::Non-academic careers::

Reports about Practical Projects #9

„Reports about Practical Projects“ are written by doctoral researchers who have designed and carried out a practical project in cooperation with a non-university organization. The BGHS has been supporting these projects with scholarships since 2020. In the ninth part of the series, Tipu Sultan reports on two workshops, he conducted in cooperation with the District Population Welfare Office in Gujrat (Pakistan).

Gender Role Attitudes and Work-Life-Balance among Dual-Earner-Couples in Pakistan

In the recent decade the trend of dual-earner couples has been increased in Pakistan more than ever before. This new trend of dual-earner families has significantly affected their personal life. In the patriarchal society of Pakistan, where the primary responsibility of females was to look after the family and the domestic affairs, only the male was expected to be the breadwinner. With the increase of female education and employment opportunities, more and more females are entering in the labor market in Pakistan. Therefore, the duties and responsibilities of dual-earner couples, especially women, have increased. Moreover, balancing work and family life is more complex in the patriarchal society of Pakistan because of the social expectations of gender roles. A dichotomous behavioral reflection is being observed in Pakistani society. The one group of people having egalitarian attitude are supporting the new gender roles of female, whereas the other group of people having traditional mindset is still in the favor of patriarchy. Therefore, gender roles are re-evaluated. The District Population Welfare Office is an organization of the Government of Punjab, Pakistan, and provides among other things family counselling services in the district Gujrat to promote balanced families.

Figure 1: article in the Pakistani newspaper Shana Bashana sharing my project on 30.11.2022

For the accomplishment of the practical project I cooperated with the Family Welfare Department of the organization. I contributed my services as a Family Welfare Counselor. The project was divided into two phases. In the first phase, I organized an awareness seminar at the District Population Welfare Office with dual-earner families. There were 40 participants (20 dual-earner families) in the workshop. The concerns of the families and possible strategies to balance work-life based on empirical knowledge were discussed among dual-earner couples. In the second phase, I arranged a training workshop for the Family Welfare Counsellors and Family Welfare Workers that are the employees of the organization. There were 40 participants in the training workshop. I trained the workers how to deal with stereotyping and societal taboos still existing in Pakistani society. Gender role attitude is one of the important reason of work-life imbalance among working couples. That was very important for both participants point of view and also from the organization’s point of view. The certificates were awarded to the participants of the both events. To increase the impact of the project both of the sessions were covered by the local and national media of district Gujrat. Here are the photos of the certificates awarded to participants for both events and the screenshots of the project sharing at differ forums including the newspaper.

Figure 2: certificate of participation awarded to dual-earner families who participated in the seminar dated 29.11.2022

The participants benefited directly from this knowledge to get awareness and new strategies to balance their work-life. Moreover, the empirical information based workshops contributed to the organization’s existing goals. The practical project added a new perspective that is the influence of gender role attitude on work-life balance. Another big advantage of this project for the partner organization was that it provided the training opportunity to the organizations workers to improve their knowledge to further continue the counselling process.

Figure 3: certificate of participation awarded to the family welfare workers and family Welfare Assistants for their participation in the training workshop dated 10.11.2022.

Click here for the district population offices in Punjab/Pakistan where the district of Gujrab is part of.

Further information about the Non-University Careers Project can be found on the BGHS website.