Family Types, Authority Structure and Women Workers in Sindh Labor Force: Problems and Prospects

The development of a society is virtually dependent upon the quality of human resources both male and female, the changing pattern of economic and social development of world societies irrespective of their level of development, necessitates and equal advancement of both the social segments. The numerical reality that women constitute about nearly half of the total population of Sindh ideally assigns to them equal participating role in the economic life of the province. However, like other developing countries, women’s role in Sindh as an active worker-producer of goods and services has not been duly recognized by this male dominated society. With the objective of ensuring increased participation of women, clear-cut guidelines about integrating women in the development process and defining their roles are still lacking in Sindh. The present study is a step in the direction of bridging the gap of information about female labor force participation of Sindh in different, activity rates, industry group, occupation group and employment status in 1981 and 1998 population census. The most important conclusion that emerges from this study is that though percentage of women labor force in different, activities, industry group, occupation group and employment status has mostly increased in 1998 as compared to 1981, but being nearly half of the population this increase is still very low.