What Shapes Attitudes toward Women’s Empowerment? A Demographic Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there were distinct demographic variables that can predict attitudes toward women's empowerment among university students in Pakistan. Using a cross-sectional research design, data were collected via a self-administered questionnaire completed in Urdu by 200 students enrolled at the University of Gujrat. The measure of attitudes toward women's empowerment utilized the Attitudes toward Women Empowerment Scale (Fatima, 2018) and assessed participants' perceptions regarding women's empowerment across four different domains. Neural Network Analyses were performed to identify the relative strength of various demographic factors as predictors of attitudes toward women's empowerment. Results showed that marital status was the single strongest predictor of attitudes toward women's empowerment (100% normalized importance), followed by family structure (77.5%) and gender (72.8%). Age (55.6%) and residency status (26.8%) had the least predictive power of the model. These findings suggest that personal and family structural factors marriage and living in a joint family are strong influences on students' gender ideology formation. Gender-normative educational interventions and policy structures should be developed and implemented to target traditional and patriarchal domestic norms. Future longitudinal studies should be conducted to examine changing gender norms with respect to a more varied and representative sample of the population.

Keywords: Women Empowerment, Attitude, Adults Opinion, Gender Difference, Inequality