Social Networking and Women’s Agency: The Role of Social Media among Pakistani University Girls Students

Women’s agency in Pakistan is oppressed both in private and public space. The study finds out the usage of cyberspace and cyber culture among university girl students in Mardan. The second objective is to investigate the association of cyberspace and women’s agency in promoting women thoughts and challenging male authority. A quantitative cross sectional study design is used with simple random sampling techniques and data are collected through questionnaires from 200 currently enrolled university girl students. Binary logistic regression shows that the odd ratio is 2.271 times higher among frequent social media users to criticize government policies against women rights (P-value .001). Similarly the odd ratio is 3.873 times higher among women frequently using social media for social networking with people without physical involvement (P-value .000). It is concluded that cyberspace empowered women’s agency in sharing their issues, thoughts and challenging male authority without occupying physical space.