Social Policy for Women in Pakistan

This book analyzes the different policy challenges that Pakistani women face and makes regionally relevant policy recommendations across different areas of private and public life, drawing on secondary data from nationally representative surveys and primary data from qualitative interviews. These areas include family safety, housing adequacy, food security and nutritional adequacy, environment and disaster protection, educational development, employment and formal sector inclusion, and health security. The author examines how the history, culture, and political climate of Pakistan have shaped social policy for women, interrogates gaps in social protections for women, and analyzes the limitations for past interventions. This text also looks at collaboration across South Asian countries, as well as using religion, social media, financing, and a new model of governance for comprehensive coverage and sustainable social policy for women. 

This book will be of interest to scholars, students, and policymakers with focus on women’s and gender studies and policy studies in South Asia.

“This book addresses a significant gap on the topic of policy making focused explicitly on the needs of women. It is highly accessible and comprehensive, and will be an important resource for practitioners, policy makers and wider stakeholder’s seeking to improve the health and social care of women, particularly in low and middle income countries”.

-Jane Barlow, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, UK

 “No one could be better qualified than Dr Rizvi Jafree to write a book about social policyfor women in Pakistan. Her work documents not only the huge inequalities that exist, but also the urgent need to develop social policies to help the 114 million women of Pakistan to progress under the shadow of a system that excludes them. Among lower income women, who form the majority, hardships in terms of health and wellbeing are extreme, as they are for the children of low-income families Dr Rizvi Jafree’s deep knowledge and understanding of both Pakistani culture and European-style social policy makes her analysis and proposals truly international. Her arguments for a redistributive social policy are evidence-based and this book is valuable not just to students of South Asian society, but to all those concerned about the wider implications for women’s progress. Her proposals for social policies that equalise the status of women are of real relevance and importance for Pakistani women, and Pakistani society more widely.”

-Anne Power, London School of Economics, UK

"Packed with data-driven analyses of key policies, this book argues for comprehensive social policy for women in Pakistan. While it serves as a handbookon the status of women in Pakistan that advances a vision of equity, it also has relevance for policy design within a framework of pluralism that characterizes the rest of South Asia and beyond. It brings welcome classroom material to a variety of disciplines."

-Anibel Ferus-Comelo, Labor Studies Program at UC Berkeley

‘Drawing on a wealth of socio-demographic data and qualitative case studies, this book carves out a much-needed gendered social policy analysis in Pakistan. It adopts a valuable disaggregated lens, offering insights to the intertwining of gender inequalities with multiple marginalizations. This book deserves to be of wide interest to scholars and actors in global social policy, gender and development, and related fields.’

-Kaveri Qureshi, Global Health Policy Unit/Social Policy, University of Edinburgh

‘Sara Rizvi Jafree offers a comprehensive insight into the impact of social policy on women in Pakistan and how it touches every aspect of their lives. This book is a unique contribution to the study of social protection, welfare and gender, linked to timely and pertinent issues of climate change, conflict and resilience. Theoretically grounded and rich with empirical analysis, this book will be an indispensable resource for researchers, policy makers and practitioners working in Pakistan and beyond.

-Keetie Roelen, Centre for the Study of Global Development (CSGD), Open University, UK,  

'It's incredibly important for everyone to be well-informed about the human rights abuses facing women in Pakistan and the global south generally. This book presents some important recommendations for social policy interventions, pointing the way for South Asia to promote women's protection and equality.'

 -Saru Jayaraman, Food Labor Research Center at University of California, Berkeley.

 

Sara Rizvi Jafree is currently an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology, Forman Christian College University (FCCU) and author of Women, Healthcare and Violence in Pakistan (OUP, 2018) Sociology of South Asian Women’s Health (Springer, 2020). She has published over 40 research papers on public health and social policy including (delete including please) in international journals. Dr. Jafree also serves as the Founding Editor of the Forman Journal of Social Sciences and as an Editorial Board Member for the Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies, Alam-e-Niswan, the official Journal of Pakistan Association for Women’s Studies.