Divorce status in the Pakistani workplace: women's narratives on stigma, outcomes and coping strategies

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-05-2021-0129
• Published date: 28 April 2022
• Date: 28 April 2022
• Pages: 927-950
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity,equality,inclusion
• Author: Abubakr Saeed,Sundas Kehkishan,Muhammad Sameer

Divorce status in the Pakistani

workplace: women’s narratives on

stigma, outcomes and

coping strategies

Abubakr Saeed

COMSATS University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Sundas Kehkishan

Independent Reseacher, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and

Muhammad Sameer

Royal Docks School of Business and Law, University of East London, London, UK

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the processes associated with divorced female employees’

experiences at workplaces in the context of a developing country, Pakistan. Specifically, this study analyzes

divorced women’s narratives to better understand the nature of discrimination, its outcomes and their coping

strategies within the workplace environment.

Design/methodology/approach –A qualitative methodology consisting of 25 semistructured interviews

with women employees having divorce status was adopted.

Findings –Findings demonstrate that divorced women experience a considerable amount of discrimination at

their workplace from colleagues (victimized through gossiping). Moreover, they are also offered less training

opportunities. This discrimination not only increases turnover intentions and stress but also decreases

cognitive performance and disturbs work–life balance. The major coping strategies identified in the research

include avoiding the situation and/or concealing their identity.

Originality/value –First, this study undertakesan in-depth examination of experiences and consequences of

stigma amongst female individuals with divorced identity from an understudied, yet highly relevant, context of

Pakistan. In so doing, the authors respond to the call for more research that examines the role of context in

shaping the psychological process. Second, contextualizing the concepts of discrimination and inclusion in the

workplace setting, this work gives voice to females with divorce identity. Lastly, by examining the interaction

between visible and invisible identities, the authors provide further evidence that individuals with multiple

subordinate identities are more prone to greater stigma and other negative consequences.

Keywords Women, Divorce, Discrimination, Workplace, Pakistan

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

The global diversity approach is not limited to gender, ethnicity or race as a basis for

differentiation; however, it also allows the inclusion of other categories (Ozturk and Tatli,

2015). The drastic transformation within the demographics of the workforce lead

organizations to create a work environment that supports organizational diversity. The

diversity in an organization can result in both positive as well as negative outcomes

depending upon the work environment and the approach to diversity management (Howarth

and Andreouli, 2016). Positive diversity management leads employees to utilize their skills,

knowledge and abilities to generate human resources that are rare, valuable as well as

difficult to imitate by the competitors (Chrobot-Mason and Aramovich, 2013). Furthermore,

diversity management also acquaints the organization with a well-founded basis for the

assessment of the changing social norms against the depiction of discrimination,

strengthening the interpersonal trust among the underrepresented groups and for the

achievement of enhanced personal as well as organizational performance. However, all these

Divorced

female

employees’

experiences

927

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 20 May 2021

Revised 28 October 2021

Accepted 7 April 2022

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 41 No. 6, 2022

pp. 927-950

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-05-2021-0129

benefits can be yielded only if the diversity is fully embedded in the pursuit of organizational

fairness rather than being implemented artificially (Kim and Park, 2015).

There is an established relationship between diversity issues and the concepts of

stereotypes, discrimination and stigmatization, and all these basic concepts, in turn, are

important to define diversity-related attitudes and behaviors (Surgevil and Akyol, 2011).

Diversity is a challenge when visible social identities cause potentially judgmental and

divisive reactions (Clair et al., 2005;Ragins, 2008). Besides, a distinct set of challenges emerge

when employees bring stigmatized aspects of their identities into the workplace. Individuals

with divorce identity are considered one of the marginalized and impoverished groups

(Ragins, 2008). Consequently, these stigmatized identities can potentially cause a

considerable amount of discrimination and devaluation in the workplace, which may affect

their valuation of productivity and competence (Pachankis, 2007). These consequences are

particularly pronounced for women as women perceive divorce to be more traumatic and

stressful as compared to men, and they also start withdrawing themselves more from the

social gatherings; females experience a significant decrease in their income level and

economic deprival as opposed to male divorcees (Andre et al., 2019). Keeping in view of the

above findings, it is therefore surprising that organizational scholars have thus, by and large,

ignored the question of how divorce identity brings stigma to individuals, particularly

females, within the workplace.

Divorced and being female, the double minority status can be understood through the

theoretical standpoint of intersectionality, which considers various social dimensions (e.g.

gender, race and class) interactiv ely rather than independently (Ki ng et al.,2014).

Intersectionality theory (Crenshaw, 1991) posits that the pattern of oppression encountered

by members of one stigmatized group (e.g. divorced) can be compounded when these

individuals hold additional stigmatized identities (e.g. female). In this regard, Berdahl and

Moore (2006) submit that individuals who are members of multiple disadvantaged groups

face at least a double stigmatization and report greater levels of discrimination than those

who hold a single stigmatized identity. However, it is important to consider the context, as

some environment may make certain identities more salient than others. For instance,

collectivistic societies value group interest more than self-interest, and divorce is considered a

selfish act, which bears negative consequences (Toth and Kemmelmeier, 2009). The

collectivistic cultural dimension of Hofstede (1983) is predominately emphasizing the

socialization practices, with prevailing cooperation, a sense of duty and compromise for

the collective benefits of the group. In collectivist culture, people are encouraged to adapt to

the group rules to ensure the social harmony while suppressing their personal feelings,

opinions and desires (Beugelsdijk and Welzel, 2018). Notably, individuals who possess the

ability to adapt to the circumstances are considered “good.”So, the divorce stigma may

prevail higher in collectivistic societies. Similarly, in contrast of developed economies, the

presence of women in workplace is, arguably, not welcome in Muslim less-developed

countries (Ali and Krammer, 2016); consequently, due to the minority status, women are often

subject to different discriminations and biases in the working environment.

Against this backdrop, the aim of this study is to qualitatively examine the processes

associated with divorced female employees’experiences at workplaces in the context of a

developing country, Pakistan. The sociocultural environment of Pakistan is considerably

different from the context of Western countries. In Pakistani culture, divorce identity bears a

whole range of negative psychological and social ramifications for the affected females (Shah,

2016). Pakistani society has a collectivist and patriarchal family structure which praises

married life very high, and divorce identity brings stigma not only to the women but also to

the entire family (Khaleek and Hussain, 2015). Therefore, families prefer to conceal the

divorced identity of their daughter or sister. At times, the effect of divorce stigma endangers

the lives of individuals, as “honor killing”is a common practice in Pakistani culture (Saeed

EDI

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