Professional Women’s Perception about Role of Higher Education in Decision-Making Process

Abstract

The existing literature on the perception of Pakistani professional women about their social status, respectability and autonomy suggests that higher education plays a vital role in rising women’s ability to make decisions, however; various other factors such as socio-cultural norms, gender norms and values, religious norms, patriarchy, caste and locale could possibly affect negatively. Similarly, the human capital theory also postulates that education or training increases the efficiency of workers and increases access of people to decision-making process. Realizing the catalyst role of human capital theory, this research paper aims at investing perception/experience of academic and non-academic female employees at the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, Pakistan about the role of higher education in increasing their say in the decision-making process. Further, the paper also attempts to comparatively assess the similarities and dissimilarity of participants’ perception regarding the role of higher education in empowering academic and non-academic women. The sample size of this study consisted of 100 women having minimum of 5 year work experience at the university.