Journal of Development Policy, Research and Practice

Volume 1 (January – December 2017)

pp. 15 - 33

Gender Beliefs and Action Tendencies for Women’s Rights:

Impact of National vis-à-vis International Policy
Recommendations
Gulnaz Anjum, Mudassar Aziz, Adam Chilton, and Zahid Usman*

ABSTRACT
In most democratic developing countries, including Pakistan, a crucial and still least
prioritised domain is reforms in the status of women’s rights. As reflected in the rankings
provided by The Gender Gap Index Report (World Economic Forum 2016), Pakistan
stands second from the bottom among 144 countries. There are many organisations and
programmes at the international and national level that are trying to influence the
challenged countries to improve women’s rights policies and practices including the
United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW); Pakistan’s commitment to meeting the 17 Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs); and, the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW).
The impact of national and international endorsement of the policies intended to improve
women’s rights in Pakistan was explored in this survey. The survey was designed to see
under which conditions, respondents would support policies focusing on women’s rights.
The two conditions in the experiment were framed as such that the proposed reforms
came from the National Government (national condition) or by the United Nations
(international condition). As a comparative baseline, a control condition was added in
which the source of proposals was not mentioned (control condition).

*
Dr Gulnaz Anjum is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the Institute of Business Administration
(IBA) Karachi, Pakistan.
Dr Mudassar Aziz is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of
Science and Technology, (SZABIST) Karachi, Pakistan.
Dr Adam Chilton is an Assistant Professor of Law with the University of Chicago’s Law School, USA.
Mr Zahid Usman is a postgraduate fellow at the Department of Economics, Quaid-i-Azam University,
Islamabad, Pakistan.
 The survey was conducted with 619 university students (males: 51%; females: 49 %).
Data was collected from the students of the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad; and, the
Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad, from March through August
2016.
Results of the study indicated that compared to the control condition, the respondents in
the national and international condition expressed higher support for policy reforms for
women’s rights. Furthermore, participants in the national and international condition were
more likely to offer help in the implementation of these policy reforms. At the policy
level, the survey supported the claim that national level endorsement of the reforms,
compared to the United Nations endorsement, makes propagation and acceptance of the
women’s rights reforms easier for the general public.
Key Words: Women’s rights; CEDAW; gender equality; gender beliefs; international
policies; gender policies in Pakistan.

1. INTRODUCTION
Pakistan ratified CEDAW in 1996. However, after two decades the implementation of the
Convention is still a dream. When one talks about the international conventions, possibly
due to natural resistance to change, acceptance of international conventions is a fancy
ideation. The speculation for this resistance may be based on both structural as well as
psychological barriers in our perception, which eventually stands in the way of realizing
women’s full potential. The structural hurdles could be the lack of rights, whereas, the
psychological hurdles would include what men and women think about their abilities and
how much they value equal rights for women.
Sustainable development is not possible without inclusion of all population. The
constitution of most countries in the world gives the same rights to men and women. In
practice, however, women’s rights are undermined very often (Shah et al. 2015, p. 203).
This disparity in practice of unequal treatment has led to some intriguing research on
gender gap. Gender gap refers to the discrepancy and hindrance in progress of women
compared to men in a wide range of domains including education, job opportunities,
health, political participation and economic outcomes (World Economic Forum 2016).
According to the World Economic Forum report, Pakistan ranks 143rd out of 144 nations
(Ibid.), violation of women’s rights, such as exposure to psychological and physical
violence and lack of access to justice and political participation are well-known in
Pakistan. Hence, this is giving impetus to the efforts to formulate and apply a rights-based
applied framework for development of programmes for empowering Pakistani women.
Despite the growing need for awareness among policy-makers, practitioners, and
development planners, immense gaps persist among people impeding achievements
regarding policy implementations (Khan 2009). Resultantly, these factors have
 contributed over time to Pakistan’s low performance on many human development
indicators and its failure in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
1.1. Deep Rooted Systematic Resistances to Equality of Rights in Pakistan
Resistance to equality of human rights for women is a result of deep-rooted systemic
impediments to gender equality that continue to constrain women’s physical autonomy
and access to resources (Management System International 2012). In addition to facing
discrimination in the education system and workplace, women have limited access to
recreation and sports facilities. Violence, and the threat of violence, underpin
asymmetrical gender relations and prevent women from fulfilling their potential and
exercising their basic human rights as equal citizens (Ibid).
Patriarchal system and traditions of the male figures’ authority in Pakistani society are
vindicated in the name of customs and religion. This results in under-valuing and
invisibility of female contribution to society and the proclivity of society towards
violence. For example, the traditional norms of Pakistani society endorse segregation and
at times even seclusion of women. Such practices are sometimes justified in the name of
religion. Often various religious authorities promote such segregation. The Council of
Islamic Ideology1 for instance holds propositions for gender segregation as well as
seclusion of women; limiting their access to financial resources and even political
participation (Naz et al. 2012).
In 1994, in anticipation of the Beijing Conference, Pakistan was asked to prepare its
National Report on the status of country’s laws on women. The Senate prepared a report
for the Commission of Inquiry for Women (Weiss 2003). The report indicated that there
were some derogatory laws and customs that discriminated against women in Pakistan,
which were justified and used in the name of religion (Ibid). Although the Constitution of
Pakistan gives women the right to own property, operate a business and to assert their
citizenship rights (Ahmad 2010), yet the socially biased interpretations of the law and
customary practices have restricted women to exercise of these rights. Furthermore, there
is a multiplicity of definitions and laws that contradict each other.
1.2. CEDAW and its Implementation Gaps
CEDAW, since the beginning of its adoption by the UN’s General Assembly in 1979, has
called upon all member states to ensure zero tolerance against different forms of
discrimination and oppression against them across the globe (Zia and Butt 2012). It
received the status of a UN treaty in 1981 and currently 187 nation states (over 90% of
the member countries of the UN) have ratified the Convention (UN Women Pakistan
2016). In addition to proposing an international bill for women’s rights, it also motivates

1
The Council of Islamic Ideology is a religious body that was constitutionally founded by Ayub Khan’s
government in 1962. It was made responsible for giving legal advice on Islamic issues to the government
and the pparliament.
member countries for taking actions that guarantee the achievement and enjoyment of
equal rights by women. Pakistan ratified CEDAW in 1996, however, this accession was
made with a legal reservation under the Article 29 of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, by
which Pakistan was not bound by CEDAW2 (Bhattacharya 2014).
Pakistan is also a signatory to the SDGs, where the third goal refers to gender equality.
This goal not only asks for equality of rights for women but also demands efforts aimed at
empowering women for claiming their rights. As far as data of Pakistan is concerned,
both CEDAW and SDGs are not strictly implemented, which is evident due to existence
and continuity of discriminatory policies against women in Pakistani society (Ministry of
Planning 2013). One could argue that it is so because a UN recommended treaty is not
directly applicable to Pakistan, especially due to the reservation made in Article 29 of
Pakistani law. Due to such reservations in the law for these treaties, there is a great need
for amendments in order to implement CEDAW (Ali 2013). Hence, it is vital to bring to
the limelight that Pakistan is still struggling with the comprehensive implementation of
the Treaty in serving to the cause of gender equality and mainstreaming the same. Hence,
it would be essential to highlight the gender related gaps which affect the implementation
of CEDAW in Pakistan.
The Gender Gap Index 2015 ranked Pakistan at 144th among 145 countries in terms of
the incidence of gender related disparities; and, at 135th in educational attainment
(Human Rights Watch Pakistan 2016). Some areas with the highest prevalence of gender
gap include the difference in educational attainment of males and females both in rural
and urban areas, and this disparity also extends among the provinces. In 1996-1997, for
instance, the literacy rate in urban areas was 58.3% while in rural areas it was 28.3%; this
rate was low for women in general and only 12% among rural women were noted to be
literate (Moheyuddin 2005).
Regarding economic conditions, an estimated 10.8 million individuals in the labour force
are unpaid family workers in Pakistan, out of these 59% of women and 88% of men are
full time unpaid workers (UN Women Pakistan 2016). According to the UN Women
Pakistan (2016), women are suffering due to lack of rights to fair remuneration, work
opportunities, which also pushes women towards economic impoverishment and
exclusion. All of these factors may lead to marginalised economic lives among women in
Pakistan (Ibid). Similar trends were highlighted by a recent World Bank report which
explored women's economic prospects and hindrances across 30 nations (The World
Bank 2016). The report identified many laws that are still in place which limit economic
opportunities for women compared to those of men. For instance, there are at least 14

2
Declaration: “The accession by Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the (said
Convention) is subject to the provisions of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”
Reservation: “The Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan declares that it does not consider
itself bound by paragraph 1 of article 29 of the Convention.”
laws in Pakistan that are mentioned in this report including those which obstruct female
widows in Pakistan from equal inheritance rights, and their right to register a business
(Ibid).
In legal and political arena, Gender Gap Index 2015 ranked Pakistan 87th in political
empowerment (Ibid). In terms of electoral participation, according to voter registration
data released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) the gap between male and
female voters widened from 10.97 million in May 2013 to 11.65 million by September
2015 (Ibid).
With regard to equal rights before the law and legal empowerment, Pakistani women have
been subjected to discriminatory laws and objectionable ordinance. The Hudood
Ordinances3, for instance, had made it almost difficult for a male rapist in Pakistan to be
prosecuted in the court. The Zina (rape) law stated two conditions, one of which should
be met in order to consider a case as an incident of rape that could be prosecuted. The
conditions were: either the rapist would admit committing the rape or there were four
males to testify the act of rape (Bokhari 2009). The need for witnesses to testify was often
misused particularly (Ibid). The famous Zafran Bibi case in 2002 is an instance of the
misuse of this law where she initiated the charges against the rapist but was instead
sentenced for adultery. In this case the infamous Zina Ordinance, instead of providing
justice to the women, saw her pregnancy prior to rape as a proof of her illicit sexual
relations with other men. Although Bibi was released from jail, however, the rapists in
this case were never punished or even prosecuted (Sustainable Development Policy
Institute 2008). Since the launch of Protection of Women Bill 2006, some of the Zina law
clauses have been less dangerous. For instance, after this bill, the Zina laws could not be
misused for impeaching women, or used for settling family or blood feuds. Previously,
the offence was not bailable, but now even after accusation they can be bailed and pursue
their cases. Likewise, the police are no more authorized to arrest anyone in the case of
Zina unless directed by the court.
The socio-cultural context of Pakistani society among all class systems is primarily
patriarchal. In Pakistani culture, men and women are predominantly segregated and
psychologically conceptually divided into two separated gendered worlds. In this culture,
home is the only well-defined psychological and physical space, however, outside the
home men take control of all the matters be they ideological or physical. This socio-
cultural segregation leads to the outcomes such as assignment of lower socio-economic
status for women as they are only home-makers and not the real the breadwinners. As
discussed earlier, the pay gap does not help in mitigating this discrepancy. The

3
Hudood Ordinances were introduced in 1977 by General Zia-ul-Haq to facilitate islamisation process in
Pakistan. The reason was to bring Pakistani law in accordance with Sharia. Hudood Ordinance enforced
punishments as prescribed by Quran and sunnah for various offences. For instance, Zina law focused on
extramarital sex and qazf law on false accusation of zina. Other offences included theft, and alcohol
consumption.
psychological barriers that lead to these outcomes are ingrained systematically and slowly
over the time, but they start pretty early. For instance, even the news of a girl’s birth is
greeted with panic and concern. From the start she is considered a burden for many
people across various classes and there are many hurdles to her education even if she is
very bright. Contrary to that the births of male children are received as harbinger of
festivity. If not always, women are denied access to better education and job opportunities
in comparison with their male siblings. While males are given superior education and
equipped with competence based skills, females in the same households are instructed to
master domestic labour skills. This is all done so that females can become good sisters,
mothers, wives and daughters (Moheyuddin 2005).
In their domestic roles, especially as wives, women are expected to be fully involved in
taking care of other family members, and bearing and raising children. Regarding the
social background of people, there is across status preference and priority for having a
male child. Male children thus are more privileged in being physically impulsive which
may lead to them being more aggressive towards the socially low status beings (the
women). This unsaid legitimization of men’s entitlement to act out leads to various forms
of violence and particularly to high occurrence of domestic violence, which also results in
the cases of domestic violence including rape, marital rape, and physical assault that go
unnoticed. This might also be the antecedent for the disgraceful practices of honour
killing, trade off of women to settle blood feuds (bartering practices known as
Vanni/swara and Watta Satta4) and marrying women to Quran5 to deny them their
legitimate share in inheritance. All of these issues are serious breaches of implementing
CEDAW in Pakistan (Bokhari 2009).
Indeed, as some would argue, the name of religion is used to justify some of these
inequality of rights and entitlements of women. This might as well lead to confusion
among people over cultural traditions and Islamic traditions and which jurisdiction to
follow in these matters. There are several cases and examples when the members of
religious organisations such as the Sipah-e- Sahaba6, Jamaat-i-Islam7, and madrasas
(Islamic schools) have experienced their identity as very strict Muslims. Identity for many
members of such organisations is inseparable from their cultural identity, which is not
easy to manage. Thus, this may result in or cause identity confusion as culture is a huge

4 According to the glossary explanation of Aurat Foundation, Vanni/Swara is a marriage done as a

compensation for wrong doing by someone else, whereas Watta Satta is an exchange marriage, where a
family gets a girl in exchange of the other.
5Also called Haq Bakshish, it is giving up the right to marry someone. This practice is done mostly in
order to preserve inheritance.
6Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, called Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat in recent years, is an extremely conservative
Deobandi Muslim organisation mainly functioning in Pakistan. It has also functioned as a political party.
7
Jamaat-e-Islami is an influential social conservative, and Islamist political party aimed at making
Pakistan a state run strictly by Sharia laws.
 aspect of one’s identity and other identities need to be consistent with the cultural
variations that are not completely consistent with Islam. Recently, a number of women’s
rights organisations and action groups such as Legal Aid Cell of the Aurat Foundation,
Shirkat-Gah, and Bedari, have been engaging young people in various identity related
dialogues. They are also engaged in action research based on gender equality and social
activism to address rising domestic violence against women, lower emphasis on education
of women, and barriers that are in place to hinder women’s political participation (Weiss
2003).

1.3. Rationale of the Study

To the best knowledge of researchers, there have been no studies designed to test the
mechanism through which the international conventions of the UN examine national
endorsement of policies that encourage improvements in human rights practices. There is
no single study which has compared how people will or will not endorse if the proposals
for improvement of human rights conditions came from the local governments instead of
international organisations such as the UN.
In the Pakistani context, Anjum et al. (2016) explored how the United Nations’ endorsed
proposals increase their support among Pakistani university graduates. The study showed
that as compared to the control conditions, international treaties and laws had an added
effect on the study subjects regarding women’s rights and political representation in the
country.
The study aims to highlight that there is a need to discuss women’s rights with respect to
Pakistan’s current standing of global reports regarding women’s rights and gender
equality. This experiment, based on the previous research, Anjum et al, 2016, takes one
step further from observational data which has already suggested that CEDAW has
helped improve women’s rights (Lupu 2013 and Simmons 2009). This study focused on
certain policy reforms required to improve women’s rights in Pakistan that was used as
the basis of the study; these points have been highlighted both by the UN and remain a
salient political topic in Pakistan.
To administer the experiment, three forms of the survey were randomly assigned to the
participants in Pakistan between February 2016 and August 2016. In order to test the
endorsement given by the participants to different conditions an “endorsement design”
was implemented (Bullock et al. 2011). This design focuses on the effect of learning that
the local government or the United Nations proposed a given policy and then seeing how
it influences participants’ level of support for that policy. The respondents were all asked
whether they agreed with four policy proposals aimed at improving the rights of women
in Pakistan. These policy proposals were directly taken from the 2013 report produced by
the UN’s CEDAW Committee on the status of Pakistan’s compliance with its
commitments to the rights of women (CEDAW 2013). Half of the respondents were
asked whether they support the proposals without information on where the proposals
 came from, while the other half of the respondents were told that the policies were
proposed by the United Nations.
The focus of this survey was to contribute to the existing debate for clarity. Therefore,
identifying the mechanism through which human rights law might change state behaviour
was the focus of this study. There exists a considerable disagreement over which
mechanisms are most likely to be effective. Most scholars have debated and argued that
the United Nations human rights system does not place direct pressure on states to
improve their rights practices nor powerful states put pressure on weaker states to
improve their human rights practices (Posner 2014; Hafner-Burton in Conrad, C. R. and
Ritter, E. H. 2013; and, Simmons 2009). Like many other scholars the study speculates
that the international system can make a difference by changing the domestic political
discourse in ways that may increase the protection of human rights (Lupu 2015;
Hillebrecht 2014; Conrad & Ritter 2013).

2. METHODOLOGY
The survey experiment was conducted in a university and a postgraduate Institute in
Islamabad, Pakistan. As the survey was specific about women’s rights, and being aware
of the UN and local political narrative, therefore graduate students of federal university
and institute were chosen. Indeed, conducting this survey experiment at federal
institutions had a number of practical advantages for the purpose of this study. However,
the drawbacks of this sampling were that the sample was much more educated than the
usual population of Pakistan and was not representative of the population of Pakistan,
which reduces the generalizability of the results of this survey. The research, however,
relies on the notion that any public support for improved human rights protections could
mainly be addressed by influencing the urban and educated people of the kind that were
recruited in the study sample.

2.1. Survey Design

There were three conditions in the survey. In each of the condition, the participants were
asked to express how they felt about the proposals and action tendencies expressed in the
survey. The experimental treatment had two levels: the local condition level and the UN
condition. Therefore, there were three ways of presenting questions to the participants.
The questions addressed to the participants in the “Control Condition” did not mention
any agency associated in the context of women’s rights proposals. On the contrary, the
questions addressed to the participants in the “UN Group”, included a mention of an
agency, e.g. “A recent proposal by the United Nations calls for…” while the questions
addressed to the participants in the “Local Group” mentioned a public office, e.g. “A
recent proposal by the local government (Punjab Protection of Women Against Violence
Bill) calls for…”. Thus, the only difference among three conditions was who proposed the
 recommendations. Besides this, the demographic information in the survey was also
divided into three sections.
2.1.1. Traditional gender role beliefs:
In the first section of the survey, the participants were asked questions about their implicit
beliefs about gender roles. The respondents, after reading the condition priming, marked
their responses about each of the proposal, researchers asked: “How do you feel about this
proposal?” Participants’ responses were assessed using their level of support on a five-
point Likert-scale where (1) “strongly disagree”, (2) “somewhat disagree”, (3) “are
indifferent”, (4) “somewhat agree”, or (5) “strongly agree”. A number of questions were
designed and adapted to establish their beliefs on the rights of women.8 The items loaded
on a single factor and had a modest Chronbach’s Alpha (α = .72, M = 2.64, SD = 1.36).
2.1.2. Endorsement for polices focused on improvement of women’s rights
In the second section, the subjects were asked if they supported four reforms aimed at
improving the rights of women. Participants’ responses were assessed using their level of
support on a five-point Likert-scale: (1) “strongly disagree”, (2) “somewhat disagree”, (3)
“are indifferent”, (4) “somewhat agree”, or (5) “strongly agree”. The four policies that the
authors asked in the experiment were all recommended by the CEDAW’s 2013 Review of
Pakistan’s compliance with CEDAW (Anjum et al. 2016). Like previous research, the
focus remained on the following four proposals:
1. Legislative Quotas: increasing the quotas allocated for women in the Assemblies
(National and Provincial Assemblies) and in the Senate from 17% to a minimum of 33%;
2. Honour Crime Pardons: repealing all laws which allow perpetrators of honour crimes for
a pardon from the victim families;
3. Marriage Age: raising the minimum age for marriage for girls from 16 to 18; and,
4. Election Re-Polling: re-polling any location where women cast less that 10% of votes
during an election.
The four items measuring endorsement of policies to improve women’s rights loaded on a
single factor and had a modest reliability (α = .75, M = 3.51, SD = 1.77).
2.1.3. Action tendencies to improve women’s rights situation in Pakistan
In this last section of the questionnaire, the authors asked about the possible action
tendencies of the participants to improve women’s rights condition in Pakistan. A set of
seven questions included a diverse set of statements ranging from women’s political
participation to condemnation of honour killings. They were:
▪ “If a woman runs in elections for the National Assembly of Pakistan, how likely is that
you would consider voting for a woman in election, all else being equal?

8
The questionnaire included statements such as “In general, men are fitter than women to be political
leaders; University education is more important for men compared to women; Women should not work
outside the home”.
 ▪ If a political party promises that it will improve women’s rights, how likely is that you
would vote for the party in an election, all else being equal?
▪ If a political party were to condemn honour killing in Pakistan, how likely is that you
would vote for the party in an election, all else being equal?”
Participants’ responses were assessed using their likelihood to act on these statements on
a five-point Likert-scale: (1) “extremely unlikely”, (2) “unlikely”, (3) “neutral”, (4)
“likely”, or (5) “extremely likely”. The questionnaire items measuring action tendencies
to improve women’s rights situation in Pakistan loaded on a single factor in factor
analyses, within each statistical factor, the questionnaire items had modest reliability (α =
.83, M = 3.57, SD = 1.21).

3. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Regarding the demographic spread of our sample, there were 619 participants in total
(51% females and 49% males). Their age range was between 22 and 34 years (mean age
was 24 years). In each of the control and local condition there were 206; and, in the UN
condition, there were 207 participants. The research findings on the three set of questions
were as follows:

3.1. Traditional Gender Role Beliefs

The findings for traditional gender beliefs showed that there is a significant main effect of
the condition, F (619, 2) = 36.42; ηp2 = .10. On average, people who were in the control
condition expressed higher agreement with the traditional gender role beliefs (M = 2.87,
CI = 2.77-2.96), compared to the UN condition (M = 2.75, CI = 2.65-2.85), and the local
condition (M = 2.30, CI = 2.20-2.40). In the post hoc analyses, it was further confirmed
that the effects between conditions were significant such that Control condition was not
statistically different than the UN condition (d = .57, p < .001). Furthermore, there was a
significant difference between the UN and the local condition (d = .45, p < .001). This
means that presentation of the proper stimuli, such as UN or local government, before the
message may in itself have a positive impact on what is to be conveyed later on. These
results indicate that the best shot for working on bringing some change in the narrative for
progressive gender role beliefs would be framing one’s messages as coming from the
local government and policy institutes.
Regarding gender, there were interesting findings in this study. Males showed
significantly higher endorsement of the traditional gender beliefs (M = 2.76, SD = 0.74)
as compared to females (M = 2.51, SD = 0.75). Overall, these differences were
statistically significant, t = 16.68; ηp2 = .26. These differences were seen in all conditions
such that they did not make any difference to which condition the participants were
exposed; men more often than women held stronger traditional gender role beliefs.
3.1.1. Endorsement for polices focused on improvement of women’s rights
 The findings for the endorsement for policies on improvement of women’s rights showed
a significant main effect of the condition, F (619, 2) = 22.43; ηp2 = .07. On an average,
people who were in the control condition, expressed lower endorsement for the policies
focused on improvement of women’s rights (M = 3.15, SD = 1.15), compared to the UN
condition (M = 3.63, SD = 0.88), and the local condition (M = 3.76, SD = 0.85).
In the post hoc analyses, it was further confirmed that the effects for the effectiveness of
the local condition among the three conditions were significant. The post hoc analyses
showed that compared to control condition there was significant difference between the
UN condition (d = .47, p < .001), and the local condition the UN condition (d = .61, p <
.001). However, the difference between the UN and the local condition was statistically
non-significant (d = .13, p = .15). This means that when compared to a control condition,
presentation of the materials coming from the UN as well as from the local government
can have a more positive impact in moving people’s endorsement on certain policies.
Again, these findings indicate that the best shot for working on public opinion on
international policies is by framing messages that are directed / advocated by the local
government and policy institutes.
Regarding the gender of the participants, males showed significantly lower endorsement
of polices focused on improvement of women’s rights (M = 3.35, SD = 1.12) as compared
to females (M = 3.68, SD = 0.85). These differences in endorsement were statistically
significant, t = 16.35; ηp2 = .02. Overall, there was a significant interaction effect of the
gender and survey condition (F (619, 2) = 23.20; ηp2 = .07). The change towards
endorsement of policies was much bigger for males than for females.
3.1.2. Action tendencies to improve women’s rights situation in Pakistan
The findings for tendencies to improve women’s-rights situation in Pakistan showed that
there is a significant main effect of the condition, F (619, 2) = 43.07; ηp2 = .12. On
average, people who were in the control condition expressed lower action tendencies to
improve women’s rights situation in Pakistan (M = 3.22, SD = 0.90), as compared to the
UN condition (M = 3.62, SD = 0.65), and the local condition (M = 3.88, SD = 0.77)
where participants expressed higher possibility of engagement. In the post-hoc analyses, it
was further confirmed that the between conditions effects were significant. The effects
were such that the control condition was significantly different than the UN condition (d
= .39, p < .001), compared to the control condition and the local condition (d = .66, p <
.001). Furthermore, there was a non-significant difference between the UN and the local
condition (d = .26, p = .07). These results indicate that it is helpful to engage people for
actions in improving women’s rights by offering them a narrative that proposes the
policies as coming from the local government and policy institutes.
Our findings for gender effects indicate that females showed significantly higher action
tendencies to improve women’s rights situation in Pakistan (M = 3.70, SD = 0.73) as
compared to men (M = 3.45, SD = 0.80). Overall, these differences were statistically
significant, t = 15.52; ηp2 = .02. These differences were seen in all conditions such that it
did not make a difference to which condition the participants were exposed to, men more
often held more traditional gender role beliefs.
In summary, Figure 1 presents the summary from the results from our survey experiment
on the three main dependent variables of traditional gender role beliefs, women’s rights
endorsement, and action tendencies to improve women’s rights situation in Pakistan.
Figure 1: Distribution of Responses to Experimental Questions

Control Condition UN Condition Local Condition

5

1
Traditional Gender Role Beliefs Women's Rights Endorsement Action Tendencies

Figure 2 presents gender wise distribution of responses to the three aspects: distribution of
support for traditional gender role beliefs, women’s rights endorsement, and action
tendencies to improve women’s rights situation in Pakistan. These results indicate that
there is a significant impact of effect gender has in the United Nations or local
government’s endorsement as compared to the control condition.
 Figure 2: Results by Gender

Control Condition (Males) Control Condition (Females)

UN Condition (Male) UN Condition (Female)
Local Condition (Male) Local Condition (Female)
5

1
Traditional Gender Role Beliefs Women's Rights Endorsement Action Tendencies

3.1.3. The process of endorsement of action tendencies to improve women’s

A mediation modelling with bootstrap analysis with N = 5000 showed that the
endorsement of the policies to improve women’s rights emerged as a partial mediators of
the effect of traditional gender role beliefs upon the action tendencies to improve
women’s rights (see Figure 3). The traditional gender role beliefs predict the endorsement
of the policies to improve women’s rights (β = -.33, p < .001), and the direct effect of the
endorsement of the policies to improve women’s rights on the action tendencies to
improve women’s rights was even stronger (β = .46, p < .001). The traditional gender
beliefs predict the action tendencies relatively weakly (β = -.14, p <.01) indicating a
partial mediation, suggesting that, lower traditional gender role beliefs lead to the higher
endorsement of the policies to improve women’s rights condition, which in result leads to
higher endorsement of the action tendencies to improve women’s rights.
 Figure 3: Mediation model for the process of how action tendencies emerge

Endorsement
-.33*** of the Policies .46***
to Improve

Traditional Action
Gender Role Tendencies to
-.14** (c = - .28***)
Beliefs Improve

Note: The Sobel test for mediation was significant, Effect = -.14, z = -5.96, p < .001

4. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

All around the world, the UN, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and as well as
the local governments of countries spend many resources and time to improve women’s
rights conditions. In particular, the UN expends a large amount of resources in monitoring
compliance of the governments to international laws and conventions such as the
CEDAW. These research findings are vital in the Pakistani as well as the international
context for several reasons. Firstly, little experimental and applied research has been
conducted to test whether the policy recommendations proposed by the UN have any
impact on improved human rights or not. International law practitioners, especially
human rights researchers and scholars have fervently debated on the issue due to the
dearth of theoretical frameworks and experimental research.
Secondly, the little research available in this arena has produced contradictory findings
due to which the debates have been inconclusive. Thus currently this scholarship is
unclear on whether the international human rights system actually increases respect for
human rights or not. This research gives a much needed perspective on evaluation of how
the policies recommended by the international organisations such as the UN can be
effectively integrated and voiced for implementation by the local governments. Therefore,
this research brings a new perspective and new evidence on the issue of women’s rights in
social, and political contexts.
 Overall, this research led to three conclusions. First, both experimental conditions (UN
and Control), had a positive impact on three aspects: there was a lower endorsement of
traditional gender role beliefs, there is a higher endorsement of the policies focused on
improvement of the women’s rights condition, and people are more likely to express
higher action tendencies to improve women’s rights condition in Pakistan. More
specifically, when the recommended reforms were presented as coming from the local
government compared to the UN, people showed lower endorsement of the traditional
gender beliefs, and higher endorsement of the policies and action tendencies to improve
women’s rights condition in Pakistan. These effects of the endorsement of the policies
and action tendencies were both substantive and statistically significant. Second, these
findings showed substantive gender and mechanism related revelations as well. This
study suggested that women, as compared to men, were more likely to agree with the
policy proposals. In both conditions of the survey, in terms of average scores, men moved
from, being unsupportive to supportive of the women’s rights reforms. Third, regarding
the psychological mechanism of the three aspects covered in this study, it was found that
traditional gender role beliefs influence the endorsement of the policies focused on
improving women’s rights, which in turn mobilizes people for various action tendencies
to improve the situation.
There are, however, several limitations to this experiment that may limit the application
of its findings. First, the sample was not a representative sample of all Pakistani young
men and women. The sample of this study was an educated young adult population from
a university and an institute in the capital of Pakistan. This sample is not representative of
the whole Pakistani population. Second, there might have been some desirability effects9
that might have generated an impact of local endorsement and the endorsement by the
UN. Third, the survey focused only on three aspects related to the improvement of the
women’s status in Pakistan; there might be other important factors that have not been
incorporated in this study. Lastly, even if people show higher endorsement of the policies
and action tendencies recommended by local or international organisations, it would not
ensure that they will actually engage in these actions.

5. POLICY IMPLICATIONS FOR PAKISTAN

Pakistan has been stated as one of the most unsafe places in the world for women, be it
violations of their human rights, exposure to violence, or denial to justice and political
participation (Human Rights Watch Pakistan 2017). For instance, according to Human
Rights Watch Pakistan (2017), there have been more than 1,000 honour killings in 2016
in Pakistan, and around 80,000 prisoners, including women, are on death row, which is
the largest number anywhere in the world. There is a growing awareness and education

9
Desirability effects refer to the social phenomenon when the participants are apt at guessing the
purpose of a study. These effects are usually difficult to control in survey-based studies.
among the policy makers but still there are extreme gaps in women’s access to their rights
and political participation. The prevalence of extreme violence and lack of political
participation has led to Pakistan’s low performance on many human development
indicators and its failure in meeting the SDGs.
Due to this status of Pakistan regarding human rights in general and women’s rights in
particular, the policy implications of this study are vital. This chapter suggests that in
order to get endorsement by the public, we have to frame the message as coming not only
from the local governments, but also, explore which mechanisms work the best for
creating awareness. It also adds to the policy debates regarding these mechanisms, it is
suggested that they are facilitating support for women’s rights. These implications have
ecological validity because the policy recommendations used in this survey experiment
were the ones that were obtained from the United Nations’ review (Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women 2013) of Pakistan’s women’s rights record.
Hence knowing about the how people receive these policy recommendations would be of
great value to policy makers.
The findings of this study, like previous research and theoretical speculations, have
indicated that international conventions would help in uplifting educated public’s
narrative in improving women’s rights and condition even in countries such as Pakistan.
But the research more specifically highlights that it would be more beneficial to translate
the international conventions in the local government’s narrative. It is also vital to note
here that Pakistan has been identified as a “Transitional Democracy” (Simmons 2009), as
well as a “Partially Free” (Freedom House 2015); current year’s status is “Not Free”, see
Freedom in the World Report 2017. This identification further strengthens the
significance of this research in building liberal narrative and public debate on the issue of
women’s rights in Pakistan.
Even though Pakistan is a transitional democracy, we strongly believe that policy
recommendations by the international bodies like the UN have an impact on countries
such as Pakistan. Recent development in the legislation on women’s rights, i.e. Punjab
Protection of Women against Violence Act 2016, has been seen with hope and possibility
of positive outcomes. This is an historic achievement that even though the 2015 Punjab
Protection of Women against Violence Bill had faced extreme opposition from many
stakeholders, yet Punjab Assembly passed it. In Pakistan, this is the first bill of its kind
that has promised protection to women. Initially, when this bill was launched there were
many insecurities among men, but due to the involvement of the provincial government
and the media’s positive role, people are receiving it more positively (Punjab Laws
Online 2016).
Furthermore, research specifically on the policy recommendations based on CEDAW and
especially in the Pakistani context is not only relevant to the country, but also contributes
to the international discourse on women’s rights for several reasons. For instance,
previous observations and interviews based research has supported that compared to other
conventions and agreements, CEDAW has led to more improvements in women’s rights
and their status (Anjum et al. 2016 and Lupu 2013). Although this support has been there,
the use of experimental methods has been very small. To-date there are only a few
countable studies (Anjum et al. 2016; and Chilton 2014). The implementation and
findings of this study, therefore, encourage the use of stringent experimental methodology
in future research to test under what conditions (message from the local government in
this study) policy messages are better received and perceived by the masses.
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