SOCIAL STATUS OF RURAL AND URBAN WORKING WOMEN IN PAKISTAN A COMPARATIVE STUDY Dissertation zur Erlangung des Grades Doktor der Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften (Dr. rer. pol.) am Fachbereich Sozialwissenschaften der Universität Osnabrück vorgelegt im November 2005 von Amber Ferdoos ---- Acknowledgement I feel honour to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Dr. György Széll for his supervision, guidance and encouragement throughout this research. I always found him very much alive, full of zeal, vitality and intellectual curiosity. Without his ideas, remarks and endless interest this work could not have been carried out and completed. I am very grateful to PD. Dr. Birgit Panke-Kochinke for agreeing to be one of the evaluators of my thesis. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Prof. Dr. Carol Hagemann-White and PD Dr. Carmen Schmidt for agreeing to be the members of the doctoral examination commission. I would like to add a very special note of appreciation to my husband, Dr. Zakir Hussain, for his constant support, encouragement, and enduring patience during the course of my research work. Finally I wish to express my heartiest gratitude and profound regards to my parents for their moral support and encouragement during my research work. May, 2006 Amber Ferdoos Mülheim .