The Status of Female Empowerment in the Apricot Sector in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan

Fostering and increasing female empowerment has become one of the trademarks of developmental work in all areas of the world. Particularly for ground project work it is decisive to know the local and cultural mechanisms that hinder successful female empowerment in order to adapt and create empowerment tools that are fitted to the social and environmental circumstances of its recipients. The northern mountainous regions of Pakistan, namely, Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) have experienced a significant investment in rural development projects with many specifically focusing on uplifting women economically and integrating them through, inter alia, educational and vocational training into the economic sector of the country. To aid the existing developmental agencies in increasing the effectiveness of their project work of targeting rural women in agricultural settings, this research has collected and analyzed data through the application of the ‘Abbreviated Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index’ (A-WEAI) in GB in summer 2021. This index analyzes how input in productive decisions, ownership of resources, access to and decisions on credit, income control, group membership and workload contribute to the disempowerment of not yet empowered female head of households in apricot farming households in GB in comparison to male head of households. The research further compares socioeconomic characteristics of empowered and not yet empowered women in order to distinguish target areas.