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 sociocultural
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.