Date

2011

Author

Tabassum, Naima

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This dissertation is a qualitative case study of women’s political participation in local government in District Hyderabad, Pakistan from a feminist perspective. There is a longstanding patriarchal trend of elite women’s selective political participation in Pakistan. But recently introduced local government system with increased quota (33%) for women brought a large mass of non-elite women in local politics. This research explores the social dynamics behind this changing pattern through semi-structured interviews with 53 elected women local councilors in the district. It argues that there is a dialectical relationship between patriarchy and women’s political participation. It shows how patriarchal structures have reconfigured to enhance their interest by bringing non-elite women into politics for their power interest. The women, who entered politics, do not challenge the patriarchal structures; rather they use them as resources to facilitate their entry and survival in politics. This process has rendered somewhat of a compatible co-existence between these two antagonistic forces. Patriarchy has gained more modernized outlook while still retaining male domination. The non-elite women, although still controlled by and submissive to male domination, have gained ever broader legitimate space for their autonomous action. The research contributes to the debates concerning patriarchal transformation, arguing that certain features of patriarchy, when responding to accommodate new socio-political developments, gives rise to its own contradictions, thus potentially creating the conditions for overall societal change.

Subject Keywords

Women, Women, Muslim women, Feminism., Women in politics.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12613022/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/20657

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis