Peace, Justice and Female Leadership: A Case Study of Pakistan’s Progress toward SDG 16

Abstract

This research discussed the transformed leadership of women on the peace and development structures in Pakistan especially within the area of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 16) Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions. This study aimed to investigate how women leaders in the public institutions, NGOs and peace councils go through institutional, cultural, and structural obstacles to establish ethical governance. Using the Transformative Feminist Leadership Theory, the study rationalized leadership as an ethical, collaborative, and justice oriented process that challenges the hierarchy of patriarchy and embraces institutional change. A qualitative case study design was utilized. The semi-structured interviews conducted with thirty participants selected by means of purposive sampling comprised female deans, directors, NGO leaders, and members of peace councils. Data were interpreted through the framework of thematic analysis of Braun and Clarke (2006) through interpretations of women about leadership, barriers, and ethical practices. The results indicate that the role of women in governance is still limited by patriarchal institutions and bureaucracies as well as cultural limitations, in every case, female leaders depend on transformational and ethical leadership styles based on empathy, dialogues, and moral justification. The women are tactical, as they redefine gender equality to be about fairness and merit and call upon culturally-grounded discourses as the Islamic teachings to legitimize their power and achieve the peace agenda. This study contributed to the literature through the association between gender, peacebuilding and institutional accountability to transformative feminist leadership. It brings to the fore the reality that women empowerment in politics is not only a gender equity concern, but also a structural provision that is required to enable ethical and sustainable development in Pakistan. The implication of the policies deals with empowering females to make decisions, institutionalizing cultures and creating gender sensitive governance in policymaking are the promotion of peace and justice.