In all under developed societies women are treated as weaker beings, or vassals, but they have fully demonstrated their spirit with dignity and honour.
The number of working women, from mere thousands in 60s and 70s, has phenomenally risen to millions during the last two decades in Pakistan.
They are everywhere from factories and hospitals, to professions like medicines, tacking space shuttles, engineering, banking, police, politics, journalism, judiciary and at all levels of bureaucracy in our country.
Besides facing and braving all odds and peculiar environments, these women work diligently.
Sustainable development is possible only if women are effectively engaged in all sectors of the economy, for which, effort is needed to produce a skilled female work force. But now, women with proper skills and suitable education are seizing the opportunity.
The economic squeeze is acting as a motivating force to spur them into action. In fact, women have come a long way since independence to supplement the family income and create a respectable position for themselves.
It is heartening to observe that urban society is absorbing women rapidly in different professions.
On the contrary, in rural areas, women have been doing a variety of chores without any monetary return or even a word of praise. It is a way of life. But now, with the opening of schools and vocational centers for girls, the rural economy is undergoing a steady change.
Gainful employment opportunities would rope in more and more women for a better life in the rural areas.
Dependence on men makes them subservient. It takes away the inherent element of struggle, eliminating chances of improvement.
These values are passed on from generation to generation. Only enlightenment that comes through education and socialisation is the remedy.
No religious or social dogma forbids struggle, which is the essence of modern thought. In fact, it has been the abiding principle since time immemorial. It is the definition of struggle which has been the root cause of the malaise.
The elements for a status quo rejects change. Paradoxically, they also champion the cause of struggle but not against the values in vogue, which they consider inviolable. It, therefore, follows that for women to play a meaningful role in economic development, they need to project their real image in society.
It will, in return, free them from taboos, discrimination and oppression, which bar their entry into the mainstream of our body politic.
The present government realised the suffering of women and took practical steps for their well being. It inducted women as members of the federal cabinet and reserved 33 percent of the seats for them in the local bodies.
In addition, significant representation was given to them in the national and provincial legislatures, as against only 20 seats reserved for them in the past.
This is a healthy change. Women are enjoying their coveted right of representation fully.
They have 60 seats in the National assembly, from 5 to 29 in the Sindh assembly from 12 to 66 in Punjab assembly, from 4 to 22 in NWFP assembly and form 2 to 11 in the Balochistan assembly with a greater voice in decision and policy making.
The condition of being a graduate has also added dignity to the legislatures. Let's hope these women legislators give women what they need the most.
About a year and half ago, a workshop on "women's access to legal and judicial professions" was held in Islamabad.
The chairman of the opening session, the then chief justice of Pakistan pointed at the lack of security, accommodation and transportation facilities as main hurdles which resulted in the low representation of women in the legal field.
He observed that a pleasant working environs was vital to facilitating the females who joined the profession as lawyers and jurists.
Justice Majida Rizvi, speaking on the occasion, regretted that sexual harassment at various levels including the work place, offices and even courts, at the hands of the male judges, discouraged women, ambitious to join the legal profession.
She also observed that the low standard of education, lack of proficiency in the English language and poor drafting also hampered women from becoming lawyers.
It is a well-known fact, that this is happening in every profession in our male dominated society and seems impossible to check such behaviour due to social and cultural restrictions.
Meanwhile, according to the institute of Development Economics, micro level survey, 77 percent of the total female labour force is from the informal sector and almost 53 percent of this are home-based workers.
In the rural areas, 79 percent of the female population, above the age of 10, is actively involved in farming, of which only 37 percent is gainfully employed at family farms and the rest fall within the category of unpaid workers.
THE ILO (INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION) COUNTRY EMPLOYMENT POLICY REVIEW DOCUMENT ON PAKISTAN SAYS: (1) unregistered sector's capital labour ratio and productivity, is lower than that of the registered sector by a factor 7 (2) consequently, its wage rates are also much lower, and in addition, being unregistered, is not protected by any social legislation on the workers' right to welfare, security or organisation. (3) about 40 percent of the registered sector in manufacturing is also based on self-employment and on family labour.
A major portion of unregistered workers comprise of female home-based workers, most of whom do not appear in statistics, and face the worst type of exploitation at the hands of their employers.
In fact, in our society, particularly in rural areas, women wage-work is looked upon as a threat to the male ego.
As such, the male enumerators get information from the male members of the family which relates to registered economic activity only, ignoring the informal sector activity, as such women involvement in home-based activity, business, remain totally invisible and grossly underreported.
In view of the above, to accomplish the desired objectives, let's hope for legislation on vital women's issues, implemented with an iron hand, to promote socio-economic development of the criminally neglected, downtrodden segment of our society.
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