Gender roles and division of labor have been exhaustively researched in the recent
decades. Many studies address gender bias and disparity and strive for striking a
balance between the roles of men and women. This paper argues that roles are
culturally conditioned and based on cultural relativism, Pakhtun society segregate
masculine and feminine domains for peaceful co-existence. Guided by the
theoretical perspective of Herbert Mead (1901-1978) division of labor is not always
discriminatory or biased and its existence can be justified in particular settings. The
findings of the study are based on qualitative linguistic analysis of collated folk
tappas (plural of tappa) from archived (and/or) published collections and their
authors’ interpretations. The study intends to investigate and highlight gender role
segregation as projected in the language of tappas with a view to establish their
relevance to social order in the long history of Pakhtuns residing on Pak-Afghan
border in the north-west frontier province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The findings of
the study conclude that gender roles fit into the patriarchal social structure of
Pakhtuns and define social roles and responsibilities for peaceful co-existence of
the two genders.
Qaisar Khan, Arab Naz, Uzma Anjum, Faisal Khan. (2015) Ordering the Social World: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Gender Roles In Pakhtun Folk Wisdom, , Volume-09, Issue-2.
