PATRIARCHY AND GENDER INEQUALITIES IN PAKISTAN: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS Samina Isran1 and Manzoor Isran2 ABSTRACT This p ap er studies asymmetrical gender relationship between male andf emale in the patriarchal society of Pakistan where womenf ace growing problems of disempowerment and social and economic seclusion as a result of lack of entitlement top roductive assets such as education, health,j obs, technology and land. The economic and social seclusion of women is mainly attributed to diff erentf orms and structures of the society, which this pap er discusses in detail. However, tof urther understand the asymmetrical relationship between man and woman, the p ap er makes a comp arative analysis of the Becker ’s Unitary Economic and Agrwal s’ Bargaining Model. The main thrust of the Becker Model being that it is largely based on thef ormulation which treats household as a unit of altruistic decision making, according to which the welf are of each member of thef amily is normally integrated in to the unif ied f amily welf are f unction. Contrastingly, the Bargaining Model sees the household orf amily as an intricatep attern of relationships involving continuous negotiations subj ect to the constraints set by gender, age, typ e of relationship and outdated undisp uted traditions. In South Asian societies, of which Pakistan is ap art, there are diff erent social controls app lied to regulate women s’ social and economic behaviour at every level of society. A central and systematicf orm of control is p atriarchy, which, as argued in this study, is the main cause of women ’s subordination. KEY WORDS: Patriarchy, empowerment, women in Pakistan, household models, bargaining.