Development and Validation of a Perceived Gender Discrimination Scale (PGDS) for Pakistani Women

Abstract

Objective. Gender discrimination and its perception have been always the cornerstone in gender psychology;
however, the assessment encapsulates barriers concerning cultures. Perceived gender discrimination encapsulates the relative deprivation theory suggesting that it is generated through the pervasive relative comparison from the privileged gender. Relative deprivation theory provides the basis to assess the construct by the constituents of relative perception thus resulting in subsequent effort on a conceptual level. In this paper, we aimed to measure perceived gender discrimination among Pakistani women through the development of a new measure.
Method. Perceived Gender Discrimination Scale (PGDS) developed using the triangulation method has 56 items. Open-ended data was obtained through focus group discussion following the item generation and then procuring the expert opinion on themes. In the present research, an attempt was made to develop (N = 300) and validate (N = 300) such a measure for Pakistani adult women to measure their perception of gender discrimination. Independent sample sets for both studies comprised of working, non-working, married, and single adult women with an age ranging from 21 to 52 years. Data was collected through convenient purposive sampling and ethical requirements were met priorly to seek information on the subject matter.
Result. Exploratory factor analysis revealed an eight-factor solution accounting for 75.26 % cumulative variance
with .84 alpha reliability and confirmatory factor analysis yielded acceptable model results, thus, providing stability to use the scale for assessment of women’s gender discriminatory perception efficiently and effectively. Perceived Gender Discrimination Scale (PGDS) measures the unfair discrepancy results from recognition of an unfair discrepancy between women’s situation in the eight domains of Education, Employment/Career, Familial Matters, Financial Matters, General Social Rights, Appreciation and Encouragement, Abuse and Violence, and Gender-Based Stereotyping in comparison with men.
Conclusion. Perceived Gender Discrimination Scale (PGDS) provides a detailed assessment of perception of
gender discrimination among Pakistani women in their native language. It describes the relativity of the perception as compared to the absolute discrimination concept. Furthermore, this indigenously developed scale provides stable psychometric features to be utilized in future studies for measuring relative deprivation in terms of discrimination.