Analysis Of Low Electoral Turnout Of Women In District Kohat
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Abstract
Voting rights are fundamental human rights, but for women, getting them has been a difficult and protracted process. Even though women have recently made tremendous progress towards gender equality, they still encounter several challenges when trying to exercise their right to vote. In Pakistan, women got their right to vote since county’s inception but their electoral participation remains quite meagre in all the general elections held in past. In the general elections of 2018 the total women turnout in Pakistan was 46.89% and the turnout of women in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was 32.96%. A country richly endowed with human capital along with a low women electoral participation is a phenomenon that raises many social-cultural, economic, educational, and political related questions. Based on such facts the dependent variable chosen in the present study is Women’s Electoral Participation in the general elections of 2018. Its value is taken as one of the women has used her right to cast vote, zero otherwise. District Kohat is the universe of this study where women’s turnout was 37.22%. A study is conducted to dig out the socio-cultural, economic, educational and Political barriers in the way of women voting rights.