Women's Economic Empowerment and Household Welfare: Evidence from Southern Punjab, Pakistan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54938/ijemdss.2026.05.1.708Keywords:
Women's Economic Empowerment, Household Welfare, Gender Discrimination, Employment Opportunities, Poverty Reduction, Southern Punjab, PakistanAbstract
Economic empowerment has become a major factor of household welfare, poverty alleviation and sustainable socioeconomic development in developing countries, with a particular focus on women. In spite of its significance, women in Pakistan still have to deal with various socio-economic problems such as gender discrimination, low employment opportunities, and less access to productive resources. This study is on the relationship between economic empowerment of women and welfare of household in Southern Punjab, Pakistan. Structured questionnaire with five-point Likert scale was used to gather primary data from 500 female respondents. The reliability of the instrument was validated with the Cronbach Alpha result obtained was 0.793. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression techniques with SPSS. The results indicate that the respondents have moderate levels of economic empowerment for women, household welfare, employment opportunities, and gender discrimination. Correlation analysis reveals that gender discrimination is significant determinant of women's socioeconomic outcomes along with job opportunities. The results of the regression showed that gender discrimination has a significant negative influence on the level of economic empowerment of women, while the employment opportunities have a significant effect on the empowerment outcomes. The results also indicate that women's access to social and structural opportunities in economic activities and decision making processes is still constrained. While there were less strong statistical relationships between poverty and household welfare, it is important to note that these are part of women's overall socioeconomic status. It is concluded that the economic empowerment of women should be improved through a comprehensive action that works on gender equality, increase employment opportunities and increase women's role in economic and social decision-making.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Bisma Hanif, Sadia Mustafa
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