lahore while they were not residing in Lahore at that time.
The responses of participants made it clear that conservative culture of Pakistan restricts
females from going out and working in different cities which acts as a barrier in their
career growth. Aqsa Khan said:
“I am 29 years old and I cannot imagine staying one night alone because in Pakistan no
one can imagine a girl living alone. I cannot go out freely, cannot look for a job in a bigger
city where I can have more opportunities and this effects my career as well as my self-
confidence. I cannot walk freely outside because of the conservative culture and staring
eyes everywhere. Males have dominated our society and have caused females the trouble
of not being able to go out freely.”
4.3.3 Indigenous culture and Role expectancy for females
Participants were asked if they believe the society has assumed roles for females and if
these roles restrict career growth and success and almost all the participants shared the
same answers. Respondents were of the view that females are given the role of house
keeper and family server. Females are seen as caring, loving and emotional creatures and
therefore their decisions are doubted in rational level.
As females are expected to be caring and emotionally attached to their family, rational
decisions are not expected from them and this is why they are excluded from major
61
decisions concerning their own life sometimes. Participants explained that the roles
attached to females effect the way their behaviour is perceived and interpreted even at
work and this restricts their career progress sometimes.
Rabia Khan who is currently a lecturer at Punjab University told us that as she was a
female lecturer, students always expected her to behave differently from their male
teachers. Students always expected her to be calm and patient because she was a female
and these are two reactions people expect from perfect females, they have to be calm and
patient no matter what. Hira Chaudhary who is currently working at Telenor Pakistan told
that she was not appointed as a human resource manager at Gul Ahmad textiles because
the management thought a female HR manager will evaluate candidates on emotional
basis and will favour candidates who are going through hard times.
Amina Tallat also shared her experience at work and told that her decisions were always
evaluated from an emotional aspect and it was assumed that she took decisions on
emotional basis rather than rational basis.
Momina said that the culture of Pakistan sees females as a soft and kind hearted creature
who has to take care of the family and relationships and this role effects decisions making
power as well as the ability to progress in career because females have to prefer
relationships on career always and are expected to be agreeable to decisions taken by
relatives for them.
Farkhanda Jabeen added that the mind-set of “owning females” is very common in
Pakistani culture which means that everyone in family thinks they own their females and
therefore they are in control of their lives. Females are expected to be agreeable and polite
and to put the family on the top level and therefore many females sacrifice their career
for family.
The findings revealed that females are seen different from their male colleagues who are
seen as more rational and thoughtful while females are assumed to be more kind and
polite and this sometimes effected their progress and appointment in certain fields where
males were preferred over females.
4.3.4 Indigenous culture and Female Subordination
All the participants agreed that the culture at their home promotes female subordination
and ownership. Anum Sheikh complained that her family and husband believe that they
own her and therefore they are free to control her life. Maryam Fatima also said the same
thing:
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“Our society promotes female ownership, first by family and later by husband. Females
are expected to agree to all the decisions made for them”
Farkhanda jabeen added that people in Pakistan consider female the honour of the family
and therefore females are expected to be very careful, kind and pious and they are
expected to submit themselves to the family.
One of the reason females are not allowed to work is because of the Pious status given to
them and the thought that they are the honour of the family and if they do anything wrong,
society won’t let the family live anymore. This mentality makes families more careful
and against female career development.
Sana Ahmad said:
“As a female, I have had to accept that my life is owned by my family and they have all
the rights to control me. I have to listen to them and accept their decisions because they
make me feel they are responsible for me therefore they have all the right to take decisions
for me. I cannot even imagine taking a decision without their consent and control effecting
me.”
Junnat Imran was a very important addition because she compared her experience in
United Kingdom to that of Pakistan saying:
“Life is different in UK, you can take all your decisions freely and you are not owned by
anybody. Here in Pakistan it’s different. We have to start our career by fighting with
society, family and the taboos which always restrict our career growth and this makes our
life so complicated and tough that giving up seems easy way out rather than fighting. See
the thing is, we are very hardworking but the problem is, we have to face society and
culture which drains our energy and therefore we don’t reach the top levels because by
that time we are too tired to fight for our rights and the females in UK don’t have to go
through all this trouble which is why they have good careers at a very young age.”
Almost all the females in the study agreed that they feel owned and answerable to their
family and this restricts them from progressing where they make sacrifices for the sake
of saving relationship and family honour.
4.3.5 Indigenous Culture and status of females
Aqsa Khan also believed that the society is very conservative as a whole and this has
turned culture at homes conservative too. Maryam Virk also believed the same thing and
she added that females grow up in an environment where they are not allowed to live on
their own but their family takes all their decisions. Aamna Sattar added that the family
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usually thinks it is their responsibility to keep females safe from the society and from bad
experiences because females are considered emotional and weak creature and therefore
in an attempt to protect them from harm caused by outside world, family members feel
the responsibility to make their important decisions for them. Rabbiya Khan also believed
in the same thing and she explained:
“My culture makes me feel that I am owned by my parents and they get to do all my
decisions because I am not good enough to take care of myself. My culture didn’t let me
make my decisions and explore my life and I think this is happening to most of the girls
out there”
Hajira Imtiaz also said almost the same thing:
“Absolutely I feel owned by my husband, he expects me to dress up the way he wants,
talk to people him like, do what he wants and this is one of the reasons that I am working
at a college instead of any company although I had opportunities. My husband didn’t let
me work in a bank and the only justification he gave was that he owns me and knows
what’s better for me so I should be a good wife and listen to him”.
Anum Sheikh, Maiha Ammar, Momina Mohsin believed they have never felt independent
and this is one of the reasons that they don’t feel confident about themselves and they feel
like they cannot take any decision anymore. All the participants mentioned that they have
the feeling of “Being controlled” and their decisions are “made for them”. They also
believed that the ability of not taking their decisions at early age effects their self-reliance
and the ability to take decisions once they grow up and this is why most of the females
don’t feel confident about the choices they make.
Most of the participants believed that the inability to take their decisions is because of
conservative culture of Pakistan which assumes that females are not intellectual enough
and they don’t know enough to take their decisions and therefore others have to take the
decisions for them.
4.3.6 Indigenous culture, Family and work life balance
The findings of this study showed that balancing work life and family life is one of the
biggest challenges faced by most of the participants. Most of the participants told that
although their families were supportive, they had tough times because of unequal
distribution of family work. Farkhanda told:
“I run a school and as a working women the biggest disadvantage is my family. I have to
manage everything at home. I have to work, do house work, take care of my children as
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well as my husband and be perfect at almost everything I do. It’s very tough for me
because I get too tired to be able to perform well at work as well as take care of my
family.”
Umaema said:
“Balancing work and family is the biggest challenge for me and I am still unable to
balance both things effectively. I have to work at home including cooking food, taking
care of house and my family and at the same time perform well at job and I find these two
things impossible.”
Zara said:
“My male colleagues are so lucky, they work, go home and everything is ready for them.
They get enough time to sleep because they don’t have to checks their kids, don’t have to
cook dinner or do any house work and therefore they come to work always fresh and
healthy. On the other hand, I come home, do house work, sleep late and wake up early
which is why I don’t feel fresh may time and my performance at work gets effected.”
Almost all the participants of this study felt the difficulty of balancing work and family
and believed they could perform better at work if their family shared work with them.
Single females didn’t feel this problem as seriously as married ones did because single
females had their mothers taking care of their food and house work and therefore they
didn’t have to do anything at home.
Sana believed this is one of the reasons girls quit jobs when they get married because
when single they don’t have to balance work and family life as they have mother and
maids to take care of house work and their needs. However when they get married, they
have to take care of family which is difficult and this is why most of the females resign
from jobs when they get married. Amina tallat who is a human resource manager told that
most of the girls working in her department resigned from the job when they got married
and therefore all the investment done in their training was wasted and this is why her
company preferred to hire males because they don’t quit jobs easily.
4.3.7 Indigenous culture’s effect on skills of females
4.3.7.1 Vision development
The participants of this study were asked if cultural taboos mentioned by them effect their
skills necessary to become a leader and the responses were quite different. Almost twenty
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respondents thought their vision of life has been effected by conservative culture and
family restrictions while the rest five said it didn’t. Aqsa Khan said:
“I think my vision development skill has not been effected by the cultural taboos I face
and restrictions put on my behaviour. I have always believed in myself and have shaped
my vision.”
Farkhanda said:
“I believe my vision has been effected by the culture and restrictions I faced throughout
my life. I had the dream of becoming a lawyer but I couldn’t pursue my dream because I
wasn’t supported by my family and culture. Although I am working right now but it’s not
what I really wanted to do and that’s why I don’t feel authentic towards my work
sometimes.”
Maryam Fatima added:
“I believe our culture shapes us and it has shaped my vision in a way different from what
it would be if I didn’t belong to this culture. I see most of my friends have no vision and
that’s because they know they will not be allowed to accomplish that vision.”
Maida said:
“Our culture gives us the feeling that we cannot make our decisions and we are controlled
which is why most of females don’t have a vision today. They know it’s useless to have
a vision when they will need a pile of arguments and justification to start working on it.
As we are not given equal treatment, we doubt ourselves and our decisions too and that
is why most of us don’t have any vision or mission for life.”
Amina Arshad said:
“I don’t think I have a pure vision for life because I know I am not supported enough and
I have to face cultural barriers. The conservative culture around me has never let me be
confident enough to have a vision and fight for it.”
Zubeda Harris explained:
“The feeling of being controlled by others has not let me have any solid vision for myself
because I have not really known myself. All I know is that I am someone supposed to
take care of family and relationships and be good to everyone and in playing these roles
I have lost my vision somewhere. I would say yes females of Pakistan can achieve a lot
in life if the culture let them do so.”
Almost all the respondents agreed that the conservative culture and taboos they have to
face have effected their vision for life and achievements in a negative way. Four
respondents Maiha Ammar, Fatima, Rabbiya and Sana however believed that the
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development of vision is totally dependent on females and how strong they are willing to
fight against hardships. Maiha said that everyone has to fight for their beliefs and vision
and therefore females too have to fight against culture and society. So she believed that
if she is truly passionate about herself and her vision, she would be ready to stand against
anything and any cultural taboo. Rabbiya believed the same thing however she said that
the role of family is very important. According to her, if family is supportive females can
stand against society and cultural taboos but when relationships stand against us, visions
have to be sacrificed to save relationships and family. Fatima agreed to rabbiya and she
added that almost everyone has a vision but overtime this visions gets effected by
circumstances which are not very positive for females in Pakistan. Fatima said that
standing against culture is possible if family back up is there however if family stands
against us too, it’s very unlikely to hold onto ones vision and sacrifice all the relationships
because females avoid risking relationships and breaking them for their own wishes.
Overall, all the participants were of the view point that their vision was shaped negatively
because of conservative culture and they had to give up on their vision too because of the
restrictions imposed by culture. One very important aspect out of this discussion was the
role family plays in the life of females as all the participants said they could accomplish
their vision and have one if their family was on their side which in most cases is not.
Therefore, although cultural taboos effect female’s mission and vision development in a
negative manner, Pakistani females place a high value to their family which is why they
give up when family opposes their decisions and approach towards life.
4.3.7.2 Self-recognition
When asked if culture effects the self-confidence of females almost all participants said
that their confidence was negatively affected and broken down by culture. This is because
culture of Pakistan doesn’t let females take important decision, be free about their life and
mission and restricts them to defined roles which doesn’t let self-development and
integration and therefore effects self- recognition. Fatima told:
“I don’t exactly know who I am and what my beliefs are because the person I am right
now is not myself, it is a mix of society and culture and their values. I don’t know exactly
who I am and what I really want in my life and I believe this is because my culture didn’t
let me be myself and didn’t give me enough freedom to think and know myself.”
Sana said:
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“I know myself and I recognize the true individual in me however over time that
individual is shaped by culture and its taboos and that has left me no more the same sana
I used to be.”
Hajira said:
“Self-recognition is very important however it is very difficult to have in a society where
you are not allowed to be yourself and this is what my society is, it never allowed me to
become myself and effected my self-recognition negatively.”
Farkhanda said:
“We females are expected to behave in a certain way since the very first day of our life
and this doesn’t leave much room to recognize ourselves except in cases where we
become rebellious to the culture and its beliefs.”
Komal javed said:
“I am seen as a caring and kind person who is responsible for her family and relationships
which doesn’t let me be myself and doesn’t give me enough freedom to recognize myself.
I choose to work because my family was facing financial issues. It is not something I
really love to do and therefore I am not very motivated towards it. The way our society
treats females and controls them doesn’t let them recognize the real self and be who they
actually want to be.”
Zubeda said:
“I run a saloon and therefore I see myself as an entrepreneur however I feel my culture
effect my entrepreneurial abilities. I cannot move freely, cannot think have expanding
internationally and I find it difficult to deal with males on my own because of their
mentality about working women and the negative perception they hold.”
4.4 Summary
This chapter reported the findings of twenty five female participants of this study. The
conversations revealed that conservative culture of Pakistan imposes many taboos on
female’s personal as well as professional life, effects their vision and perception about
themselves.
The categories emerged out of the study were categorized in two themes; Cultural taboos
and Leadership abilities. Findings from the interviews indicated that culture of Pakistan
is a big barrier to the development of career of females in Pakistan. Females face the issue
of social immobility which is why most of the entrepreneurial ventures remain small scale
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and under developed and most of the females give up on better job opportunities in bigger
cities.
Culture imposes the tradition of females being answerable for everything they do and
complying with all the decisions made for them. It appeared that females are not able to
make their decisions and instead they have to rely on decisions already made for them
which restricts their career development.
Females are considered the honour of house and therefore they are expected to behave in
a very careful manner so no one can point a figure on them. It also appeared that females
are expected to behave in a certain way which effects their progress. Females are expected
to be loving and caring and therefore their rationality is doubted. As people assume that
females are loving, their decisions are doubted on rational basis and this is why most of
the companies give them positions which involve more emotional and less rational
decisions.
Females believe that culture imposes strict taboos on them which restricts their mission
and vision development as well as important leadership skills. Females adopt the roles
given to them by society which is why there is a lack of self-recognition in them and self-
confidence is low as compared to their male colleagues.
Also, females are not allowed to pursue their dreams and take their own decisions which
is why they don’t have any vision of their own and they don’t stick to their dreams.
Females are expected to submit themselves to their family and therefore have to be
agreeable to all the decisions made for them which leaves the little freedom to fulfil their
own dreams and be who they really want to be. Females are expected to make sacrifices
and save relationships from breaking and this is why they have to sacrifice themselves to
keep relationship strong and living.
Females find it very challenging to balance work and family life because of the uneven
distribution of house work. Most of the females feel extra tired and are unable to manage
their house work as well as job. Single working girls however don’t face this problem so
intensely because they are usually taken care of by their mothers and have maids for their
work. This is one of the reasons that females prefer to work when they are unmarried but
as soon as they get married they find it very tough to balance responsibilities at home and
work.
Lastly, Culture has a very strong negative impact on success of females in their
professional life because of the role expectation, social immobility issues, decision
making power and restrictions it imposes on females.
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5 DISCUSSION
5.1 Introduction to the section
This research examined the effect of cultural taboos on women leadership and
entrepreneurship abilities in Pakistan. Findings of the study indicated that the overall
native culture influences female’s abilities to excel in their career and is the main reason
of poor representation of women in organizations especially at senior positions.
Indigenous culture of Pakistan gives rise to conservative organizational culture which
effects career progress of females in their respective fields.
While women equity and leadership is very well researched internationally, research in
this field is less in Pakistan especially focusing on the rural areas which contribute 64%
(World economic forum, 2015) of the total population out of which 41% (Tahir Hussain,
2014) are females. However little focus on circumstances of females in these areas and
scarcity of research in this dimension gives rise to the commonly held belief that equity
has been achieved in Pakistan and therefore no specific steps are taken. This gives rise to
the ongoing gender discrimination and social injustice because of inferior status of
females.
It is expected that this particular research will contribute effectively to the small amount
of literature currently available on female leadership in Pakistan and will give rise to more
scholars in this field.
From a cultural perspective, this study has very important implications for newly made
cross cultural approach on women leadership development. Cheng (1995) emphasizes the
role played by cultural elements in determining future of nations. Culture shapes
behaviour and effects the behaviour as well as thinking process of individuals (Hallinger
& Leithwood, 1996) and this is one reason it is very essential to understand culture in
order to understand concepts of leadership prevailing in a particular society and to
understand “how and why leaders in different cultures do what they do” (Walker &
Dimmock, 2002, p. 1).
This chapter provides a discussion about how indigenous culture of Pakistan effects
women’s experiences and their leadership skills.
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5.1.1 Indigenous culture
5.1.1.1 Decision making power
Evidence from the research conducted suggests that female leaders face difficulty in
taking important decisions because they are not used to take decisions on their own.
Females in Pakistan comply with decisions taken by their family for them and this is why
most women interviewed believed they didn’t really know how to take effective decisions
which effected their career progress and performance at work. The cultural taboo of
“Decision making” is also present in India (Jejeebhoy, S. J. 2000), China (Tang, C. S. K.,
1999) and Bangladesh (Kabeer, N. 2005) and have been causing troubles at personal as
well as professional level for females in these regions for years now (Roomi, 2009). The
females of this study shared their experiences which showed that most of them felt like
they had to comply with decisions already taken for them and this is why they lacked the
power of taking impulsive, quick and major decisions which effected their success at
work as compared to male members at work. In Pakistan, culture dictates that females
should be obedient and accept decisions of their family without doubting anything and
without questioning anything. Therefore, common culture of obedience and
agreeableness effects decision making power of females in a negative way. If females
behave contrary to culture and start standing against decisions taken for them and
questioning things, their behaviour is not accepted and they are judged negatively
affecting their reputation in a negative way.
The culture of obedience by females can have important consequences for female
leadership and entrepreneurial abilities. Firstly, a leader as written by DePree (2011)
needs to be able to take important decisions for herself as well as for followers and be
confident at the decisions once she has taken them and the same thing applies for
entrepreneurs too who according to Sarasvathy (2001) need to be able to trust their
decisions and take quick and major decisions.
Secondly, if a leader/ entrepreneur doesn’t trust her own decision, she will not be able to
defend it and fight for it which will affect her credibility in a negative way. The females
of this study agreed that the inability to make decisions for themselves lowered their self-
confidence and ability to handle situations on their own.
5.1.1.2 Social immobility issues
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Findings of this study indicated that immobility issues constrained women’s success as
entrepreneurs and better job opportunities. These findings are not surprising as females
in India (Law, R. 1999), Malaysia, China, Bangladesh and Melanesia (Strathern, M.,
1988).
As mentioned earlier, participants of this study were not allowed to go out without
permission from family members and it was preferred that they take someone along
instead of going alone. Therefore, jobs with night work hours were not suitable to females
and this restricted their job opportunities as compared to males in Pakistan.
Social immobility is associated to the ongoing terrorism and security threats in Pakistan.
However females who participated in this study didn’t agree and they were of the view
point that if terrorism caused this restriction, then males should be equally restricted as
females because they are equally prone to danger as females. However, this is not the
case and females have more restrictions as compared to males.
Social immobility has taken many forms in the country and has been shaped by culture
in different ways. Firstly, females are not allowed to go out without permission from the
elder family members. In order to take permission they have to explain the activities they
will do, places they will visit and justify that going out is important.
However getting permission is not very easy especially for females of rural areas where
doing a job is not appreciated and is considered as something which effects one’s family
respect in a negative way. Secondly, females are expected to be home after sunset and it
is considered unacceptable to stay out after sunset.
If there is an important work, they are expected to take someone from the family alone.
This restricts their options to work in evening. For females who are entrepreneurs, this
restrictions acts as a constraint to expansion of operations because females have to make
sure they have a business which they can run only during day time. Thirdly, females are
not allowed to move across cities alone and are expected to have anyone from the family
along. This is especially prevalent is rural areas where parents accompany their daughters
for work across cities.
This adds a huge restriction because females cannot look for opportunities is different
towns and have to stay in their own city which might not have high opportunities for
them. In case of entrepreneurs, this adds the restriction of staying in a niche, small market
and not being able to expand on national level.
Females who expand on national level have male partners working in other cities and it
is very unlikely that they visit across cities to keep an eye on performance and business
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situation. Fourthly, females are not allowed to live alone in a different city. If a female
get a job in a bigger city, she cannot take that opportunity because she is not allowed to
live alone. If there are relatives living in that city, it becomes possible for them to avail
the opportunity otherwise it’s very impossible.
This immobility issue brings a great challenge for females as most of the females living
in smaller cities have to restrict themselves to the low growth jobs where rules are not
very defined and getting promotion as a female is tough. In Pakistan, most of the
multinational have their offices in bigger cities which makes it tough for females from
smaller cities to join these multinationals thus restricting their career success. This is one
of the reasons that most of the females in bigger cities go for higher degree and better
universities while females in smaller cities go for education which is not in demand and
they restrict to job with no specific growth and no desirable culture for females to work
happily.
Although culture is changing in Pakistan and female work force is increasing, however
issues like social immobility still prevail very strictly and constraint females from
progressing in their career both at job and as entrepreneur. Not being able to move freely
is one of the reasons that most females in Pakistan go for entrepreneurship in restricted
fields such as fashion, education, nursing, food, beauty etc. and it is also one of the
significant reasons that fewer females emerge on international level as entrepreneurs and
they restrict their activities and business expansion on national level.
5.1.1.3 Female subordination
This study’s findings indicate that females of Pakistan are given a specific role and they
have to behave in that particular code of conduct. This code of conduct effects their role
at job, leadership skills and their career development as well. Traditional gender
stereotypes exist in Pakistani culture which influence the behaviour of society towards
females and the expectations from females.
Most of the participants highlighted that being a female in Pakistan brought lots of
expectations for their behaviour which effected their career and entrepreneurial abilities.
Firstly, they are expected to be obedient and agreeable because they are females and
because of the inferior status they are given which assumes that females agree to all the
decisions made for them.
This notion of being agreeable made it very tough for females to go against the prevalent
society norms which favour males. Also, most of the females are expected to be obedient
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to the male members at work and they are expected to take care of the relationship they
hold to male members at work. Female participants believed that this effects the way
people look at them as leaders and as managers. People believe that females will be easily
affected by emotions and sensitivity of other people and their decisions would include
high degree of emotionality rather than rationality which is why females are not preferred
as leaders in the organizations.
Similar beliefs exist in China and Turkey (Celikten, 2005), (Qiang et al., 2009) where
females are seen as inferior to men because they are more emotional and therefore are not
considered suitable for higher leadership positions. In China too, females are seen as
emotional, weak, careful, responsible and prudent which makes them incompetent for
administrator jobs and leadership positions.
The concept of female subordination and role expected from females by the society
therefore acts as a big constraint to emergence and selection of females in leadership
positions and high management positions which involve big decisions. It is a general
belief that females are negatively trapped by their emotions and therefore they are not as
good as males in tackling problems at work.
It is assumed that females are more people oriented as leaders instead of being task
oriented and therefore they can effect performance in a negative way. It is also assumed
that females will favour people and relationships over work and therefor would quit work
when they face family issues such as marriage, trouble with family related to job etc. and
therefore management feels reluctant to invest in their training for higher positions. Most
of the females believed that the roles expected from them makes it very impossible for
them to be selected for higher positions.
5.1.1.4 Family and work life balance
Findings of this study indicated that all the participants find it very tough to balance work
and family life and they believe that the imbalance of these two roles constraints their
career advancements. This finding is not very surprising as females across the world
complain that work life balance is a major barrier to their job life success (Akao, 2008;
Court, 2004; Davis & Johansson, 2005; Dean et al., 2009; Nguyen, 2007; Qiang et al.,
2009; Truong, 2008; Vali, 2010).
Participants of this study felt overwhelmed with workloads and domestic responsibilities
and believed that the imbalance can be a reason to quit their jobs. This traces back to the
Pakistani culture and its norms which put all house hold responsibilities of females and
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leave male as bread earner and family owner. Therefore females who work have to
shoulder double burden of workplace responsibilities and deadlines and work at home
where they had to comply with all norms, taking care of their kids, husband, siblings and
this is why most females had no time to take care of themselves.
The burden of work life and family is more suited to married females who have a husband
and kids to take care of or to females from rural areas who cannot afford a maid to work
for them. For single females in urban areas however this was not a big issue because they
had maids taking care of their food, cleanliness and work at home.
This is one the reasons most females give up on jobs when they get married and consider
house work as an unpaid job. Most females thought their male colleagues performed
better at work because they didn’t have a pressure of family and house work and therefore
they were more active and healthy at work.
Pakistan is effected by Confucianism aspect of culture which sees women as “Creatures
who work hard for family, have chastity, proper behaviour, are family oriented and play
their role as daughters, mother, wives and sisters and be obedient to their family” (Schuler
et al., 2006, p. 386).
This concept assigns females for all the domestic duties such as taking care of children,
breast feeding them, teaching them good values, and taking care of husband and his
family and it assigns husbands the role of bread earner for the family and care taker of
the family (Truong, 2008, p. 19).
Social media of Pakistan also praises and promotes these feminine roles and therefore
females have to comply with these roles if they want to become acceptable in society and
be known in good terms. Any female who values her work on family is considered
inappropriate and therefore females sacrifice work for family matters.
The challenge of balancing work and family life discourages most of the females to
continue work after marriage and therefore restricts the work life of females to only few
years of youth and few years after 40 when their kids are grown up, married and can take
care of themselves.
This is one of the reason why females work for lesser hours, demand flexible job hours,
don’t stay late for their job and they prefer fields such as teaching, fashion, saloon etc.
where they can work for few hours and do rest of work from home.
Although culture has started changing and so have perceptions of society about females,
there are still some constraints highly prevalent especially in rural areas where females
have to subordinate, have to be obedient and cannot speak for their rights.
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The challenges faced by females due to conservative culture of Pakistan and a culture
which favours males over females effect their leadership abilities and entrepreneurial
opportunities. Female participants of this study felt that they lack self-confidence because
of not been able to take their decisions and be themselves.
Self-confidence as argued by Bennis (2009) is the essence of becoming a leader because
a leader has to be sure about who she is and what she is doing in order to be able to
convince her followers to trust her and her vision. If a leader lacks self-confidence she
will give up in tougher situations when disagreements increase and therefore will divert
from her mission which is unacceptable as a leader.
Most of the females in this study agreed that they didn’t have a clear vision for life and
they always see themselves as creatures responsible for family work and happiness of
their relationships. They never dreamed of anything big because they knew their dreams
could not be accomplished.
Therefore most of the participants felt they didn’t have a vision because of the cultural
restrictions and they agreed that they will sacrifice their vision for family which effects
their career as well as leadership abilities. Overall, participants believed that their current
culture is a barrier to their career advancement and equal representation of females in
parliament as well as organizations.
Participants agreed that they lack focus as compared to their male members and are more
occupied because of their domestic duties however they believed that things need to be
changed and females need to be given more confidence in themselves.
Participants suggested that in order to polish the leadership abilities of females, there is
need to teach equality and need to make them feel that they can stand up for their rights,
can dream and can have a life where their male members share equal domestic
responsibilities with them. However this is a slow process and the need is to change the
mind-set which promotes female ownership by males and family and leaves females in
inferior status as compared to other males of the society.
5.2 Summary
This chapter provided a discussion of the results of this study. The discussion emerged
out of this research was theoretically and practically in line with most of the literature
consulted on women leadership. Specifically, women’s career growth and leadership
skills were strongly restricted due to cultural barriers such as social immobility, family
76
and work life balance, role expectancy from females, lack of decision making power and
inability to have an independent life of their own.
This study examined women’s leadership from cultural perspective and therefore its
findings are believed to have significant contribution to existing literature body and to the
development efforts in countries like Bangladesh, India, china etc. where gender equity
is still in question especially at professional level.
Culture is a very unique practice and therefore impact of every nation’s culture on their
women is very unique and varies from country to country. A unique finding of this study
was that women are disadvantaged in many aspects of life because of the perceptions
society holds about them and because of the roles they are given since their early
childhood.
They suffer from gender stereotypes which are a result of prevalence of Confucianism
concept in society. Although Pakistan had a female prime minister and it is encouraging
participation of females both in politics as well as professions, females are still seen from
the traditional culture’s eyes which restricts their progress and success.
The study indicated that indigenous culture of Pakistan has a very significant impact on
women’s leadership skills including their vision development, self-confidence,
perception about themselves and self-recognition and this impact effected their growth in
organizations and their success at work.
Socio-cultural norms with traditional gender roles, and male dominance influence
female’s leadership practices and career success and contribute to under-representation
of females in most of the work positions.
77
6 CONCLUSION
6.1 Introduction
This research examined how culture effected Pakistani women’s career progress and
leadership skills. The research was conducted qualitatively using a phenomenological
theoretical framework. Twenty five women from rural and urban areas of Pakistan
participated in this study and all the participants were interviewed using skype and most
of the interviews were in national language Urdu.
From the interviews, transcripts were developed and translated into English afterwards
and thematic approach was employed to conduct analysis of the material transcribed.
Experiences of these females showed that Pakistani culture has a strongly negative impact
on career development of females and their leadership abilities. Culture effects the
mobility of females and therefore puts them in low preference as compared to males who
are free to move and live alone.
This chapter summarises the findings of this study, proceeding to some recommendations
for improving the current situation. Lastly, suggestions on future research are given and
limitations are presented closing with concluding words.
This study used a cultural canvas to uncover the obstacles faced by working women of
Pakistan. Firstly, the study examines that females are lesser in number in organizations
hierarchy because of the strongly male dominant culture which restricts females from
certain activities that are important to have better career.
Most of the companies are dominated by men because males are thought to be more
rational at decision making and more responsible while females are considered more
emotional and therefore their decisions are not trusted.
Females face a much closed culture and a closed canvas in which they are seen as the
agreeable creatures owned by family and husband. Although women’s values, respect and
good attitude towards females is widely prevalent in Pakistani society, females are still
constantly faced by traditional values and norms which restrict their innovation and
entrepreneurial abilities and they still face great degree of gender discrimination.
Traditional male dominant attitude and beliefs held about females are still wide spread in
most of the areas of Pakistan especially the rural areas where education and awareness is
too less and males are too dominant and commanding. Males are still preferred on jobs
with high ranks because of the underlying stereotypes existing about females and the
emotional aspect of their personality.
78
Males are still considered bread earners and females are expected to always prefer their
family and house work on their job because their core responsibility is still to manage the
domestic responsibilities.
Job is considered something extra and therefore females always give up on job when it
comes to managing work and family. Females who enter work sphere face great challenge
in managing their family role and work life and this is one the reasons that most of the
females don’t work after marriage.
Females find themselves less self-confident with no clear vision and little or no self-
recognition and they believe these things lack in them because culture keeps them very
closed and dependent from the early childhood.
Although Pakistani society is facing a huge shift with more and more females emerging
as entrepreneurs and more females working in big multinationals, the cultural shift is
slower as compared to globalization and development of females in rest of the world.
Females are trapped by indigenous culture which restricts their lives to merely their
family and friends and doesn’t let them dream something of their own.
The findings of this study have very important implications in the area of improvement
of female’s representation in leadership positions and job market.
6.2 Recommendations
Significant efforts have already been made and are currently being made in Pakistan in
order to improve women’s representation in leadership positions and organizations. To
improve the current situation, however more efforts need to be done keeping a focus on
following things.
Firstly, females should be encouraged to be independent and take their own decisions.
The culture of obedience should be changed to fighting for their own rights and arguing
for the things which they consider right. Females are generally not allowed to speak for
themselves and are expected to be obedient towards all the decisions which is why they
lack decision making power and are not preferred for higher positions at job.
This approach should be changed and females should be encouraged to take decisions and
should be given training programs to make them better understand what is the right way
of doing things and fighting for themselves.
Secondly, organizations should try to mentor women by giving them different
management tasks and duties where their rationality can be tested and they can be taught
how to overcome emotional aspects of their personality and make more rational decisions.
79
Thirdly, efforts should be made to change the general mind set about females which is
“females are the family keepers”.
There is a need to conduct awareness programmes aimed at changing the current mind
set about females and their role in the society. Females are heavily influenced by their
family and the decisions taken by family for them therefore until family doesn’t change
its perception about females, there is very low probability of women advancement in jobs
and leadership positions.
Therefore, to bring more females in better positions, the general mentality needs to be
worked upon and family’s mentality should be changed to support them in taking
decisions for themselves instead of forcing decisions on them.
6.3 Limitations
As this study was conducted on a small scale and focused on few areas of Pakistan, there
are certain limitations attached to it.
Firstly, the sample size was small and cannot be attributed as a representative of the whole
of Pakistan. This study was conducted in Punjab which is one of the most developed
provinces of Pakistan.
However situation of females in other provinces is worse where religious extremism and
ownership of females is very high and females are killed for any disobedience against
family. Punjab is the most developed region of Pakistan with all the bigger and developed
cities and therefore this study didn’t bring all the in depth prevailing taboos against
females of tropical areas.
Secondly, interviews were conducted in Urdu and translated in English. Although efforts
were done to do the best translation, however there is still possibility of some ideas being
misinterpreted.
6.4 Future research implications
For future researchers, it is recommended that research should be conducted on a large
scale and in the tropical areas of Pakistan in order to get a better picture of these areas.
Moreover, comparison should be drawn between Punjab and the rest provinces so that
improvements can be made more effective and it can be known which areas need what
kind of methods to improve situation of females.
Moreover it is generalized that the current situation of females and restriction on them is
due to religion. However, a study needs to be conducted to study religious roots and
80
historical roots of Pakistan and compare the religious doctrine to current situation of
females. This would help many females know what exactly religion offers for them and
if these restrictions are merely cultural or have any association to religion too.
6.5 Conclusion
This study examined that females career progress in Pakistan is highly effected by culture
of Pakistan. While culture is a social practice and it should be respected, there are many
aspects of culture which needs to be questioned and changed.
In order to change anything at organizational level, there is a need to change the
underlying perceptions about females and need to change the indigenous culture.
This study has important implications for bringing gender equity in societies like Pakistan
where females are still not a big part of labour force and don’t play a significant role in
economic development.
81
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I
Appendices
Appendix A Interview Sheet
Respectable Participants,
I am studying Master of Leadership and Management in International Context at Linnaeus
University, Sweden. This research is part of my Masters degree and it aims to examine
the impact of native culture on working women’s leadership experiences. To conduct my
research I need to conduct interviews from females working in different areas and this is
where I need your help. If you are willing to help me and become a participant of this
study, please read these two questions on which I will need information from you during
interview:
1)How native culture does effects your career success?
2)What norms prevail in our culture and how do they affect your personality?
As a working lady, I would like to ask you questions about the impact current culture has
on your work experience as well as your personality. I would like you to share with me
your beliefs and your perceptions about current situation of females and how culture
affects you negatively as well as positively. In order to get this information I would like
to interview you for half an hour. I would like to get your permission for interview and I
would like to ask your permission to record your interview and I need your consent on
this paper in the form of signature. I would like to assure you that the information I get
from you will be used for research purpose solely. All the information will be kept
confidential and only I can access along with my supervisors. The findings of this study
will be reported in confidential way and your identity will be kept anonymous.I need to
assure you that if you become part of this study, you are allowed to refuse to answer any
question. It is to tell you also that the discussion will be kept open and you are free to ask
any question during the interview. If you have any questions or any queries, please feel
free to email me at [email protected]
You can also contact my supervisor
Associate Professor Philippe Daudi
Department of Organisation and Entrepreneurship
Linnaeus University
Kalmar, Sweden
Email: [email protected]
Thank you very much for your help!
Shafta Manzoor
II
Appendix 2 Consent Form
Development of Business leaders in developing countries: Impact of Indigenous
Culture on women leadership in Pakistan.
Consent Form for Participants
I have read the Participant Information Sheet for this study and have had the details of
the study explained to me. My questions about the study have been answered to my
satisfaction, and I understand that I may ask further questions at any time.
I also understand that I am free to withdraw from the study before analysis has
commenced on the data or to decline to answer any particular questions in the study. I
agree to provide information to the researcher under the conditions of confidentiality set
out on the Participant Information Sheet.
I agree to participate in the research conducted by Shafta Manzoor. I also agree for the
information to be used for the writing of the thesis, the publication of the articles and
conference presentations.
Signature:_________________________________________________
Name:____________________________________________________
III
Appendix 3 Interview questions
1) General information questions:
a. Name:
b. Age:
c. Occupation:
d. Marital status:
e. Organization you work at:
f. Place you work at:
g. How long have you been working (Total number of years you have
worked irrespective of current organization:
h. Any previous work experience:
i. How do you feel about yourself?
j. How society did shaped your image about yourself?
k. Who are you answerable to? Why?
l. How culture effected your motivation to pursue your dreams?
m. How authentic do you feel when making decisions? Do you believe
acceptance from others often changes our true decision?
n. How did the culture effect your vision and mission of life?
2) What was the culture at your home? How did it help/restrict you in excelling
your career?
3) How did culture effected your career progress? What were the challenges posed
culturally and socially?
4) What role did marriage play in your career?
5) What taboos do you feel exist in our society when it comes to females?
6) How does these taboos effect female’s perspective towards themselves and their
life?
7) How many times did you thought about giving up because of the challenges you
faced?
IV
Appedix 4 Statistics of Pakistan
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