Paper short abstract:

Inequalities in income and education levels of working women affects societal values. Which ultimately determines the state of modernization, equality, religiosity, and politics in a society. This paper investigate these complex relationships in the context of working women in Pakistan.

Paper long abstract:

Unequal levels of income and education of working women affect societal values and norms thus determine the degree of modernization, equality, religiosity, and political values in a society. This paper investigate this phenomenon in the context of working women in Pakistan. To this extent, three hundred and six working-women are being interviewed in urban vicinity of Lahore city. By employing Multinomial logit model, our results suggest that socio-economic status of working-women plays a significant role in transforming their social values. Both income and education levels of working-women tend to display similar association to values, although differences persist in some important dimensions. Women's higher education and rising income hold more liberal/self-expressive values that leads to more bargaining power in household decision-making, transmitting gender equality at the household, and participation in political activities. However, increased income levels and education has led to a decline in importance of religion in working women belonged to upper class (higher income and education levels) , whereas, women from lower class give more importance to religious values. We conclude that the process of modernization proxied by increase in working women's socio-economic status has led to a shift from survival to self-expressive values when it comes to religion, politics and family.

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