Post-Doctoral Research, South Asia
Institute, University of Austin at Texas, USA.And
Muhammad Zafar Iqbal Jadoon, Dr.
Institute of Administrative Sciences, Former Dean, Faculty of Economics and Management,
University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan.
Accepted 28 April, 2008
Women’s participation in governance is extremely important for an even human resource development, poverty alleviation and good governance. In, Pakistan, a concerted and collaborated effort has been made in this regard by providing women 33% representation in local governance through the current local government ordinance, 2000. However, the traditional cultural values and societal norms that ascribe women domestic roles and accord them a lower status as compared to men are not compatible with their professional roles in politics. These cultural norms are reflected in the systemic, organizational and personal practices and constrain their participation in governance. The paper applying a holistic gender, organization system (GOS) perspective analyzes the diverse societal, institutional and individual factors that account for low participation of women in governance in Pakistan. Since women’s passive representation in governance has critical implications for gender sensitive legislation, resource allocation, utilization of human resources and poverty reduction the paper recommends measure such as review of LG policies; gender awareness and mainstreaming, capacity building, networking and mentoring etc. to facilitate their effective participation.
Key Words: Gender, local governance, representation, participation, Pakistan.
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