Gender, work and development in northwest Pakistan: working environments of Pakistani female development practitioners

This paper explores gender relations in access to and control over resources in Awra Amba Community of Amhara Region, Ethiopia. The study employed primary and secondary data sources. The primary data were gathered through semistructured interviews with selected community members and key informants, focus group discussions with selected community and committee members and nonparticipant observation of gender roles and relations in the study community. Secondary data were obtained through a critical review of related literature and documents. Both primary and secondary data were organized thematically and analyzed through systematic interpretation and triangulation of various sources. The study found that locally available resources are collectively owned and administered by the ‘Development Committee’ and income is equally distributed to all household heads at the end of each fiscal year. Gender relations in the study community are guided by the principle of mutual understanding among all the members of the community. Women, like their men counterparts, make important decisions through their membership and leadership in different administrative committees. Women members of the community fulfill their basic needs as selfreliant workers, but not as being dependent upon their husbands. In general, the local economic and administrative structures, cultural values and principles promote equitable gender relations in division of labor and in access to educational opportunities, economic resources, leadership and decision-making at the household and community levels. This finding reveals that the existing gender relations in Awra Amba community are contrary to gender relations in other communities of Amhara Region, where the patriarchal gender ideology is most prevalent. Key Words : Gender, gender relations, access to and control over resource, Awra Amba Community

The purpose of the article is to reveal the essence of the mutual influence of social and cultural values and norms. The research methodology is based on the application of general scientific methods of system analysis, as well as the theory of social networks; to clarify the essence of the mutual influence of social and cultural values and norms, the method of logical reconstruction was used. The scientific novelty of the results obtained consists in a comprehensive analysis of the specifics of the manifestation of the mutual influence of social and cultural values and norms. Conclusions. The entire modern global socio-cultural space is built on the network principle, and society is dominated by various network structures, the spread of which is due to the development of digital technologies, the emergence of which, in turn, is due to the needs of society and people to overcome spaces and various restrictions in communication and obtaining information. At the same time, each network structure has its own cultural dimension. Social networks are characterised by accessibility, globality, the presence of feedback, which indicates their constructive potential in the modern socio-cultural space. It is emphasised that the influence of social networks on culture is obvious – social networks have changed not only how people interact with each other, build relationships, consume information and make decisions, but also determined the mutual influence of social networks and culture. It has been concluded that in modern society social networks are a mechanism for preserving and simultaneously transmitting cultural values and norms, as well as for consolidating, self-organising and cultural identification of social groups. Social networks are changing cultural values and norms, manifested in intercultural and international communication, the way people interact with each other; perceptions of oneself and one's relationships with others. At the same time, cultural values influence social networks, dictating to them the need to comply with certain social norms.
 Keywords: social networks, network structures, digital technologies, cultural values, cultural norms.

Objectives:Pakistani women experience higher-than-average rates of certain chronicdiseases, including diseases related to sedentary lifestyles. The aim ofthis study is to explore how first and second-generation Pakistani womenliving in the Raval, Barcelona, conceive of physical activity, and theirbarriers and facilitators around participating in physical activity, withthe goal of increasing physical activity in this group.Methods:Qualitative research with an intersectional approach. Nine informalinterviews with key community informants were conducted from November 2018to January 2019 to gain background on the topic, using snowball sampling.Eleven individual interviews were conducted from February to June 2019.Seven were with Pakistani women having lived, or currently living, in theneighborhood of the Raval, Barcelona. Four additional interviews wereconducted with non-Pakistani women key community informants who have workedextensively with this community. Thematic content analysis was carried outusing ATLAS.ti.Results:First-generation Pakistani women generally did not have physical activitypresent in their daily lives, but by most accounts wished to. Areas thatshed light on this included the following: limited economic opportunitiesand associated living conditions, barriers to social integration, healthconcepts and access to information, and cultural norms and related genderroles. For the first-generation, gender-related divisions of labor as wellas the absence of the concept of self-care were particularly relevantbarriers to their participation in physical activity. The experience ofimmigration-related grief emerged as a transversal theme which overlappedwith multiple areas. While both generations expressed a need for theseparation of genders during physical activity—as per their culturalinterpretation of Islam—the lack of such spaces was highlighted as aprincipal barrier in physical activity among the second generation.Conclusion:These findings shed light on distinct elements that exert influence inPakistani women immigrants’ participation in physical activity—among them:social and living conditions, access to public space, and gender-relatedwork distribution and cultural norms—which are in turn influenced by firstor second-generation immigration status. Considering the specific needs ofboth groups when proposing politics and health programs to encouragephysical activity is paramount in order to successfully partner with thesepopulations.

This article explores some of the ways in which, in the early years of the united Pakistan experiment, elite educated Muslim East Bengali women experienced and narrated their relationship to the new Pakistan nation as they navigated the international stage as citizens of a new sovereign Muslim-majority state. In the context of the nascent Cold War and the Pakistani state’s efforts to develop its own relationship with the United States, one that was distinct from that of India and yet motivated almost entirely by concerns about the greater military might of this large neighbor, Pakistani women from both wings were quickly pulled into the orbit of US- and Soviet-sponsored women’s organizations targeting women around the world. In this article, the author focuses on the relationship between Pakistani and US women in the 1950s that emerges from the memoirs, biographies, and writings of Bengali Pakistani women active in this period, as well as from the archives—housed in Smith College’s Sophia Smith Collection—of one of the first formal US women’s groups to establish contact with East Bengali women leaders: the New York-based Committee of Correspondence.

This study aims to determine the factors that encourage students' interest in selecting an accountant career in terms of work environment, professional training, social values, and gender roles. This research is expected to provide an overview of the factors that drive a person in selecting the accountant career. This study used a multiple linear method using descriptive analysis through primary data in the form of questionnaires that were distributed to respondents directly. The population in this study employed university students of Esa Unggul University, Trisakti University, Mercu Buana University in the Accounting Study Program with a total sample of 375 respondents. The results of this simultaneous study show that the work environment, professional training, social values, and gender roles are the driving factors in career selection as an accountant career. Partially, the work environment is not a driving factor in career selection as an accountant career, but social values, gender roles, professional training are the driving factors in career selection as an accountant career.

Introduction: Anthropology, Islam, and Pakistan / Magnus Marsden -- Of children and jinns : an enquiry into an unexpected friendship during uncertain times / Naveeda Khan -- The modern businessman and the Pakistani saint : the interpenetration of worlds / Katherine P. Ewing -- Islamic influences on socio-legal conditions of Pakistani women / Anita M. Weiss -- Religious education and the rhetoric of reform : the madrassahs in British India and Pakistan / Muhammad Qasim Zaman -- Reforming mysticism : Sindhi separatist intellectuals in Pakistan / Oskar Verkaaik -- Flagellation and fundamentalism : (trans)forming meaning, identity, and gender through Pakistani women's rituals of mourning / Mary Elaine Hegland -- The Sunni-Shia conflict in Jhang (Pakistan) / Mariam Abou Zahab -- Langar : pilgrimage, sacred exchange, and perpetual sacrifice in a Sufi saint's lodge / Pnina Werbner -- All-male sonic gatherings, Islamic reform, and masculinity in northern Pakistan / Magnus Marsden -- Selves and others : representing multiplicities of difference in Gilgit and the northern areas of Pakistan / Martin Sokefeld -- Islam, the State, and identity : the Zikris of Balochistan / Inayatullah Baloch -- Sakineh, the narrator of Karbala : an ethnographic description of women's majles ritual in Pakistan / Shemeem Burney Abbas -- Al-Huda : of Allah and the Power-Point / Sadaf Ahmad -- The rise of Sunni militancy in Pakistan : the changing role of Islamism and the ulama in society and politics / S.V.R. Nasr -- The poetics of 'Sufi' practice : drumming, dancing, and complex agency at Madho Lal Husain (and beyond) / Richard K. Wolf.

This article examines the role of traditional Khakot dance in Lampung as a discourse of political technology that influences the body to make individuals obedient to the values and social cultural norms of Lampung. This research focused on three issues. First, the form of representation of the body that complies with the social values and norms of Lampung culture in Khakot dance. Second, the process of forming a body that abides by the social values and norms of Lampung culture in Khakot dance. Third, identifying factors that influence individual compliance with sociocultural values and norms in the context of Khakot dance. This study used a critical discourse analysis paradigm and utilized primary and secondary data. Analysis of all obtained data was carried out textually and contextually using Michel Foucault's body discipline theory which is presented in a qualitative descriptive form. The results showed that the representation of the body that obeys the social values and norms of Lampung culture is reflected in aspects of Khakot dance performances, including the selection of costume forms and choreographic forms such as movement and floor pattern composition. The process of forming the body to be obedient to the social values and norms of Lampung culture in the context of Khakot dance involves formal and non-formal education, as well as through sociocultural activities in Lampung society. Factors that influence individual compliance are social control, normalization, and panopticon.

Most development practitioners have the following preconceived notions about gender and culture: 1) that gender relations are equated with the most intimate aspects of society; 2) that culture and tradition are immutable; 3) that there is no independent resistance to subordination within the culture; and 4) that religion is culture. These notions interfere with work on developing equitable gender relations and complicate efforts to allocate resources in ways that redress the imbalance of power between men and women. The validity of these notions can be tested by analyzing an experience the author had in 1984 when she published a book on women and development in India. On a publicity tour in Liverpool, England, she addressed an audience composed largely of men from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. This audience attacked her book and defended an idealized version of the position of women in the culture of South Asia. They accused the author of being a traitor to her own culture and of being Westernized. A Pakistani woman member of the audience, however, thanked the author for her presentation and reported that she was working with Asian women facing domestic violence. The men understood the cultural identity of South Asia as being composed of identical families dedicated to mutual interest, love, and cooperation. However, this family unit requires the subsuming of women's interests. This myth of the family ignores real life experiences of women who suffer abuse and ignores the fact that the notion of "family" is constantly undergoing change. Development practitioners should use culture as a way of opening up intractable areas of gender relations rather than regarding it as a dead-end which prevents work towards equitable gender relations. A new definition of "cultural sensitivity" would be to acknowledge that contests surround the significance attached by a society to different aspects of social constraints and that these contests often represent challenges to hierarchical social relations.

This study aims to analyze the determination of interest accounting students choose a career to be a public accountant. Data in this research is primary data. The population used in this study are S1 accounting students at the Muhammadiyah University of Magelang and Ahmad Dahlan University. This study uses a quantitative approach, in which the research is in the form of associative research with the type of causality. The sample of this research is 165 students by using purposive sampling technique. The questionnaire returned and met the criteria of 149 copies. The results of this study indicate that the percentage of the effect of labor market considerations, professional recognition, social values, work environment, personalities and financial rewards can explain the interest of accounting students to choose a career as a public accountant. The variables of labor market consideration, professional recognition, social values, work environment, personality and financial reward can explain the interest of accounting students to choose a career as a public accountant and this research model can be said to be good (fit). Test results show that labor market considerations, professional recognition, work environment and personality have a positive effect on accounting student's interest in choosing a career as a public accountant. While social values ​​and financial rewards do not positively affect the interests of accounting students choose a career to be a public accountant.

The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyse the factor that will influence the selection of accounting student in a public accounting career and non a public accounting career. Factor that’s influence the career choice become public accounting variabels financial rewards, professional training, social value, work environment, labor market considerations and personality. The primary data in this study were obtained by performing the university Mercu Buana Yogyakarta Campus 2 accounting student discourse with a total sample of 69 students. Analysis tools used in this study in logistic regression. The resuld showed that simultaneous variable financial rewards, professional training, social value and personality significantly influence career choice public accountants. While work environment and labor market consideration not significan influence career choice public accountants. Keywords: Financial reward; professional training; social value, work environment; labor market considerations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of culture, personality, and motivation on social and content value, which in turn affect brand equity in social media brand community (SMBC) setting.Design/methodology/approachOnline surveys were conducted with 595 SMBC participants in China and the USA. AMOS is used in SEM analysis.FindingsConsumers with collectivistic, extroverted, and extrinsic orientation experience social value through social media participation. In contrast, consumers with individualistic and intrinsic orientation demonstrate content value. Furthermore, Chinese consumers show more social value and the US consumers more content value. Accordingly, the effect of social value (content value) on brand equity is stronger for Chinese (US) consumers.Research limitations/implicationsCulture was assessed only by individualism/collectivism, personality by extroversion/introversion and motivation by extrinsic/intrinsic. Future research should verify external generalizability beyond China and the USA.Practical implicationsEnhanced social and content value through consumers’ social media participation can increase brand equity. Thus, companies should motivate consumers to experience more value via social media participation, and, cultivate a multicultural climate and facilitate the exchange of culture.Originality/valueFirst, this research redefines customer value into two components: social and content value. Second, this paper is the first to investigate the antecedents (i.e. culture, personality, and motivation) and the consequence (i.e. brand equity) of customer value in social media community settings. Third, this study illustrates differences in social media customer value experiences of Chinese vs US consumers.

ABSTRACTFemale autonomy and female solidarity occupy a special place in gender and development thinking. For some feminists, myself included, they represent closely held ideals; as such, they are very difficult to bring into question. This contribution reflects on these ideals in order to raise critical questions about the attachments that gender and development practitioners may have to particular ways of reading ‘gender relations’. It draws on ethnographic fieldwork in Nigeria to explore the lack of fit between received ‘Western’ ideas about gender and the complexity, contingency and multiplicity of relations and identifications among women in this cultural context. It argues that superimposing received notions of gendered power relations on those whom development intervention seeks to assist — in the form of gender myths that have a hold on hearts as well as minds — may offer these women neither succour, nor the means for them to empower themselves.

Cultural and societal norms constantly assign different family and religious expectations to women as compared to men. Therefore, this research paper seeks to provide insight into the effects of prevalent cultural and societal norms on the progression of lower-level female managers. It examines the impact of these norms on the fulfilment of work-related duties and the resultant implications for the success of a female within their professional role. The research integrated qualitative and quantitative approaches and was carried out within the culturally diverse province of KwaZulu-Natal, in South Africa. Primary data was gathered using a quantitative questionnaire distributed to thirty-five lower-level female managers, typically fulfilling an entry-level supervisory role, within two separate private organisations. The research was independent of race and age. The findings of the study indicate that respondents face societal and cultural norms that adversely affect progression. These include assumptions of weaker and more emotional management styles, lack of support in meeting family and work obligations, and gender biases impacting access to opportunities for progression. The findings also include women from many cultures by virtue of the diverse cultures within the KwaZulu-Natal region. This paper will therefore be of value to female managers from diverse backgrounds in developed and developing countries. Specifically, female managers encountering invisible barriers to breaking through the glass ceiling and progressing to higher levels of management due to their own cultural and societal norms will benefit from insights delivered. The findings will also be of value to mentors of aspiring female managers, male senior managers with female subordinates, and human resources departments. The research paper will commence with a literature review that examines the relevance of cultural and societal norms in the progression of female managers. The research methods and results of the study will then be described, and findings discussed. The paper will conclude with final insights and recommendations for further research.

A social-cognitive model of climate change behavioral adaption in Tonga: Relationships among indigenous knowledge, social media use, norms, values, and spiritual beliefs

This research aims to provide researchers with a fresh perspective on the topic of employee turnover in the textile industry of Pakistan by illuminating the connections between work environment, organizational justice, job embeddedness, employee engagement, and turnover intention. By conducting a thorough literature review, researchers are able to identify individual studies that investigated the connection between work environment, organizational justice, job embeddedness, employee engagement, and turnover intention in Pakistan's textile sector. 384 workers in the textile and garment industry in Pakistan provided the data for this study. In order to examine the hypothesized relationships, we used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Employee engagement is shown to be most strongly influenced by factors like a positive work environment, organizational justice, and job embeddedness of belonging in one's employment. Employees' intentions to leave the company are impacted negatively by their level of work engagement. Furthermore, the connection between the work environment, organizational justice, job embeddedness, and turnover intentions is mediated by employee engagement. Work engagement is strengthened by all of these factors, and a company's ability to recruit and retain top employees is ensured. For the first time, turnover intention with the work environment, organizational justice and job embeddedness are being considered and studied together in the single research model. Such findings hold important implications for the managers of textile industry in Pakistan to mitigate the issue of employer turnover.