Does Income and Education of Working-Women Transform Social Values: An Evidence from Pakistan

Women’s socio-economic empowerment is instrumental in transforming the societal values particularly in developing countries. However, this transition from traditional to modern social values is linked to women’s income and education levels. This paper investigates this phenomenon in the context of working women in Pakistan. To this extent, three hundred and six working-women were interviewed in urban vicinity of Lahore city. By employing Multinomial logit model our study confirms 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 empowerment through higher education and rising income leads to more bargaining power in household decision making, increasing political participation, and valuing gender equality. However, modernization as result of increased income levels and education has led to a decline in importance of religion in women from upper class unlike the lower class.