EXPOSING THE GENDER ROLE IN DAIRY FARMING IN RURAL AREA OF OKARA, PAKISTAN: A CASE STUDY OF TEHSIL OKARA

Abstract

In the whole world especially in Pakistan the dairy farming is extremely influenced by gender role. Seeing this scenario the researchers conducted this study among the male and females villagers of Pakistan. The main purpose of the study was to expose the gender role in dairy farming. This research was conducted in one of the Tehsil of Okara district of Punjab, Pakistan. Bypurposive sampling technique, one tehsil i.e., tehsil Okara from District Okara was selected. The 120 respondents were selected randomly (60 malesand 60 females) who were directly or indirectly engaged in livestock dairy farming activities. A close-ended questionnaire was constructed for data collection. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics i.e., frequencies, percentages and means. The main findings of this research showed that female role was extremely neglected by their males in dairy farming activities. There were 98.5% males who were the head of their families while only 1.7% were the females who were head of their families. Surprisingly the mentioned 1.7% females were those who were widowed/separated. Further, the male had 63.3% power of decision while the females (wives) had only 2.5% power of decision. The control over income regarding male had 88.3% whereas womenhad only 2.5%.This research demonstrated that there is alackingregarding the consideration of women role in dairy farming activities and the position of women in the dairy activitiesis underestimated.