Exploring married women’s economic dependency and family dynamics: a qualitative case study from Pakistan

Abstract

Introduction

In contexts of gender inequality, women’s economic dependency is often theorized as a factor that can heighten vulnerability to intimate partner violence. This in-depth qualitative case study, grounded in feminist theory, explores the lived experiences of one multigenerational family unit to understand how economic dependency and intimate partner violence may be interconnected.

Methods

Using a purposive sampling strategy, the study draws on in-depth, semi-structured, and informant-style interviews conducted with a mother and her three daughters. This approach facilitated a nuanced exploration of personal narratives and familial perspectives within a single, richly detailed case.

Results

The analysis highlights how constrained educational and professional pathways contributed to women’s economic dependency. This dependency was experienced as interwoven with perceptions of low social status and narratives of control within intimate relationships. The findings illustrate the relational and situational processes through which economic vulnerability can shape power dynamics in the domestic sphere.

Discussion

The study contributes an interpretive, process-oriented understanding of how economic dependency can be linked to coercive relational contexts. It suggests that efforts to empower women—such as supporting education and economic autonomy must be understood as part of broader structural and cultural changes needed to challenge patriarchal dominance and enhance women's safety and status.

1. Introduction

Empirical data indicate a global pattern of gender inequality in higher education and professional leadership. Research across diverse societies, including Japan, Australia, China, India, and Nigeria, documents the significant underrepresentation of women in senior academic and organisational roles (Eboiyehi et al., 2016; Morley, 2014; Winchester & Browning, 2015). Scholars attribute this pattern to persistent gender stereotypes and institutional practices (Saleem & Ajmal, 2018). Structural barriers, such as male dominance in senior management, workplace discrimination, and cultural norms regarding gender roles, are identified as common impediments to women’s career advancement across various national contexts (Aycan, 2004; Davidson, 2012; Laar et al., 2019a).

This pattern is pronounced in Pakistan, which serves as the specific context for this study. Pakistan ranks 143rd out of 144 countries on the Global Gender Gap Index (World-Economic-Forum, 2017) and has one of the world’s lowest female labour force participation rates, with only approximately 25% of university-educated women in the workforce (Tanaka, 2016). In academia, women constituted only 32.7% of university teachers in 2012-13 (Government-of-Pakistan-Statistics-Division, 2016), and female representation in management positions is approximately 3% (International-Labour-Organisation, 2015). A significant gender disparity in literacy also persists, with a gender parity index of 0.6 (Saleem & Ajmal, 2018).

The moral positioning of this research aligns with international frameworks that identify gender equality as a fundamental human right and equitable access to education and employment as critical components thereof (UN-Women, 2016; United-Nations, 2017).

The concept of women's status within the household is central to this study. For this research, we move beyond a broad definition to operationalise status as a multidimensional construct that reflects a woman's power, autonomy, and value within her family. This is measured through her influence in key domains (Yount et al., 2016). According to the nature of this study, the “status of women comprises four interrelated dimensions: decision-making power, autonomy and mobility, intra-household respect, and bargaining power. The conceptual model of this case study is as follows: within this specific context, how a lack of educational and career opportunities was deeply intertwined with economic dependency and how these structural constraints created a context of vulnerability that shaped the dynamics of domestic abuse.” (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Conceptual model of the study.

This study focuses on the nexus between women's economic participation and their status within the household. Status is operationalized here as a multidimensional construct encompassing a woman's decision-making power, autonomy, intra-household respect, and bargaining power (Yount et al., 2016). The study investigates the proposition that restricted educational and career opportunities could associate with economic dependency, which may, in turn, correlate with lower intra-household status.

Therefore, the empirical motivation for this research is to investigate the specific barriers to education and professional careers for women in Pakistan and to explore the processes through which economic dependency may relate to women's status within the family. Drawing on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with members of a Pakistani family, this qualitative study aims to provide a detailed analysis of these interconnected dynamics and to explore how structural factors are perceived and negotiated within the narrative of a single family.

2. Literature review

The prevailing analysis of gender dynamics in Pakistan often posits a monolithic patriarchal society where economic dependency directly determines women’s vulnerability to domestic abuse. However, this narrative is increasingly contested. Critical scholarship challenges the deterministic link between financial independence and safety, noting that in some contexts, women’s entry into the workforce or attainment of education has provoked backlash, intensifying domestic conflict rather than mitigating it (Khan, 2023). This contradiction suggests that economic models of empowerment may inadequately address entrenched normative systems.

Furthermore, the conceptualisation of “family honour” as a uniform mechanism of suppression is debated. While studies like (Jiries, 2024) frame it as a tool for silencing victims, ethnographic work complicates this, revealing how women sometimes strategically invoke honour to navigate or resist familial pressures, indicating its role as a contested rather than absolute currency (Sökefeld, 2020). This invites a more nuanced reading of agency within constrained structures.

A significant gap exists in longitudinal and relational studies. Although financial independence is championed as a protective factor (Shah et al., 2025), its long-term psychosocial impact on marital power negotiations remains underexplored. Does economic empowerment consistently reconfigure domestic authority, or can it cement alternative forms of friction? The notable scarcity of such research in Pakistan, as highlighted by (Sarwar & Imran, 2019), points to a broader academic imbalance where structural analyses are prioritised over granular, relational understandings.

Finally, the overwhelming focus on victimhood within the literature risks obscuring systemic critiques. By concentrating on women’s “lack” (of education, funds, opportunity), research may inadvertently echo the very deficit narratives it seeks to counter. Emerging debates call for a shift toward analysing the institutional and discursive production of inequality questioning how law, state policy (Özbilgin et al., 2012), and even advocacy frameworks themselves perpetuate the conditions they aim to remedy.

2.1. How does this study fill this literature gap?

This study addresses the identified literature gap by adopting a relational framework of diversity management (Syed & Özbilgin, 2009). The objective is to explore the complex connections between various factors affecting gender equality without presuming a universal or deterministic outcome. Rather than confirming a linear pathway, the research investigates how interactions between dimensions of gender inequality such as constrained education and career opportunities—may relate to economic dependency, and how these dynamics can be associated with experiences of domestic abuse and perceptions of status within specific household contexts. To this end, this study examines obstacles women may encounter in pursuing education and careers and proposes potential organisational and policy interventions.

The analysis is theoretically informed by feminist theory to interpret the narrated experiences of professional women in Pakistan. It also employs a theory-elaboration approach (Lee et al., 1999; Syed & Özbilgin, 2009) to critically examine the posited linkage between economic dependency, status, and violence (Shah et al., 2025). Using an in-depth case study (Yin, 2018), the research traces specific relational interactions and subjective perceptions that broader surveys may not capture, with the aim of refining theoretical understanding and providing analytical depth, rather than producing statistical generalisations. The subsequent sections detail this empirical investigation and its implications for both theory and practice.

3. Research design

This study employed a qualitative case study design (Laar et al., 2019b; Yin, 2018) to facilitate a deep, contextualised analysis of the reasons for women’s economic dependency and its consequences within a single family system. It is essential to use appropriate research methods based on the research question and background of the study (Hair et al., 2010). Therefore, considering the nature of our research, we adopted an exploratory and interpretive qualitative method (Saunders et al., 2015). This method is appropriate for a comprehensive understanding of specific contexts (Cresswell, 2003). This type of exploratory and interpretive study “voiced” women's experiences and attempted to inspire understanding and meaning (Creswell & Poth, 2016). This approach was selected as it is uniquely suited to address the research objective of exploring the inadequate education and career opportunities can be a vulnerability factor that makes economic dependency and domestic abuse harder to leave or resist (not that it causes the abuse to start). It also allows for the generation of rich narrative data necessary to develop a holistic understanding of this phenomenon and to give voice to the participant population (Creswell & Poth, 2016). Similar to previous literature on women dealing with educational and professional career issues in a family and society (Ali et al., 2017; Sarwar & Imran, 2019) in Pakistani society, we also conducted informant-style and semi-structured interviews. As argued by (Small, 2009), the goal of case study research is often analytical rather than statistical generalisation. The value lies not in the number of cases but in the depth of information and the ability to identify causal mechanisms and social processes that may be invisible in large-N datasets. Our single-family case serves as an 'information-rich' source for such an analysis. The goal of this research is not to uncover objective facts or universal laws, but to understand the meanings participants attach to their experiences. The analysis focuses on the subjective realities of the family members involved.

3.1. Study participants and sampling procedure

Four female members (the mother and her three daughters; see Figure 2) of one family and their family member offspring and husband (if applicable) were interviewed. All members are from Sindh region of Pakistan with illiterate to intermediate (higher education) background (also see Table I). Following (Yin, 2018), a single case study is a valid research design when the case is “critical,” “revelatory,” or “unique,” and when the investigation aims to explore complex social phenomena in their real-life context. Our study adopts this approach to provide a high level of detail and analytical insights into a complex theoretical process. Participants for this case study were selected using a purposive sampling strategy to identify a family unit that could provide deep, context-rich insights into the research problem (Patton, 2014). To minimise selection bias and ensure the selection of a relevant case, predefined eligibility criteria were established prior to recruitment. The selected family was chosen as a critical case (Patton, 2014), as they were referred by a local community leader as exemplifying the complex dynamics of economic decision-making and dependency that this study sought to investigate.

Figure 2.

Family tree of selected population.

Table I.

Background information and socioeconomic factors of the participants.

Indicator	Overall (n = 7)a	Women (n = 4)	Men (n = 3)
1. Socioeconomic Status (SES)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)
1.1 Education level
None	2 (28.6)	2 (50)	0 (0)
Higher	5 (71.4)	2 (50)	3 (100)
1.2 Employment status
Employed	4 (57.1)	1 (25)	3 (100)
Unemployed	3 (42.8)	3 (75)	0 (0)
1.3 Asset ownership
Yes	3 (42.8)	0 (0)	3 (100)
No	4 (57.1)	4 (100)	0 (0)
1.4 Husband’s attitude toward women working
Strongly opposed	3 (42.8)	0 (0)	3 (100)
Other categories	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)
2. Household Characteristics
2.1 Household income (per month) b
Far below average	3 (42.8)	3 (75)	0 (0)
Above average	4 (57.1)	1 (25)	3 (100)
2.2 Urban vs. rural residence
Urban	7 (100)	4 (100)	3 (100)
2.3 Family structure
Nuclear	6 (85.7)c	-	-
Extended	1 (14.2)	-	-
3. Economic Dependency
3.1 Decision-making power in household finances
Limited (consulted, little influence)	4 (57.1)	4 (100)	0 (0)
High influence (significant input)	3 (42.8)	0 (0)	3 (100)
3.2 Access to independent financial resources
Yes	3 (42.8)	0 (0)	3 (100)
No	4 (57.1)	4 (100)	0 (0)
4. Family Dynamics
4.1 Marital satisfaction
Very dissatisfied	4 (57.1)	2 (50)	2 (66.6)
Neutral	2 (28.6)	2 (50)	0 (0)
Satisfied	1 (14.2)	0 (0)	1 (33.3)
4.2 Domestic conflict frequency
Sometimes	3 (42.8)	2 (50)	1 (33.3)
Often	4 (57.1)	2 (50)	2 (66.6)
4.3 Mobility autonomy
Limited freedom (need permission)	4 (57.1)	4 (100)	0 (0)
Complete freedom (no restrictions)	3 (42.8)	0 (0)	3 (100)

^a Four women and three husbands of each woman excluding Nani's husband who passed away when she was 39 years old (±1 year). ^aAccording to Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES), Pakistan Federal Bureau of Statistics, the average monthly household income in Sindh is Rs.19,185 for the urban or around USD 68.16 according to the exchange rates in May 2025. ^cNani lives with her very last son.

Women who experience a lack of education, professional careers, economic dependency, and domestic abuse are the main targets (Shah et al., 2025). Men universally exhibited higher privilege, with 100% attaining higher education, full employment, asset ownership, financial autonomy, and unrestricted mobility, while women faced systemic disadvantages: half lacked formal education, 75% were unemployed, none owned assets, all depended financially on others, and all required permission for mobility (n = 7; see Table I). Economic inequality was stark, with 75% of women in far-below-average-income households versus men exclusively in above-average income brackets. Patriarchal norms were evident, as all male respondents reported husbands’ strong opposition to women working, and women were entirely excluded from financial decision-making processes. Marital dynamics were strained, with most respondents (57.1%) being very dissatisfied and frequent domestic conflicts (57.1% “often”), suggesting that gender-based economic and social inequities correlate with household tension. The data underscore entrenched structural barriers limiting women’s agency, although the small sample warrants cautious interpretation and further research.

This study follows the concept of feminist theory as a theoretical framework which is the engine of critical enquiry and it systematically transforms "economic dependency" from a descriptive variable into a lens for analysing the architecture of gendered power within the Pakistani familial economy. The participants were interviewed in Sindhi (the most commonly used local language in the province and the native language of the interviewees), and the interview content was translated into English for analysis. Rosenthal's statement can be understood as the idea of obtaining rich information through interviews: 'In order to explain and understand the participant's situation regarding specific past themes and experiences, it is necessary to explain certain parts of his or her current life and future perspectives' (Rosenthal, 2004).

3.2. Data collection instrument

The data for this survey were collected using interview guidelines through semi-structured interviews. This format was chosen to elicit rich, detailed narratives of participants' lived experiences while ensuring that core research topics were consistently covered (Rubin & Rubin, 2011). An interview guide was developed from the literature, piloted, and subsequently refined. It contained open-ended questions organised around key domains: initial motivations, perceived challenges and adaptive strategies. This interview guide adopted Patton’s approach (Patton, 2002), in which interviewers follow scripts that strictly adhere to the language and sequence of questions. This is the most systematic and effective qualitative interview technique, which helps to reduce bias (Menhas et al., 2023). The quality of education, economic dependence, patriarchal behaviour, and domestic abuse are the main focuses of this investigation. The question itself exploring economic dependency and family dynamics is a feminist one. It assumes dependency is worthy of scrutiny and inextricably linked to the power structures of the family so the questions were designed to elicit not just facts, but perceptions of power and norms. For example: Can you describe how major household expenses are decided and paid for? How do people in your family talk about a woman who earns her own income?. Interviews were conducted by the first author, whose position as an educated from an urban, middle-class Pakistani background—and whose explicit commitment to feminist and postcolonial research values—informed all stages of engagement. The interviews, which averaged 55 minutes, were scheduled by telephone, and participants were offered agency in selecting the location; most chose their homes. This decision was respected as an act of participant control, yet the researcher remained reflexively attentive to how his presence in domestic space and his own subject position might simultaneously facilitate candour, reinscribe power dynamics, or quietly constrain narratives about familial authority and dependency. Throughout, he exercised interpretive authority with deliberate transparency, continuously reflecting on how his values and theoretical commitments shaped the dialogue, the questions posed, and the subsequent meaning-making process.

3.3. Data collection quality check and rigour

The participants of this study underwent face-to-face and remote interviews using a hybrid approach that considered their preferences and timetable. Normally, in Pakistani society, it is not easy (for male researchers) to get a female audience. The author received refusal on their first attempt. To avoid the risks of emotional and psychological harm, the interviews were handled with extreme care, as the interview itself may become a re-traumatising event. After explaining the research objectives, we sought the participants’ permission before the interview. To ensure methodological rigour and trustworthiness, this study adhered to Lincoln and Guba (1988) framework. Credibility was strengthened through member checking (Birt et al., 2016) with a subset of participants (n = 7), peer debriefing with qualitative experts, and data source triangulation. On the other hand, dependability was achieved by maintaining a detailed audit trail of raw data, analytical memos, and coding iterations, followed by addressing researcher reflexivity through journaling to bracket preconceptions regarding the consequences of women’s economic dependency confirmability. Finally, transferability is supported through a thick, contextual description of participants and settings, allowing readers to evaluate the applicability of the findings to other contexts. To enhance the trustworthiness of our interpretations, we conducted member cheques by sharing anonymized thematic summaries with participants. This process served as a critical dialogue that refined our analysis: it corrected factual misunderstandings, clarified the nuance of participants' intended meanings, and in several instances, prompted us to elevate emerging themes of ambivalence and contextual negotiation that our initial coding had undervalued. The data or results were sent back to the participants to carefully check for accuracy and consistency (Birt et al., 2016).

3.4. Thematic analysis

To ensure our thematic analysis captured the complex and often contradictory realities of our participants' lives, we engaged in a rigorous process of analytic iteration, negative case analysis, and direct engagement with ambiguity. Our coding was not a linear, one-pass exercise but an iterative dialogue between the raw interview data and our developing theoretical framework; initial descriptive codes were continually revisited and refined into more conceptual categories that reflected the relational and situational dynamics at play. We actively sought negative cases that challenged our emerging themes such as: accounts where economic dependency coexisted with expressed marital satisfaction or significant moral authority using these instances not as outliers to discard but as crucial data to refine and condition our conclusions. Furthermore, we treated participants' own contradictory statements (e.g., expressing a desire for daughters' independence while endorsing restrictive norms) not as analytic noise but as central evidence of the lived ambivalence inherent in navigating patriarchal structures, ultimately developing themes that could hold this tension. This systematic engagement with complexity prevented simplistic narratives and ensured our findings reflected the nuanced, non-deterministic social world we studied. The thematic analysis structure is presented in Figure 3, and the main themes and subthemes are presented in Table II. During coding and thematic analysis, the feminist lens acted as a sensitising framework.

Figure 3.

Thematic analysis detailed description of each step.

Table II.

Themes on socio-economic constraints and gendered experiences.

Theme	Sub-Theme	Description
Constrained Educational Pathways	Barriers to Access	Limited familial investment in education due to financial constraints or perceived low return, often leading to early dropout.
	Curricular Inadequacy	A perceived misalignment between educational curricula and the practical skills required for economic independence.
	Gendered Expectations	Channelling into fields of study traditionally viewed as feminine, which are associated with lower earning potential.
Entrenched Economic Dependence	Limited Labour Force Participation	Restriction from employment due to a lack of opportunities, mobility constraints, and familial disapproval.
	Financial Control by Partners	The appropriation and management of personal earnings by the male head of household, severely limiting agency.
	Lack of Asset Ownership	Inability to hold rights to property (e.g., land, housing), removing a critical economic safety net.
Normative Patriarchal Structures	Prescribed Gender Roles	A rigid division of labour that assigns domestic and care responsibilities exclusively to women.
	Male Authority in Decision-Making	The concentration of final authority on major familial and financial decisions with male members.
	Social Sanctioning of Norms	The reinforcement of traditional gender roles and the discouragement of deviance by community and extended kin.
Manifestations of Domestic Abuse	Economic Abuse	A pattern of controlling behaviour that includes withholding resources, sabotaging employment, and creating debt.
	Psychological and Emotional Abuse	Behaviours intended to intimidate, demean, and isolate, including verbal threats and insults.
	Physical and Sexual Coercion	The use of physical force and sexual violence to assert dominance, punish, and enforce compliance.
Interconnectedness of Systems	Economic Dependence as a Barrier to Exit	The central role of financial precariat in preventing individuals from leaving abusive relationships.
	Education as a Mitigating Factor	The correlation between higher educational attainment and increased awareness of rights and intra-household negotiation power.
	Patriarchy as a Justifying Ideology	The normalisation of abuse as a legitimate form of "discipline" for violating prescribed gender norms.

Note. The thematic analysis revealed the interconnected nature of these systems.

3.5. Conceptual framework of the study

This conceptual framework centres on the non-linear, contingent, and contested dynamics of family life, where patriarchal norms and limited educational access constrain women’s economic opportunities, but do not determine uniform outcomes. Instead, these constraints activate situated causal mechanisms such as perceived status threat which, mediated by contextual factors like a husband’s economic precarity or kinship alliances, may provoke a range of responses: backlash and spousal control, strategic compliance, covert resistance, or ambivalent bargaining within the household. Moreover, external factors such as legal reforms or rights awareness do not act as straightforward remedies; they are filtered through this same complex relational system, potentially triggering feedback loops that reinforce control or create new avenues for negotiation. The framework thus moves beyond deterministic pathways to trace how relational power is dynamically enacted, resisted, and renegotiated in specific contexts.

Limited access to quality education for women restricts women’s employment due to sociocultural barriers and patriarchal norms, with traditional gender roles reinforcing economic dependency. The results show that financial reliance on husbands due to lack of personal income reduces decision-making power within the family and society and increases vulnerability to spousal control and violence (see Figure 4). In this situation, women’s awareness of rights and empowerment strategies through feminist theory can overcome gender inequality, economic dependency, and oppression. In addition, laws promoting women’s education and employment by the government can enhance the status of women in society and reduce domestic violence. We shift the focus from establishing universal causality to identifying “causal mechanisms” (Hedström & Ylikoski, 2010), the specific, situational sequences of events that connect cause and effect. Our analysis traces how the mechanism of “status threat” manifests and escalates within the household dynamics of this family.

Figure 4.

Unveiling the roots of women’s disempowerment.

4. Research findings with discussion

These are the statements of four females (the mother and her three daughters; other family members' statements are also given as per the requirement of the study) from a Pakistani family who participated in our research, exploring how family members influence the education and career of women and how these factors could associate with economic dependency and domestic abuse. In alignment with established qualitative research practices (Laar et al., 2019b; Sun & Zhang, 2006), the findings and discussion were integrated into a single section. This structure allows for a nuanced presentation of the results, wherein each emergent theme is immediately contextualised and critically examined concerning the existing literature. Before starting the interview, the study aim was described, and consent was obtained from all participants. To avoid the ethical risk participants were informed that they can withdraw at any moment without consequence is critical.

4.1. The mother (77 years ± 1year)

Nani, 77 years old, was born in 1947, the year of Pakistan's independence. Her lack of formal education, she explains, was a product of her time: a low-income family background where girls' education was not a common practice. Married at 13 to an illiterate man, her narrative provides a foundational lens for understanding the family's gender dynamics.

Nani's recollection of her marital home is striking. She notes that because she was uneducated and not employed, “all the respect, value, and good position in the family went to her husband.” Rather than framing this as a personal moral failing on the part of her family, this observation can be interpreted as an acute awareness of a prevailing social structure. Research on intra-household bargaining power consistently shows that economic contribution is a significant, though not exclusive, determinant of status and influence within a family (Manchester et al., 2019). Nani’s statement reflects an internalisation of this observed social reality: value is linked to economic provisioning.

This lived experience is a crucial context for understanding her subsequent decisions. Widowed at 39 with 11 children, Nani became the sole breadwinner and head of the family. In a context where remarriage for widows with children is socially and practically difficult, her preference for sons, which she explicitly states, is multi-layered. Her quote,

“I would rather spend money on the education of my sons instead of spending on daughters; daughters are the assets of others,”

can be interpreted not simply as internalised patriarchy, but as a survival strategy born of economic precarity. From her perspective, investing in sons may have appeared as the most pragmatic and secure economic decision. Sons, who would remain within the family, were seen as a form of social security for her old age and a continued workforce for the family's economic survival. Daughters, expected to marry and join another family (“assets of others”), represented a long-term investment from which her immediate family unit would not directly benefit. Her practice of allocating more and better food (meat) to sons while diluting the portions for daughters is a tangible manifestation of this resource-allocation strategy based on perceived future return.

This challenges a simplistic reading of her as merely “gender discriminatory.” Instead, her actions reveal how gendered resource allocation can be a rational, if harsh, response to structural constraints where women's economic opportunities are limited and familial survival depends on male members. While rightly point out that primary agents of discrimination are often immediate family, Nani's case illustrates that these family members are themselves acting within, and perpetuating, a system they may see as inevitable. The consequence, as Shah et al. (2025) note, is a cycle that limits women's educational and social participation. However, Nani's narrative suggests this is not a simple case of prejudice, but a complex intergenerational transmission of a survival logic in a context of profound gender-based economic inequality. An alternative explanation is that Nani's preference is less about a devaluation of daughters per se and more about a pragmatic, risk-averse allocation of scarce resources in an environment where a woman's welfare is seen as ultimately the responsibility of her husband's family. The limits of this interpretation, however, lie in its reliance on a single narrative; we cannot fully access Nani's personal beliefs separate from the strategies she felt compelled to adopt.

4.2. Daughter 1 (57 years ± 1year)

Daughter 1 (D1), the first female child and third overall, provides a narrative that illustrates the cumulative impact of educational exclusion and constrained marital choices on women's long-term agency and status. Her account serves as a case study revealing the interlocking systems that can shape a woman's life trajectory. Her formal education was abruptly terminated by a violent act from her father. She recounts:

“When I was young, around at the age of 3-4 years, I was on my way to school, my father saw me and broke the Takhti (a wooden writing board) on my back... and after that, I never dare to go to school or study at home.”

This event represents a critical juncture in her life story. Rather than interpreting it solely as an act of individual cruelty, it can be understood as the enforcement of a gendered norm by a patriarch who, as the earlier narrative of Nani suggests likely viewed female education as irrelevant to a daughter's prescribed domestic role. The physical punishment served as an effective deterrent, permanently closing off the path to literacy and its associated opportunities. This act effectively channelled D1 toward the domestic sphere, consistent with the family's resource-allocation logic where investment in daughters was not prioritised. While this interpretation focuses on structural enforcement, an alternative reading might consider that the father's actions, however harsh, could have been motivated by a desire to protect D1 from a perceived incompatibility between educated women and the marriage market at that time a reflection of social pressures rather than purely personal ideology.

Following her father's death, D1's marriage at 19 was arranged by her mother, Nani. This decision was made despite knowledge of the groom's family environment, characterised by a father-in-law “famous for his short temper and home quarrels.” Nani's justification, “God is with us; He will protect D1,” can be interpreted not as negligence, but as a form of fatalistic coping—a reliance on divine protection in the face of limited worldly options. For a widow in a patriarchal society, securing daughters' marriages, even into difficult circumstances, may have been viewed as the primary, and perhaps only, available strategy to fulfil her maternal duty and ensure her daughters' social placement. The limits of this interpretation, however, lie in its reliance on inferring Nani's motivations from a single reported statement; we cannot fully know whether other considerations or alternative matches were available to her at the time.

D1 entered a joint family where her husband and brother-in-law were educated government employees, while she was uneducated and economically dependent. This status imbalance is a key factor in understanding her subsequent experiences. She describes spending seven years “bearing all the bullies” from her in-laws and sometimes her husband. This dynamic aligns with literature suggesting that economic dependency can significantly diminish an individual's bargaining power and social standing within the household (Arbab & Taieb, 2023; König, 1957). Without education or economic contribution, D1 lacked the resources to negotiate her position or challenge the treatment she received. It is worth considering, however, that the reported “bullies” may encompass a range of interpersonal dynamics that are filtered through D1's retrospective interpretation; what she describes as systematic mistreatment might also reflect normative household hierarchies of the time that she was socialised to expect. Later, in a nuclear family setting, a new form of vulnerability emerged. Her husband's threat,

“You are no longer attractive, and I want to marry another young girl. If you do not agree, I will divorcee you,” exposes the precariousness of a status derived solely from marital and maternal roles. D1's lack of education, professional skills, property, or financial assets left her with no viable alternatives outside the marriage. Her illiteracy, and consequent inability to use a mobile phone or access information, further compounded her isolation and dependence. This illustrates how educational deprivation creates cascading effects, limiting not only economic opportunities but also basic social and informational agency. The narrative's emphasis on material constraints, while analytically important, may not fully capture the emotional dimensions of this marital relationship, including any affection or mutual dependence that might have coexisted with these power imbalances. Her response to her husband's subsequent illness is particularly telling:

“I will take good care of my husband in the hope that he may not avoid me, love me more, and not get a 2nd marriage with that young girl.”

This statement can be analysed as a strategy of performing devotion as a form of leverage in the absence of other resources. With no economic or legal power, her only perceived capital was her role as a caregiver. This represents a rational, if constrained, response to her circumstances a strategy to secure her position by reinforcing the very dependency that defines it. An alternative interpretation, however, might acknowledge that caregiving in such contexts can also be motivated by genuine attachment, religious obligation, or internalised notions of wifely duty that cannot be reduced solely to strategic calculation. The narrative necessarily simplifies what is likely a more complex emotional landscape.

Her situation emerges from intersecting structures: a patrilineal kinship system that devalues daughters' education, an economic system that historically excluded women from property and formal work, and a marital system that offers women limited protection from male authority. The scholarship of (Arbab & Taieb, 2023; Scheuermann, 2014; Yezierska, 2023) underscores the link between education, economic independence, and domestic status. D1's case reveals how profoundly difficult it is to achieve such independence when pathways to it are systematically obstructed from birth. At the same time, this structural analysis has its own limits: it risks representing D1 primarily as a product of systems rather than as an agent who navigated these constraints with whatever resources were available to her, including the dignity of providing care on her own terms (Figure 5).

Figure 5.

Takhti (a wooden made thin and flat objected used for writing).

4.3. Daughter 2 (42 years ± 1year)

Daughter 2 (D2) represents a distinct position within the family's intergenerational trajectory: she is the first female to receive formal education, having completed high school (12 grades). This educational attainment, however, proved insufficient to launch a professional career or fundamentally alter her position within marital power structures. Her narrative illuminates the distinction between education as credential and education as transformative capital.

D2 is described by family members as having a "nice and gentle" nature, a characterisation that may reflect internalised expectations of feminine comportment within this cultural context. At 25, her marriage was arranged to a man 15 years her senior, a police inspector whose statements and reported behaviours reflect strongly held views about gender hierarchy.

“I will not allow my wife (D2) to do a job and earn the bread in my home; it's very humiliating for me.” (D2's H)

This statement articulates a specific ideology in which male provisioning is tied to masculine honour, and female economic participation is experienced as a threat to that identity. Rather than interpreting this simply as “male chauvinism,” it can be understood as the expression of a gendered economic logic where men's social standing is partially derived from their role as exclusive providers. Within this framework, a wife's employment may be perceived not as a contribution to household welfare but as a public statement about the husband's inadequacy. An alternative interpretation might consider that D2's husband, given his position as a police inspector in what is likely a small-town context, operates within a professional culture that emphasises masculine authority and may penalise perceived deviations from traditional gender performance among his peers.

Despite the prohibition on formal employment, D2 worked as a private schoolteacher in her hometown, although her income was described as insufficient to support her three children independently. This detail reveals a complex negotiation in which she had achieved some economic participation, but at a scale that remained contained within her husband's authority and did not enable genuine autonomy. Her teaching work existed in a grey area—perhaps tolerated because it was framed as temporary, supplemental, or appropriately feminine in its association with nurturing children. The marital relationship is characterised by recurrent conflict and separation:

“If my husband fights a lot, I leave his house, take the three children, and stay with my elder sister (D1); it happens not less than seven times. The longest period I lived with my elder sister was 7 months, and my husband never visited or called us.” (D2)

This pattern of episodic departure and return represents a particular strategy for managing marital conflict. D2's recourse to her sister's home (D1) illustrates the continued importance of natal family networks as a safety net for women in distressed marriages. The husband's failure to initiate contact during these separations including one lasting seven months suggests indifference, an expectation that she will return on her own, or a strategic withholding of engagement as a form of pressure. An alternative reading might consider that his position as a police officer, a role that involves significant public visibility and potential reputational concerns, could discourage him from appearing to pursue a wife who has voluntarily left, as this might be interpreted by his social network as weakness or domestic disorder.

The couple's living arrangements have evolved into a permanent spatial separation:

“​​Most of the time, we fight, and it has been a while since we separated the beds. He is on the ground floor, and we (three children and D2) are on the second floor of the house. He also does not talk to his three children, as he always wanted a boy, and he does not even eat with us.”

This physical division of the household into distinct territories represents a domestic arrangement that maintains the formal structure of marriage while emptying it of most interpersonal content. The husband's reported preference for a male child, and his subsequent withdrawal from all three children (whose genders are not specified in this excerpt), suggests that his investment in fatherhood was conditional on the production of a male heir—a pattern consistent with patrilineal kinship systems where sons carry forward family name and provide support to parents in old age. The limits of this interpretation, however, include the absence of the children's own perspectives on this dynamic; we cannot know how they experience or interpret their father's withdrawal, or whether other factors beyond gender preference might contribute to the estrangement.

D2's situation complicates any simple narrative in which education automatically translates into empowerment. Despite being the first educated woman in her family line, and despite engaging in paid work, she remains positioned within a marital structure that severely constrains her agency. Her education has not enabled economic self-sufficiency (her income remains inadequate), nor has it shifted the ideological framework within which her husband defines appropriate gender roles. This suggests that education's transformative potential may be limited when it is not accompanied by other forms of capital including sufficient income for independence, legal awareness, social support networks beyond family, and broader cultural shifts in gender ideology.

The literature cited (Arbab & Taieb, 2023; Tager et al., 2010; Wilfred et al., 2023) suggests that in Pakistan's major urban centres, women's economic contributions can reshape household gender dynamics. D2's case, situated in what is implied to be a smaller town, suggests that context matters significantly: the same level of education and economic participation may yield different outcomes depending on local gender ideologies, labour market structures, and the density of alternative models of family life. Her story does not negate the importance of education but rather points to the need for more nuanced understanding of the conditions under which education translates into autonomy. At the same time, this analysis is limited by its focus on constraint; it may underrepresent the significance of D2's achievement in securing any education and employment at all, given her family of origin's history, and the possibility that she experiences her teaching work and her relationships with her children as meaningful sources of identity and worth independent of her marital situation.

4.4. Daughter 3 (40 years ± 1year)

Daughter 3 (D3), the second-last child of the family, occupies a distinct position in this intergenerational narrative. Born around the time of her father's death, she reports limited direct memories of him. Her account introduces additional dimensions to the family's pattern: the role of brothers as surrogate patriarchs, the discourse of female sexuality as a rationale for mobility restriction, and the possibility of formal legal recourse as a response to domestic violence.

Prior to her marriage, D3's life was shaped by the oversight of her eight brothers, including those younger than herself. She “hardly passed intermediate” (high school), a fact she attributes to her brothers' concerns about her leaving the home daily. These concerns were framed around two interrelated issues: “safety” and, more fundamentally, the preservation of her virginity. This rationale reflects a broader cultural logic in which female family members' bodies are constructed as carriers of family honour, and male relatives position themselves as guardians of that honour through controlling women's mobility (Laar et al., 2019a, 2019b; Niazi, 2019). Rather than interpreting the brothers' actions simply as overbearing or controlling, they can be understood as enacting a culturally prescribed role: in the absence of a father, adult sons assume patriarchal authority over female siblings, including the authority to define the boundaries of acceptable behaviour. An alternative interpretation might consider that the brothers' concerns about safety could reflect genuine perceptions of risk in their specific environment, even as these concerns intersect with and reinforce gendered restrictions.

D3's marriage at 24, like those of her sisters, was arranged. She began her married life as a full-time housewife and mother to four children. Her account of the violence she experienced is specific and vivid:

“My husband is having an affair, but I can do nothing about it. He also used to beat me, leaving marks on my body, but my patience ended when all his brothers came to beat me, and he was there watching and smiling on the chair while my children were trying to save me and crying” (D3).

This description contains several elements relevant to understanding domestic violence as a social phenomenon. The involvement of multiple male affine (husband's brothers) transforms what might be framed as a private marital conflict into a collective family action against the wife. The husband's reported posture “watching and smiling on the chair” positions him as an audience to and implicit approver of the violence, rather than its sole perpetrator. The children's attempted intervention, and their crying, introduces them as witnesses and participants in the scene, with implications for their own socialisation and understanding of family relationships. The limits of this account include its retrospective nature and the emotional weight of the memory, which may shape how events are recalled and narrated.

Following this incident, D3 made a decision that distinguishes her trajectory from her sisters': she left her husband's house permanently. With her four children, she initially sought shelter with her brother-in-law (presumably a maternal relative) in a single-room dwelling. More significantly, she filed a legal case against her husband and his brothers for physical assault, a case that remains pending in a local family court in Larkana, Sindh. This action represents a form of agency not visible in the narratives of D1 or D2: the invocation of state legal mechanisms to address violence within the family. That her case is still pending, however, points to the gap between formal legal rights and their actual implementation a gap shaped by court backlogs, evidentiary requirements, social pressures to reconcile, and the relative power of the parties involved.

D3's economic situation remains precarious. She has joined a small non-governmental organisation, conducting surveys, but this income does not adequately cover her children's education, daily expenses, or rent (she accesses a small apartment through a government scheme). Her statement,

"My husband does not want me and our three daughters anymore and decided to marry a younger woman, but it is fine; with the help of God, I will manage everything and raise my children well,” conveys both an acceptance of circumstances she cannot control and an assertion of her intention to persist as a single parent. This combination of fatalism (“it is fine,” “with the help of God”) and determination (“I will manage everything”) reflects a position common among women navigating structural disadvantage: they must simultaneously acknowledge the limits of their control and mobilise whatever resources including religious faith and personal resolve remain available.

The response of her natal family, particularly her elder brother's statement that he had “nothing to do with her,” illustrates the conditional nature of family support for separated or divorced women. While D1 provided temporary shelter to D2 during marital conflicts, D3's brother explicitly distances himself, perhaps reflecting that supporting a sister who has formally left her husband and filed a legal case carries different social and reputational implications than providing temporary refuge during an episodic separation. The brother's additional observation that it is “almost impossible for someone in Pakistani society to marry a divorced girl with four children” points to the severely constrained remarriage market for women with children, a structural reality that shapes the calculations of women considering leaving violent marriages.

The experiences of D1, D2, and D3, when considered together, lend weight to feminist theoretical frameworks that identify economic dependency as a key mechanism maintaining women's subordinate position within families (Balabanova, 2007; Shah et al., 2025). D1's complete lack of education and economic resources left her with no option but to remain and attempt to secure her position through caregiving. D2's education and limited income enabled temporary departures but not permanent independence. D3's formal legal action represents the most assertive challenge to marital violence, yet her economic precarity and reliance on an overburdened legal system illustrate how formal agency without material resources remains constrained. The literature linking women's economic dependency to diminished status and decision-making power (Bhutta & Haider, 2013) finds support in these narratives, but D3's case also suggests that economic factors do not tell the whole story: her decision to leave and pursue legal action, despite economic vulnerability, points to other factors—perhaps differences in individual temperament, access to information about legal rights, or the cumulative effect of witnessing her sisters' trajectories that also shape women's responses to violence.

At the same time, this analysis is limited by its reliance on individual narratives that may not capture the full range of factors influencing each woman's situation. D3's account of her brothers' pre-marital control, for example, is presented from her perspective; the brothers themselves might frame their actions as protective rather than restrictive, reflecting genuine concerns about social reputation and safety in a context where female behaviour is subject to intense public scrutiny. Similarly, her husband's actions are reported only through her account; while the legal case presumably involves additional evidence, the narrative presented here cannot access his motivations or his version of events. The focus on economic dependency as an exploratory and interpretive framework, while analytically powerful, may also underweight other dimensions of these women's lives including sources of meaning, dignity, and resistance that exist alongside and despite material constraint.

5. Conclusion

This in-depth qualitative case study of a single Pakistani family has examined the interconnections between educational access, career opportunities, economic dependency, and women's status within their family and immediate social context. By analysing the narratives of four women across two generations, the study has sought to illuminate how these factors manifest in daily life and shape women's positions within household structures.

The experiences documented across these women's lives suggest patterns in which educational exclusion or limitation, followed by marriage into families where they lack independent economic resources, correlates with diminished decision-making power and social standing. Nani's narrative illustrates how, in the absence of education and independent income, status accrued primarily to the male breadwinner—a pattern consistent with resource theory, which proposes that greater access to resources including education, occupation, and income corresponds with greater power within relationships (Dahl, 1957). Her subsequent resource allocation decisions as a widowed mother, favoring sons over daughters, can be understood within this framework as a strategy shaped by her observation of how economic provisioning determined status.

The daughters' trajectories, while distinct in their details, collectively demonstrate how limited education and economic dependency can constrain women's options when facing marital conflict, domestic violence, or the threat of abandonment. Within this family, the husbands of D1, D2, and D3 possessed more education and formal sector employment than their wives, a dynamic that researchers have associated with husbands having greater decision-making power and wives experiencing lower status in Pakistani households (Arbab & Taieb, 2023). Several dimensions of low status were observable across the daughters' narratives: restricted decision-making authority over household matters, constrained mobility requiring permission or justification, and the consistent dismissal of their opinions by husbands and male relatives. These patterns align with broader observations about the relationship between economic dependency and intra-household bargaining power documented in existing literature (Bhutta & Haider, 2013).

The value of this case study lies not in its generalisability to all Pakistani families, but in its detailed illustration of how these dynamics can unfold across generations within a single kinship network. The narratives provide empirical texture to theoretical claims about resources and power, showing how educational disadvantage can compound over time, how marriage decisions made under constraint can shape lifelong trajectories, and how women navigate the limited options available to them. D1's strategy of performing devoted caregiving in response to her husband's threat of divorcee, D2's pattern of temporary departures to her sister's home, and D3's decision to pursue legal action despite economic precarity each represent different modes of responding to structurally similar constraints. These responses illustrate what some researchers have conceptualised as women navigating patriarchal structures to maximise security within available constraints.

The study's findings are necessarily bounded by its methodology and scope. As a single-family case study, it cannot support claims about prevalence or representativeness. The retrospective accounts may be shaped by the passage of time and the emotional significance of the events described. The voices of male family members—fathers, brothers, husbands—are present only as reported by the women, limiting understanding of their perspectives and motivations. These limitations, however, are balanced by the depth of detail possible when examining a single family across generations, and by the opportunity to trace how patterns of educational exclusion, marital arrangement, and economic dependency reproduce and occasionally shift over time.

The experiences documented here resonate with research indicating that low proportions of female students in schools, limited female labour force participation, and gender discrimination constitute significant social patterns in Pakistan. Some scholars have argued that enhancing women's economic independence through improved education and work opportunities may be associated with reduced vulnerability to abuse (Khan, 2023), and that women's education and professional careers with economic independence represent important considerations for those concerned with these issues (Balabanova, 2007; Bhutta & Haider, 2013; Saleem & Ajmal, 2018; Sarwar & Imran, 2019). However, this study's contribution is not to evaluate such claims, which require broader evidence, but to illustrate through one family's experience the mechanisms that such research addresses.

What emerges from these women's accounts is not a simple narrative of victimhood, but a more complex picture of constraint and navigation within limited options. Each woman made decisions within the boundaries of what was possible given her circumstances: Nani allocating scarce resources according to perceived survival logic; D1 remaining and caregiving in the absence of alternatives; D2 periodically leaving and returning; D3 pursuing legal action despite uncertain outcomes. These choices reflect both the power of structural constraints and the persistence of individual agency within them. The mechanisms linking economic dependency to low status are visible across these narratives, but so too are the varied ways women understand, negotiate, and sometimes challenge the conditions of their lives. Through this in-depth case study, the research aims to delineate these mechanisms and give voice to the human experience behind the theoretical frameworks, making these dynamics visible and understandable for readers, researchers, and those engaged with these issues.

6. Practical implications of the study

The narratives presented in this single-family case study offer insights that may be relevant for various audiences concerned with women's education, economic participation, and family dynamics in similar contexts. However, as a qualitative study of one family, these implications are offered as observations that align with existing literature and merit further investigation, rather than as definitive prescriptions.

For religious scholars and community leaders: The experiences documented in this family resonate with scholarly work examining the relationship between Islamic teachings and gendered practices in Muslim societies. Researchers have noted that Islam granted women basic rights including education and economic participation before many Western societies, and that Islamic teachings challenged practices such as female infanticide while motivating women to study and work (Khalaf, 2017). Islamic scholarship has also emphasised the equal rights of men and women with respect to religious duties (Al-Hibri, 2000). The gap between these teachings and prevailing customs observed in this family where daughters were denied education, married young, and subjected to domestic violence aligns with observations that norms and customs have often overridden religious teachings in practice (Laar et al., 2019a, 2019b). The Quranic emphasis on knowledge acquisition as a duty for all believers (Al-Qur’an, 2008a, 2008b; Ibn Mājah, 2007), and the historical example of Khadija bint Khuwaylid as a merchant and trader (Hendrix & Okeja, 2018), provide religious reference points that stand in contrast to the educational exclusion experienced by Nani and D1. For religious scholars and community leaders, this family's story illustrates the continued relevance of conversations about how Islamic teachings regarding women's rights are interpreted, transmitted, and either implemented or neglected within specific family and community contexts. The study cannot, however, speak to how such conversations might be most effectively structured or what role religious institutions might play in bridging the gap between textual teachings and lived practice.

For families and parents: The intergenerational patterns documented here illustrate how decisions about daughters' education and marriage timing can shape their later circumstances. Nani's lack of education, rooted in the norms of her time, corresponded with complete economic dependency. Her daughters received varying levels of schooling: D1 none, D2 completed high school, and D3 completed intermediate with some disruption. These different educational trajectories correlated with different responses to marital adversity. While this single case cannot demonstrate causation, it does suggest that the observations of researchers who link education, economic independence, and domestic status (Arbab & Taieb, 2023; König, 1957; Scheuermann, 2014; Yezierska, 2023) may have relevance for understanding how families' decisions about daughters' education can expand or constrain their future options. D2's partial education, while insufficient to secure autonomy, corresponded with a pattern of temporary departure during conflicts a response not observed in D1's narrative. D3's pursuit of formal legal recourse, while not yet successful, represents a form of agency not available to her sisters. These observations suggest that families might consider whether facilitating daughters' education and exposure to information beyond the household could expand the range of options available to them. However, D2's experience also illustrates that education alone, without corresponding economic sufficiency or shifts in marital power dynamics, has limits as a protective factor.

For extended family networks: The conditional nature of natal family support for married daughters is visible across these narratives. D1 provided shelter to D2 during multiple separations, suggesting that sister networks can function as important safety nets. However, D3's brother explicitly declined involvement after her permanent departure and legal filing. This contrast suggests that support from natal families may depend on perceived legitimacy of complaints, concerns about family reputation, and practical capacity to assist. Women who take formal legal action against husbands may find natal family support withdrawn. This pattern aligns with research documenting that gender discrimination often originates within immediate family structures, and that such discrimination can deprive women of status in their natal homes, marital homes, and society (Shah et al., 2025). For those working with women in distress, this pattern suggests the importance of understanding family dynamics and not assuming that natal family support will be sustained, particularly when women pursue formal legal remedies.

For legal and support institutions: D3's decision to file a legal case against her husband and brothers, and the fact that this case remains pending, offers a grounded illustration of both the possibilities and limitations of formal legal recourse. Her case demonstrates that some women are aware of and willing to use legal channels to address domestic violence. However, the pendency of her case, combined with her ongoing economic struggles despite NGO connections and government housing assistance, suggests that access to legal remedies does not guarantee timely resolution or sustainable independence. This experience illustrates the mechanisms through which economic dependency can sustain patriarchal family structures (Balabanova, 2007; Shah et al., 2025), and how women's economic dependency shapes their status, freedom, and decision-making power in public and private life (Bhutta & Haider, 2013). For organisations supporting women in similar circumstances, D3's experience points to the gap between initial legal action and long-term stability—a gap encompassing income insufficiency, housing costs, childcare responsibilities, and the emotional demands of protracted legal processes.

For government and policymakers: While broad policy prescriptions exceed the scope of this single-family study, the narratives do illustrate challenges documented in broader research. Scholars have noted that low proportions of female students in schools, low quality or proportion of female employees, and widespread gender discrimination constitute serious social issues that may affect both women's rights and broader economic development. The resource theory perspective, which suggests that greater access to education, occupation, and income corresponds with greater power (Dahl, 1957), finds illustration in these women's accounts where husbands' greater education and income corresponded with greater decision-making power and lower status for wives (Arbab & Taieb, 2023) (Arbab & Taieb, 2023). Some research from major Pakistani urban centres suggests that where women's economic contributions are substantial, male dominance may be somewhat minimised (Arbab & Taieb, 2023; Tager et al., 2010; Wilfred et al., 2023). D2's case, situated outside such contexts, suggests that local conditions matter significantly. For policymakers, this family's story underscores the importance of context-sensitive approaches and the need for systematic research across diverse Pakistani communities before assuming that interventions effective in one setting will translate to others. The study cannot, however, evaluate specific policy mechanisms such as school retention laws, job quotas, microfinance programs, or domestic violence enforcement measures, as these were not within its scope.

For researchers and theorists: This study contributes to existing literature by providing empirical texture to theoretical frameworks. It aligns with feminist social theory that views married women's economic dependency as a mechanism maintaining subordinate family positions (Balabanova, 2007; Shah et al., 2025). The concept of “patriarchal bargaining”—where women strategically navigate oppressive norms to maximise security within constraints—finds illustration in D1's caregiving strategy, D2's pattern of temporary departures and returns, and D3's pursuit of legal action despite uncertain outcomes. The study also raises questions for further research: the relationship between education level and responses to marital violence; the conditions under which natal family support is sustained or withdrawn; the gap between formal legal protections and implementation; and how women in different circumstances understand options and make decisions within constrained choice sets. These questions require examination across larger and more diverse samples before broader implications can be drawn.

These implications are offered with recognition that they emerge from detailed examination of one family's experiences across two generations. They are intended to suggest directions for further enquiry and considerations for those engaged in related work, not as definitive conclusions about what should be done. The value of this case study lies in its empirical depth and the questions it raises, which can only be addressed through continued research with broader populations and varied methodologies.

7. Limitations and future direction

Although the current study contributes significantly to the existing literature, it has some limitations. The most significant limitation of this study is that it was based on a single case. As such, it cannot empirically substantiate the prevalence or universal applicability of the pathway we have detailed; our findings are contextual and intended for analytic, not statistical, generalisation. (Yin, 2018). However, as is the goal in intensive case study research, we prioritise analytical generalisation, that is, the extension of theoretical propositions over statistical generalisation (Small, 2009). The contribution of this study lies in its ability to 'unpack the toolbox' of causal mechanisms (Hedström & Ylikoski, 2010) and elaborate the theoretical model with real-world complexity. However, in the current study, all three daughters (D1, D2, and D3) were victims of domestic abuse, had low status in the family and society, and were financially dependent, which prompted the author to conduct solo family research. In addition, the rich, thick description provided may offer transferability, allowing readers to discern parallels to other similar situations (Laar et al., 2019b; Lincoln & Guba, 1988; Yin, 2018). Future research should compare the status of economically dependent and independent women in the family and social systems and use the information provided in this study to support their findings by using longitudinal or mixed-method sampling strategies with larger and more diverse samples of families. In addition, a comparative qualitative design with a small number of cases was used to explore how these mechanisms vary across different contexts. Alternatively, the specific mechanisms identified here, such as the role of verbal denigration in linking low status to violent escalation, could be operationalized and tested in larger-scale quantitative studies. Thus, our study serves as a vital foundation for future work by providing a richly detailed, process-oriented account that larger-N studies are not designed to produce.

Biographies

Rizwan Ahmed Laar: is the Professor (Associate) at Hubei Normal University, he completed PhD from the top 10 universities of China, Beijing Normal University and postdoc from Nanjing Normal University, both majoring in physical education.

Ronrong Liu: is the Academic Secretary at College of Foreign Studies, Hubei Normal University. She completed MA from Hubei Normal University, majoring in English.

Qi Zhang: is the lecturer at Yanshan University, and she completed PhD from the top 10 universities of China, Beijing Normal University, majoring in physical education.

Funding Statement

This study was funded by the General Project of the 14th Five-Year Plan of Hebei Higher Education Association (Project No. GJXH2024-048) and the Teaching Reform and Research Project of Yanshan University (Project No. 2025XJJG091).

Acknowledgements

We thank the participants for their participation in this research and for making this study possible. The authors acknowledge the use of Grammarly Premium to review and enhance the grammar, clarity, and formal style of this manuscript.

R. A. L.: conception and design, or analysis and interpretation of the data; draughting of the paper; and final approval of the version to be published; Q. Z. and R. L.: revised it critically for intellectual content. All authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of this study.

Disclosure Statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Data availability statement

The data generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available because ethics approval was granted on the basis that only researchers involved in the survey could access de-identified data. The minimum retention period was five years from the publication date. Supporting documents are available upon request from the corresponding author.

Ethics approval and consent to participation and publication

This study adhered to the ethical guidelines outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki, and the protocol of this study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the College of Physical Education, Hubei Normal University, China (ethical approval number: CPE20230306). Written informed consent for publication and participation was obtained from all participants before any study procedure. Participants were assured that their personal identities would not be disclosed in subsequent research reports.