EMPOWERING WOMEN THROUGH TECHNOLOGY: A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF DIGITALIZATION ON DECISION-MAKING IN ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN

Abstract

Women's Empowerment is a comprehensive and multidimensional idea. It is concerned with the economic, social, political, and other aspects of life. Because it is all-encompassing, it implies that all aspects of life must be empowered. Empowerment with regard to all dimensions of life apparently to be initiated simultaneously. Technological improvements have drastically shaken the status quo of several facets of women's lives in urban areas as compared to rural ones in the last decade in Pakistan.This research examines the influence of contemporary technology on women's decision-making Islamabad utilizing primary data inferred through quantitative methodology. The chances and challenges that women in the post-technological period encountered while making decisions were also noted in this study. According to this study, women feel more empowered to use technology to make decisions about certain issues they face as well as other issues. The study focuses on women's empowerment in Access to information, Financial management and Social communication decision-making. For immediate benefits, the study suggests that women in rural regions who have easy access to technology be made more aware of it. The study also recommends that the government support digital media, low-income training, ICT workshops, cultural inequality, infrastructure spending, and data protection laws. This will help close the gender equality gap and improve Pakistan's overall economic health as half of the population currently has little influence over decision-making. Keywords: Technology, Women's empowerment, Women’s descion making, Digitilization, Decsion making