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Unveiling Gender Disparities in Urban Pakistan’s Higher Education
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- Author(s) / Creator(s)
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This literature review examines persistent gender disparities in urban Pakistan’s higher education, highlighting socio-cultural, economic, and institutional barriers restricting women’s academic and professional mobility. Despite increased female enrollment, patriarchal norms, mobility constraints, financial dependence, and discriminatory structures hinder full participation in education and the workforce. Using frameworks of distributive and recognition-based justice (Hennessy, 1999; Höffe, 2013; Young & Allen, 2011) and intersectionality (Crenshaw et al., 2021; Collins, 2019), the paper explores how systemic exclusions intersect with class, gendered expectations, and policy inefficiencies.
Findings reveal although Pakistan’s National Education Policy promotes gender equity, implementation remains weak due to systemic neglect and resistance. Women employ diverse strategies—from negotiation to activism—to navigate constraints, but resilience alone cannot counter structural inequities. The review calls for targeted reforms, including policy interventions for gender equity in higher education, gender-sensitive institutional reforms, economic incentives and support mechanisms and bridging the policy-practice gap. Without dismantling entrenched barriers, higher education will remain an incomplete path to empowerment rather than a transformative force for equity and mobility. -
- Date created
- 2025-04-07
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- Type of Item
- Research Material