Masculine Politics and Women Political Participation in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

This mixed methods research study intended to explore how the feminine identities of women are used to undermine women capacities, create social barriers and restrict their political participation. For the qualitative research 20 women registered voters were recruited from Bhawana city, District Chiniot, purposively along with 8 women parliamentarians from different political parties. The information collected from the respondents was analyzed through thematic analysis. The results demonstrated the strong hold of domesticity ideology, gendered division of labor and roles, clear demarcation of private and public sphere, strong adherence to biological determinism, hegemonic masculinities and dominance of feminized outlook. The quantitative part of the study comprised of cross sectional survey of 414 women voters from selected villages of Tehsil 18 Hazari, District Jhang and Tehsil Gujar Khan, District Rawalpindi. Model fit indices of femininity, gender roles, political behaviors (political efficacy, political interest, political culture, political socialization), political trust and political participation showed the goodness of fit of samples through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The descriptive analysis elaborated that respondents scored high on femininity, traditional gender roles and patriarchal political culture and low on political interest, political efficacy, political socialization and political participation. The Correlational Analysis described that femininity is negatively correlated with political participation, political efficacy, political trust, political socialization and political trust (conduct of politicians) and positively with patriarchal political culture and political trust (performance and ability of the politicians). Structure Equation Model (SEM) also confirmed the above results.