RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

 The focal point behind the study is on performing an in detail research on the subject under discussion, which is the empowerment of women in Pakistan in the era of about 12 years from year 1988 to the end of year 2000. Furthermore the stress of the study will be the providence of thorough analysis for the research methodology to achieve the objectives that were set to carry out the research. The research study also consists on the theoretical summary of different approaches, accumulated with the structure or design for the research that the researcher is doing in the said situation. Comprehensive enlightenment about the means of generating data in adding to the analysis and evaluation of the data generated the collection of sample techniques and finding would be presented.  However the researcher will integrate the characteristic of reliability, validity and the capability to generalize and ethical issues during the research.  With the elaboration of all these important issues the chapter will conclude with the explanation of samples and assessing the data that will be generated during the research. Both the quantitative and qualitative techniques have been used in this research. 

An in detail review of the literature would be there with the utilization of qualitative research with the amalgamation of the work of other researcher who done work on the same topic.  Some other techniques like content analysis would also be used for the fair deal to the methodology of qualitative methods of research the data about social sector and the participation of women was accumulated and analyzed.

3.1       Method of Data Collection

During the collection of data both primary and secondary sources have been used for the achieving of the best possible outcomes, within the given timeframe of the study. The mixture of both types of data has been used in the said research with the understanding that this way will give more reliable, explained and dependable results with the comparison of using only one technique. The techniques of oral history have been used in which a respondent give the answer of the questions on the basis of his past experiences and how they remained it.  Primary research will encompass the survey which will include the pre-arranged questions beside with the questions that may emerge with the flow of dialogue with the respondents. In these questions the perception about the happened period may emerge by collecting data. The question of reliability was addressed with the guidelines of consistency, a rule provided by the oral historians and as elaborated by Thompson and Tosh (Tosh, 1984).   In the survey, the questions would be asked from the worker of different government and non government organization in Pakistan and these would be like “how much authorized women were in the era of 1998-2000 in Pakistan in making decisions and exercising different powers”?

The data that would be utilized with the help of secondary source in this research would contain from different articles, journal, reports, electronic source, official documents in order to create an comprehensive and elaborated analysis concerning the theoretical point of view on the understanding of the status and the height of empowerment of women on different level in Pakistan during the era under consideration.  The secondary data is utilized in order to the specific subject of the research with the idea of providing background about the subject of the study with the transforming and changing trends about the topic of the research. Adding in it the rational of doing a survey would be to gain a view into the perception of different individuals about the status of women in the society of Pakistan in the specified era of research.  

There were four national elections in the said era in Pakistan. The complete data of these elections of 1988, 1990, 1993 and 1997 will be collected to analyze the participation of women on general seats in national elections. This will show the political empowerment of women and will tell us how the women think about politics and how much courage they have to fight politically with the men.

To assess the education empowerment of women the data about the women’s participation in primary and high schools, colleges and universities in the said era would be collected. In the era 1988-2000, the women enrolment in the educational institution would also be collected separately to assess the social empowerment of women. The data about the women teaching staff in this era year by year would be collected to assess the empowerment of women.

3.2       Technique of Sampling

In this study, the technique of convenience sampling would be used which is, non probability sampling measure in which the subject would be selected on their ease availability. By adopting this technique the delimitation and time limit frame was the major concern.

3.3       Population

Population of this particular research would be the employees working at the different governmental and non-governmental organizations related to the human and women rights in Pakistan. In this both four provinces Punjab, Sind, Baluchistan, NWFP (KPK) and Gilgit Baltistan is included in it.

3.4 Sample

A sample of about 600 current and ex-employees would be selected to conduct the research. Two hundred from the Province Punjab, one hundred each for the Provinces Sind, NWFP (KPK), Baluchistan and one hundred from the Gilgit Baltistan. After the completion, 597 filled questionnaires were received that were used in the data analysis.

3.5       Development of Instrument

A 5-point likert type rating scale was developed in this study. In 45 total statements, 32 were on this scale to find out the level of agreement of persons. 13 statements were about the self experience of persons and the most answers of them comprised on yes or no. The scale was improved and validated in the light of the suggestions given by the experts of the said testing field.

3.6       Scoring of the Instrument

5 points scale of the statements was analyzed on the basis of percentage and on the mean score. Mean score about each of the statement was calculated with the using of the formula under given:

Mean of the Score= f.SAx5+f.Ax4+f.Ux3+f.Dx2+f.SDx1/N (Number of Sample)

3.7     Analysis of the Data

In the beginning the data analysis is created with the help of primary data that is produced with the primary data which is collected with the survey conducted from the employees of the different organization whom were related to the women’s rights and their freedom in Pakistani Society.

-          In the study, statements of the scale were analyzed on the percentage basis and the mean score.

-          Person’s responses were analyzed with the setting of the norm of agreement on the 3.00 mean score that means the score obtained being 96 (32 x 3).

-          The sex difference significance among the means of male and female was determined with the application of the Z test. (In this test the Table Value of Z at 0.5 level of significance is equal to 1.96).

-          To find out the correlation between the three factors social, political and economic, Factor Matrix method was used.

 All the data collected will be presented in the diagrammatical pattern in the Analysis of the Data chapter. Collected data will be qualitative and quantitative that support the aim of the research and this data will help the researcher to provide the fair comments on the empowerment of women in Pakistan in that era. Nonetheless the content analysis method would be applied which will help the researcher to the secondary data which will be reliable. So many benefits are linked with the use of the method discussed, in which the important is the eagerly availability of the data in huge quantity in limited time frame.

Data collected of the national elections of 1988, 1990, 1993 and 1997 would also be analyzed with respect to the participation of women in the political activities in the said era. In these elections the women participation on general seats will be calculated with the comparison of their population ratio and the trend of the women participation in political activities would be calculated.

The collected data about the women’s primary middle and high schools, colleges and universities would be analyzed yearly by finding the decreasing and increasing trend. The enrolment of women in educational institutions at primary and high school, colleges and university level would also be analyzed with the percentage of women and the trend in the 12 years of the said decade. The collected data of number of female teacher at primary, high and higher secondary level and in the professional colleges and universities would also be analyzed with the decreasing and increasing trend in the said era and with comparison to the percentage of men.

3.8       Reliability in the Research

In the research process the Reliability is an important element and it is said that it enable to transmit the consistent result time after time (Cargan 2007). It is the quality of the measurement technique which recommends that the same information will also be obtainable all the time even in the repeated surveillance will be carried out. In case, if this is consummate that leads to an idea that the conclusion generated with an observation are reliable. In the said study, the question in the survey:  “Women played active role in politics in this era rather than just a dummy character” is an example to understand.

The survey will be conducted with about 600 employees working at different organizations in Pakistan. The generated response from the particular population must be the same on each time if the above said question were repeated during the study. 

In primary data collection, the questions of the survey are very important and is the instrument of the research that gives the outcome of the research thus taking this into account, it is very important that the questions raised in the survey are reliable. If this parameter is used and the questions of the survey are reliable the research will be automatically reliable (Bbbie, 2010)

3.9       Validity in the Research

The validity is very important for the useful and reliable research. It is said that if some of the part of research is invalid that means the research will be worthless more or less. So it is important to say that the validity is an important requirement of both qualitative and quantitative research (Cohen et al 2000).  The meaning of validity in research are how much accuracy and how much truthfulness of the data is. It is also said that the validity worked as the strength of the inference, conclusion or proposal of the research.  In social research, it is called that the validity is all about whether the researcher is measuring his surroundings accurately. So in this case the material from the journals and the other sources should be authentic to make the research more accurate.

3.10     Generalisability in the Research

The generalisability in the research is associated with the application of the outcomes of the research to the situations or cases beyond those examined in the study (Collis and Hussey 2003). In short, we can say that to verify the results of the study we use this technique. We assess whether the results of the study can be applied more widely and generally. It is also important to discuss that a research can be valid in one situation and it may be invalid in another context. It is also called that the generalisabaility is one more dimension of validity quality in data and that associates with the results from the data can be generalized to other situation. In case of current study the study is more generalized with the concern of its result.  

3.11     Ethical Issue

Ethical issues are also very important in the research process. In the research, there are some ethics that the researcher managed them in the right direction with adopting all of the process. In the current study, while doing survey of the employees working in the different organization in Pakistan, names and city names are also asked and these were written in the sheet. But using the ethical way the responses gathered in the survey may kept confidential and will not be used for the any other purpose other than this research. A researcher takes care that he should not be the source of disturbance for the population which is answering and given responses on his questionnaire. So the respondents are kept undisclosed and hidden so that their management may not create any problem for their employees. 

In short, in the process of research, it is important to secure and safeguard the integrity of the all employees that were included in the research process. Apart from this, there would be some data that is confidential according to the laws of those organizations but would be helpful to the researcher in this study, but researcher would not demand that data and would not try to get access to that data.

The personal details of the participants should be protected and in any case a participants wish to withdraw from his provided detail he may be free to do so. Researcher may not force him to participate in the study at any cost. So, it is important for a researcher to abide by all laws and must keep all the information safe and confidential.

3.12     Reflection in the Research

With the help of the study the researcher have developed some knowledge and got some important information.  In the limited time frame the researcher may learn how much empowerment was granted to women in that era to work side by side to men to make decisions and to work for the development and progress of Pakistan.

The researcher may interact with so many employees working at different organizations that would make the researcher learn that in which way to conduct the survey from the people, may learn how to gathered, analyze and the interpret the data. By this way a researcher may learn so many important things about research and can get the more confidence for the future research.

3.13     Conclusion

In the chapter of research methodology it is clear that which types of data are collected and how it will be utilized. In this chapter the method of collection of the data tells that the primary data is collected through from the survey which was conducted from the employees of different government and non government organization of Pakistan. The collected data would be analyzed in the chapter of Analysis of the Data with the help of charts, pie charts and tables.  In this chapter the sampling technique is also discussed and it is told that what is the selected population of the survey and it also told the sample size of the research. It is also told in the chapter that the used sampling technique in the study is convenience sampling for the research. In research methodology, the discussion of validity, reliability and generalisability is also there for clear sense of research. The ethical issues are also discussed in the chapter of research methodology so that all the concerned elements of the research should be clear for understanding. The way in which the data is analyzed in the chapter data analysis is also told in short in the chapter of research methodology.