Table 2.

Themes and subthemes identified in data on three levels.

Level	Themes	Sub-themes
Macro-level	Barriers	Islamic guidelines: cultural norms and traditions are misinterpreted as religious teachings.
		Patriarchal Ideologies: social norms favor male dominance and superiority while restricting women to homes and allows men to control various aspects of women’s lives. Sifarish: the social power of who you know and who you are related to.
	Interventions	Improve legislations and accountability of organizations. Getting aid from religious scholars regarding the interpretation of true meaning of Islamic teachings. Create awareness about the Islamic guidelines related to working women and their rights and duties.
	Outcomes	Poverty reduction: when women work and there are more dual earners, poverty is reduced. Improved quality of life: with better income, quality of life becomes better. Happier society: happier and confident women creates happier society and households.
Meso-level	Barriers	Discrimination: women employees being discriminated at workplace with respect to career start, development and success opportunities. Harassment: women employees being sexually and emotionally harassed my male colleagues. Lack of work-family balance arrangements; pushing mothers out of the workforce. Segregation at workplace where women are not considered appropriate for some jobs; men have strong networking ties that help them in career.
	Interventions	Work-family balance measures including flexible work, holidays, and daycares. Strict policies and accountability against harassment.
		Improving opportunities like career counseling, development, trainings, mentoring, structural aid, and job restructuring.
		Meritocratic HR policies and enactment, leadership, culture, climate, strategy, and structure of equality.
	Outcomes	Better reputation of Organizations as EEO and WFB providers therefore attracting larger pool of candidates in recruitment process. Reduces turnover and more satisfied workforce. Variety of ideas and work techniques that comes with diverse workforce.
Micro-level	Barriers	Values and Needs: women having a caring and sacrificing nature.
		Dual-centric career orientation: women being less ambitious and giving equal importance to home and family. Queen Bee syndrome: successful women not proving to be facilitating to women subordinates. Lack of awareness: women employees not aware of policies and procedures for their legal and emotional facilitation.
	I.D∗ and facilitators	Gender and marital status, class and religion: more than one identity intersecting within a woman thereby creating a web of career inhibiting factors. Agency and strength: women showed characteristic strength, agency, and resilience. Confidence and positive attitude: women seemed motivated to make positive change.
	Outcomes	Well-being and happiness. Increased confidence, self-esteem, and efficacy. Better quality of life.

^∗I.D, intersecting identities.