Abstract
Women in Pakistan operate within highly patriarchal contexts that promote their exclusion from public spaces; but those working in politics, the most public of spaces, defy these prevailing gender norms. This article examines women’s experience of sexual harassment in the political ‘workspace’. It presents data from interviews, press and television coverage, social media, and an online survey, to explore how women’s presence in politics is resisted by their male counterparts through the use of sexual harassment. It highlights the sexual harassment men use against women in politics, arguing that key features of political parties’ organisational culture function as predictors of harassment. Despite laws and mechanisms for processing complaints, women in politics are unable to push for effective accountability. The article argues for improved accountability mechanisms within political parties and Assemblies to combat sex discrimination and harassment, while acknowledging that the problem may only increase when women achieve more prominence as politicians.
Highlights
When a woman in Pakistan enters politics, she must be prepared to face public censure, workplace hostility, and risks to her safety. Some of these challenges are shared with all women who enter the workforce in Pakistan where the female labour force participation rate of 25 per cent is the second lowest in South Asia (World Bank 2018). These challenges are partially explained by patriarchy; women’s agency is constrained to the private domain and they face social, cultural, and institutional obstacles when they seek to establish their presence in public spaces
The IDS Bulletin is published by Institute of Development Studies, Library Road, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK This article is part of IDS Bulletin Vol 51 No 2 September 2020 ‘Collective Action for Accountability on Sexual Harassment: Global Perspectives’; the Introduction is recommended reading
In Pakistan, where the consequence of sexually inappropriate behaviour is to bring disgrace to women and their families, and a collectivist cultural environment is linked with high avoidance/ denial of harassment to protect norms of ‘sexual silence’ (Wasti and Cortina 2002), the problem is likely to be underreported
Summary
When a woman in Pakistan enters politics, she must be prepared to face public censure, workplace hostility, and risks to her safety. Sexual harassment, accountability, women in politics, Pakistan, sexism, women’s Caucus, quota seats.
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