Rethinking Gender Roles: Perception of Female Viewers of Pakistani Television Dramas

Abstract

Television drama is always an attraction for women. It has considerably contributed in defining gender roles to its viewers. This study was aimed to investigate that how females from different socioeconomic backgrounds perceive and interpret gender roles shown in Pakistani television drama. For data collection qualitative research strategy was applied. Data was collected by conducting eight focus groups. Each group consisted of eight participants (females) aged 20-40 years. Emergent themes from the data were non stereotypic representation of gender roles in Pakistani Television drama. This study concluded that tendency of Pakistani TV drama to redefine gender roles have contributed in conformity with the change in perception of female viewers interpreting gender roles shown in these dramas.