The Role of Social Media in Women’s Empowerment in Pakistan

Abstract

In Pakistan women are treated subordinate due to patriarchal structure of society. Women public sphere mobility is restricted, and they are oppressed in decision making process. The first objective of the study is to investigate the usage of social media networks among university girl students in Pakistan as a means of social networking while the second objective of the study is the association of social media and women empowerment. A quantitative cross sectional study design is used with simple random sampling techniques and data are collected through questionnaires from 200 currently enrolled university girl students at Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan Pakistan. The descriptive and inferential statistics are used. In inferential statistics binary logistic regression is applied to draw the association of independent and dichotomous variables. Regression results showed that the odd ratio is 2.271 times higher among frequent social media users to criticize government policies against women rights (P-value .001). Similarly the odd ratio is 3.873 times higher among women frequently using social media for communication and social networking with other women and men without physical involvement (P-value .000). It is concluded that social media networks empowered women’s agency in sharing their issues, thoughts and challenging male authority without occupying physical space.