The Survival Strategies among Female-Headed Households: An Anthropological Study of Dhook Hassu Rawalpindi, Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

The study examines to find the micro-level, relationships among the household members, relatives, and neighbors, for the survival strategies of female-headed households in the study area. This paper explores the characteristics of the female-headed households by age, education, employment status, major occupation, nature of employment, and household size. The women face various challenges for survival as head of household. Through filed work the socioeconomic challenges identified for survival among female headed households included poor economic conditions, low status jobs, least family support, work place harassment, child rearing problems, social discrimination, social marginalization, limited access to health and education, poor hygienic household conditions, cultural and religious stereotypes attached with women as head of household. Local cultural context has central importance to understand the household headship of women. In a conservative, patriarchal, and traditional religious society, this study is unique because it is pioneer anthropological scholarship from Pakistan that focus on surviving female headed households. For this qualitative study, by utilizing purposive sampling technique, 30 female headed households were interviewed through semi-structured interview guide.