Education level, public policy and private sector HR practices determine female job participation rate: a case of Pakistan's telecom sector

Abstract

This study uses a randomly selected sample of 100 female employees of telecommunication sector of Rawalpindi-lslamabad area and tries to analyze whether government policies and private sector human resource practices exist to promote favorable environment for female job participation. The study's results indicate that female employment-participation rate estimates at 32.28 percent, suggesting that a little less than one-third of females get employment in research area understudy. The respondents' perception on government pol¬ icy and private sector organizational HR practices regarding female job participation are found positive; however,females still feel the necessity of making their jobs more secured and their work worthwhile. Econometrically estimated relation ship suggests that female educational levels determine the female job participation at the first place, and government policy helps determine the private sector organizational HR practices and policies, which further affect and encourage the female job participation. The results suggest that,for a more effective private sector female participation, the government policies need to be further strengthened and made substantiated. For future research, this study provides a base-model which may be replicated to evaluate public and private sector roles in determining female job participation of other economic sectors of Pakistan's economy.