Television and Women Empowerment: How Pakistani Private Channels portray Pakistani Women
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46568/jmcd.v27i2.237Abstract
The continuous decline of Pakistan on Global Gender Gap Index calls for serious measures to curb the situation. Entertainment media appears as one among the major stake holders in this regard and women Empowerment is major tool to reduce the gap between genders. This research was designed to find the patterns in which women empowerment is being showcased through Pakistani Private Channels. The existing literature in the niche suggests the use of somehow stereotypical yard to measure empowerment i.e., level of education and job status. However, indicators to measure women empowerment, devised by institutions who are putting their effort to curb the gender gap such as World Bank, are often ignored. This researcher has utilised those indicators to measure women empowerment in Pakistani entertainment industry. ARY Digital, GEO Entertainment and HUM TV were selected for the research. Their prime-time dramas were analysed to explore the approaches of these channels. One of the key findings includes absence of political empowerment from drama content. Child bearing decisions were found as least attended indicator of women empowerment. Majority of the characters coded as empowered belonged to ARY.