I RECENTLY attended a roundtable discussion hosted by the US-Pakistan Women’s Council.

Twenty women in leadership roles from various industries — finance, the corporate sector, law, publishing — sat down and talked about how Pakistan can promote women role models who are at the forefront of the movement for independence, self-reliance, and empowerment.

Yet while women’s empowerment is the hot topic on everyone’s agenda these days, from the United Nations to think tanks to social media and everything in between, it was hard to escape the feeling that this subject is a controversial one in a conservative country like Pakistan.

The first question discussed was: who are Pakistan’s unsung women role models? To me, teachers seemed the obvious choice: mostly female, these women are responsible for educating the children of Pakistan, imparting not just academic instruction but also civic sense, morality, and social responsibility.

The impact of a teacher is huge: especially in the rural areas, where parents will not send their girls to school unless they know and trust the teacher.

And yet it is astonishing that the teachers of Pakistan have not yet organised themselves under an overarching national association (although plenty of small, regional and specialised groups do exist) whereby they can lobby as a group for their rights, security, and recognition, women negotiating for better working conditions being one of the key indicators of empowerment. Another topic of discussion was what role the media can play in promoting women as role models. The women we see on television fall into several clearly delineated categories: politicians on evening talk shows, representatives of the fashion and entertainment industry, cooking show hosts, and religious instructors.

In addition to this, popular television dramas and commercial advertisements portray women in submissive roles, concerned solely with the affairs of the household, thereby shaping an entire nation’s perceptions about what a woman’s position should be in our society.

It was agreed at the roundtable discussion that the media needs to widen its horizons and take more responsibility in promoting women, not just as domestic figures, but as human beings capable of achievement in many fields.

This isn’t new, but always needs reinforcement in the face of pressure from a conservative advertising and corporate industry, which avoids portraying “modernity” for fear of alienating their money-spending audiences.

The group discussed how grandmothers can also be seen as role models, as they have vast stores of wisdom, life experience and history to give to the young children in their households.

And the women in the group remarked on how we take our domestic workers — maids, nannies, cooks — for granted when in reality their contributions to our households make it possible for many middle and upper class women to pursue their careers outside the house.

And while these jobs may seem demeaning to those of us with the privilege of status and education, even a maid who comes out to work is a role model for her own daughters and the women of her neighbourhood.

This raised an interesting point in my mind: the belief that conservative Pakistanis, both men and women, are often only comfortable with women’s empowerment as long as it doesn’t disturb the traditional societal structure of men leaving the house as breadwinners and women staying inside the house as domestic managers and mothers.

When it’s a struggle to convince parents that girls’ education isn’t a waste of time and money, heaven forbid anyone advocate a type of empowerment where both partners go out to work equal hours, or where the man stays at home to care for the children while the woman goes out to earn a living.

Such changes in our way of life are seen as provocative, dangerous, and immoral; working women continue to face societal censure, harassment, and even physical danger, and the custodians of our morality assure us that there is no quicker path to hell than for a woman to have to go outside her house and work.

This kind of thinking means that for many people, women’s empowerment, especially in the lower socio-economic classes, is restricted to women working in cottage industries, perhaps producing traditional arts and crafts to be sold to quick-thinking entrepreneurs from the city, who take an item that costs Rs200 to produce and sell it for Rs2,000 in the city and $200 abroad.

This is not empowerment but exploitation; far better are the initiatives that teach women the principles of entrepreneurship, so that they can advocate for themselves and represent themselves in all their dealings and transactions.

One of the most interesting moments of the discussion was when Naz Khan, the CFO of Engro Corporation, told us about a programme called Women’s Empowerment Through Livestock Development. Women of the milk-producing areas in Sukkur were trained as “female livestock extension workers” and “female village milk collectors”; by giving veterinary training to the women and charging them with delivering their services to livestock owners, they gave the women the tools for their own empowerment.

Now, these women earn money, are looked up to in the villages, and serve as role models to other women. And all this in Sindh, which has historically been underdeveloped, and where women are prisoner to some of the most patriarchal power structures imaginable.

I asked Naz Khan what the reaction had been in the community, especially amongst the men, to this project. “The men are very proud, especially when they can say that their daughters are vets!” was the heartwarming reply.

Now this is a picture of women’s empowerment that is neither limited nor exploitative, that serves the needs of the community, and that raises the self-esteem and dignity of everyone involved, women and men. And there’s nothing to fear in that.

The writer is an author.