GENDER STUDIES AS AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE IN PAKISTAN: ISSUES, CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

My research is focused on women’s gender studies as an academic discipline in Pakistan to discuss issues, contestation, and expectations from the field. Further, it explores the process of institutionalization of the discipline in contemporary Pakistan. The issues include organizational, financial, and advancement challenges of gender studies in patriarchal societies like Pakistan. The objective of the research is to document the history of the discipline and to analyse its issues, challenges, prospects, and current state of the discipline in Pakistan. I have adopted the feminist qualitative methodology, and my theoretical propositions are grounded in the feminist research principles and feminist standpoint theory. To meet my objectives; I have conducted 22 semi-structured interviews with the teaching faculty of the five different universities in Pakistan. The sampling technique is goal- oriented and purposive convenient; on the other hand, it can be concluded that opposition were more linked to the condition of the discipline, its market utility; and connection between theory and praxis, and what kind of knowledge is being produced by the gender studies academics among five leading public sector universities in major metropolitan cities (Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Baluchistan, and Peshawar) of Pakistan. Moreover, it also put across the perspectives about content of the women’s and gender studies, growth, feminist knowledge production, and the transforming role of gender studies as an academic discipline in Pakistani society. Further, the data around the future and expectations involves debate of multidisciplinary nature of gender studies, there are varied notions about independent status of discipline and integration debate in gender studies. Here one of the biggest v obstacles is the impetus (funding) to establish and expand gender studies which come from international compulsion by global governance institutions and foreign aid agencies. Still, the implementation of these programs ends up at least partially in the hands of conservative (even anti-feminist) administration at the universities who perceive the enforcement of gender studies as contrary to Pakistani culture and perhaps a threat to religious ideologies, and it has Western Eurocentric in intent and effect. It helps us to see how it get through within already established social sciences because in our context it is still considered an ideological and political, not a purely scientific discipline. It is institutionally a fragile discipline because it is still evolving and making its space within mainstream social sciences in Pakistan. The policy recommendation for this research could be that the marketability of the field can be done with the support of national machinery regarding gender equality in Pakistan. Further, with the help of academic institutions, universities, researchers, and think tanks should do brainstorming on the execution of more collaborative work on egalitarian terms to redefine the local knowledge production practices and process of doing research with gender perspective in Pakistan. The department of gender studies can be part of the advisory of the different organizations working on gender and social issues. Lastly, the gender experts or gender specialist positions can be generated at public offices, and weightage should be given to those who possess a degree/certificate and/or diploma in gender studies. It can help to create consciousness-raising among the practitioners in the different social sectors.