The Role of Education on Women's Socio-Cultural Empowerment in Newly Merged Districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

As a fundamental social institution, education plays a vital role in shaping society. The institution of education is a bed-rock of societal norms, values, and progress. It is dynamic for the development and prosperity of society and in the transformation of knowledge and promoting human empowerment, despite of gender. The objective of the study is to measure the influence of education on women's socio-cultural empowerment in the newly merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The nature of the study is quantitative. Sample size of 225 (female school teachers) were selected through the Krejcie and Morgan sample size determination table from three districts Khyber, Mohmand and Kurram newly merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The data were collected from 225 school teachers (Primary, Middle, and High) through structured questionnaires and then were analyzed. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software, and the results were presented in a clear and concise manner through tables and frequency distributions. Findings of the study showed that: Women's responses 62.96% showed that education supports her to solve gender inequality in society. 42.10% of teachers responded that education promotes her to modify the cultural norm in the society respondents. 61.1% of respondents believed education facilitates woman to bring change in her working position in the society. 55.5% of those surveyed believed that education helps her to reduce female drop out ratio in learning institute. The respondents, who made up 52.63%, agreed that education empowers her to know rights regarding property which has positive influence on women’s empowerment. The result shows that education can evolve women's socio-cultural empowerment in the real sense in newly merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is recommended that awareness workshops, seminars, and training should be needed both for female teachers and the general community regarding the importance of education and how education empowers women socio-culturally.