A COMPARATIVE CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE PORTRAYAL OF WORKING WOMEN IN PAKISTANI TELEVISION DRAMAS

Abstract

This study includes the portrayal of working women within the Pakistani television industry by means of a Comparative Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). In a culture where patriarchal values and dominant forms of masculinity shape social life, television dramas play an important role in culture. They influence how people view women, both as professionals and domestic lady. Even the media is focusing on portraying women as power but still it is limited to make a change in culture. The purpose of the study is to examine the ways in which popular Pakistani television dramas portray working women and the ways in which such women are characterized and evaluated. This study adopts a qualitative research design and Fairclough's three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis on selected scenes and dialogues from the dramas Zindagi Gulzar Hai and Kuch Ankahi. The data for the analysis grouped into four categories: Construction of Professional Identity, Negotiation of the Domestic and Occupational Spaces, Authority and Control, & Moral and Social Judgment. These categories analyzes the ways working women are portrayed in different dramas. The findings will highlight that even though both dramas portray working women as determined and ambitious, their professional identities are shaped as per gender roles, conditional empowerment, and social control. This study highlights the ways in which Pakistani television dramas both reflect and reproduce the dominant gender ideologies, thus influencing the social understanding around women's work, power, and social legitimacy.