By Wajiha Iqbal Siddiqui.
Gender equality is, first and foremost, a human right. A woman is entitled to live in dignity and freedom. Empowering women is the fundamental right of women. They can have equal rights to participate in education, society, economics, and politics.
In all parts of the world, women are facing threats to their lives, health, and well-being as a result of being overburdened with work.
In most regions of the world, women receive less formal education than men, and at the same time, women’s knowledge, abilities, and coping mechanisms often go unrecognized. The power relations that impede women’s attainment of healthy and fulfilling lives operate at many levels of society, from the most personal to the highly public.
Since the beginning of civilization, there has been evidence of women being considered inferior to men. Almost every country, no matter how progressive has a history of ill-treating women. This has eventually nudged women to retrospect their status in society and has even led women from all over the world to be rebellious to reach the status they have today. Since then, women have been vocal about gender equality and have continuously made efforts to empower themselves to achieve that equality. The empowerment and autonomy of women and the improvement of their political, social, economic, and health status is a highly important end in itself.
Unfortunately, gender equality is still not supported in Pakistan. There are a cultural taboo and a conventional mindset among various societies that women are considered to work as house wife and discouraged to progress their professional career.
There’s a stereotype in society that a working woman can’t concentrate on her kids and household routine whereas there are excellent examples of women all over the world who have succeeded in their professional career as well as raising a perfect family.
However, we have various successful women in Pakistan who have set examples all over the world and broke the stereotype such as Kanwal Ahmed from Soul Sisters Pakistan, Saba Mohsin from Pakistan Chefs at Home and Karachi Chefs at Home, Muniba Mazari from United Nations’s first goodwill women ambassador to Pakistan, Bilquis Bano Edhi (The key founder of Edhi Foundation) and many more.
Women entrepreneurs have become a strong driving force in today’s corporate world as they are not only able to equalize their duties of both motherhood and entrepreneurship but they also comprise almost half of all businesses today.
All these women highlight the ways in which they attain corporate success and continue to support other Pakistani women.
With such varied interests and industries, these women have shown that with tenacity, perseverance, and hard work anything is possible.
Hence these Pakistani women stand as a testament to what can be achieved in the corporate world. Furthermore, this encourages other women to take up similar roles, showing that anything is possible.
