The present study sets out to investigate gender as performative construct and its importance for feminists in general and especially for women in Pakistani society. Different ways of conceptualizing gender-difference along with various social, cultural and psychological dimensions have been explored. The study looks into the factors in which discursive language practices in various dimensions work to construct women identities. Subsequent parts of the study examine different reasons and mechanisms that can account for dichotomous speech patterns and asymmetries which exist between participants in social discourse. Moreover, the two-way function of language has been focused as on the one hand language reflects the social identity of women performed through the language itself, and the realities about the social position of women in Pakistan on the other.

Baalen, Van Irene. Male and Female Language: growing together? (HSL/SHL1). 2001.

 www.let.leidenuniv.nl/hsl/van%20Baaleen.htm-7k.

Barrett, Michele. Women’s Oppression Today: Problems in Marxist Feminist Analysis.

London: Villiers Publications, 1980.

Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. New york: Bantam, 1961.

Cameron, Deborah. Feminism and Linguistic Theory. London,1992.

Cameron, Deborah, and Kulick, Don. Language and sexuality. Cambridge University  Press, 2003.

Corbett, G. Greville. Gender.  Cambridge University Press, 1991.

Eckert, Penelope, and McConnell-Ginet, Sally. Language and Gender. Cambridge UP, 2003.

Greene, Gayle, and Khan, Coppelia, eds. Making a Difference: Feminist Literary Criticism. Routledge, 2002.

Hymes, Dell. Social Models of the Interaction of Language Life. In Gumperz and Hymes, 1972.

Lakoff, Robin. Language and Women’s Place. New York: Harper & Row, 1975.

Mullany, Louise. The Application of Current Language and Gender Theory to Managerial Meeting Discourse. Nottingham Linguistic Circular: 15, 2000.

Mey, L. Jacob. Pragmatics: An Introduction. Blackwell, 2004.

Najam, Neshay. The Status of Women in Pakistan: A Muslim Majority State and the 21st Century. In: Crescent life, Issue: 2007.

www.crescentlife.com/articles/social%20issues /status – of – women –in – Pakistan.htm

Pande, A. Undoing Gender Stereotypes in Hindi. In: Linguistic Online,  Issue April 4: 2004.

www.linguistik-online.de/21_04/pande.html - 67k

Parveen, Rakhshanda. Gender in Pakistan. In: Sachet, 2007.

http://sachet.org.pk/home/g- for- gender/gender - in - Pakistan. asp.

Reich, M. Nina. Towards a Rearticulation of Women-as-Victims: A Thematic Analysis of the Construction of Women's Identities Surrounding Gendered Violence. Journal Title: Communicating Quarterly. Eastern Communication Association, 2002.

Romaine, Suzanne. Communicating Gender. Mahwah, NJ.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999.

Roy, B. Cynthia. Interpreting as a Discourse Process. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Schiffrin, D. Approaches to Discourse. Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Stopler, Gila. Countinancing the Oppression of Women: How Liberals Tolerate Religious and Cultural Practices That Discriminate against Women. Journal title: Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. Volume: 12. Issue: 1. Gale Group, 2003.

Talbot, M. Mary. Language and Gender. Cambridge Polity Press,  2003.

Tannen, Deborah. Gender and Discourse. Oxford, 1994.

Trudgill, Peter. The Social Differentiation of English in Norwich. Cambridge UP, 1974.

Waldron, Mae Florence. The  Battle  over  Female  (In)  dependence: Women  in  New England Quebecois Migrant Communities, 1870-1930. Journal title: Frontiers-A Journal of Women's studies. Volume: 26. University of Nebraska Press, 2005.

Wright, Erik Olin. Class Counts: Comparative studies in Class Analysis. Cambridge UP, 1997.