9.MCQ — 2024–2026 Part-I Answer Key (60 MCQs) and Bad-Question Traps — Gender Studies

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MCQ coverage: Part-I from the uploaded 2024, 2025 and 2026 PDF papers (20 × 1 mark each; 60 items). The uploaded 2016–2023 files contain only Part-II pages, so no earlier MCQ options are reconstructed. ⚠ = defective or ambiguous original question; learn the correct concept instead of memorising a misleading key.

2024 — 20 MCQs, explanations and traps

Q1 — B: Hélène Cixous; écriture féminine / The Laugh of the Medusa.
Q2 — C: Glass ceiling = an invisible promotion barrier.
Q3 — B: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott; the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention and the later Seneca Falls initiative.
Q4 — C: Butler's concept is gender performativity.
Q5 — A: Intersectionality was articulated in discussion of race and sex/gender discrimination.
Q6 — C: Elaine Showalter introduced 'gynocriticism'.
Q7 — D: None listed: Beijing Platform for Action was adopted in 1995, not 1985/1979/1994.
Q8 — B: Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010.
Q9 — C: New Zealand, 1893 (women's parliamentary voting; historical eligibility restrictions varied).
Q10 — A: Two women in Pakistan's first Constituent Assembly: Begum Jahanara Shahnawaz and Begum Shaista Suhrawardy Ikramullah.
Q11 — B: 1995 Beijing Platform for Action consolidated international gender-mainstreaming policy.
Q12 — C: Common worldwide WHO estimate: about one in three women face physical/sexual violence in their lifetimes; definition matters.
Q13 — B: WEF 2023 ranked Pakistan 142/146; do not substitute another edition.
Q14 — A: Social learning theory treats violent behaviour as learned rather than innate; 'socially constructed' is the closest option.
Q15 — B: Androgyny in the Bem context blends positively valued masculine and feminine traits.
Q16 — B: WID often accepted the existing division of household labour rather than directly challenging its causes.
Q17 — C: 60 National Assembly seats reserved for women (also in the current 336-member assembly).
Q18 — C: Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique; the paper misspells her surname as 'Frieden'.
Q19 — C: Gender and culturally associated masculinity/femininity are socially shaped.
Q20 — A: Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (1949).

2025 — 20 MCQs, explanations and traps

Q1 — A: Feminist approaches place gender centrally in social analysis; the other statements make inaccurate exclusions.
Q2 — C: A gender role concerns expectations associated with being male or female.
Q3 — ⚠ No unambiguous option: Question asks what has not been central to feminist theorising: male domination, knowledge and Black women's experience all have been central in relevant feminist traditions. 'All of these' also fails the negative question.
Q4 — C (best): The expectation that boys should play with trucks is a straightforward socially learned gender stereotype; other choices also concern gendered institutions, so wording is imperfect.
Q5 — B (among choices): Radical feminism foregrounds women's lived experiences and 'the personal is political'; other traditions also value experience.
Q6 — A: In Gender Studies, sex usually refers to anatomical and physiological characteristics.
Q7 — C: No Millennium Development Goal was formally titled 'ensure equal political participation of women'; women's political representation appeared as a gender-equality indicator.
Q8 — B: Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique.
Q9 — D: Black feminist analyses address experiences of Black women and interacting gender/race/class discrimination.
Q10 — D: Simone de Beauvoir wrote The Second Sex.
Q11 — C: Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a major Seneca Falls organiser (1848); Lucretia Mott also participated.
Q12 — A: Roe v. Wade (1973) recognised federal constitutional abortion protection; it was overturned in 2022 by Dobbs, a key chronology caveat.
Q13 — D: GAD analyses gender equality, women's empowerment and patriarchal power relations.
Q14 — ⚠ No unique option: GDI and the older GEM both use sex-disaggregated comparisons; HDI measures general human development and is not itself a gender-inequality index. A or B could be defensible; D is not.
Q15 — D: All listed outcomes—efficiency, effectiveness and accountability—are cited as potential benefits of gender mainstreaming, though impact needs evidence.
Q16 — ⚠ Multiple overlapping options: 1980s women's rights mobilisation challenged the Hudood Ordinances, including the Zina Ordinance, and debated Qanun-e-Shahadat. A, B and C overlap substantively; the paper does not identify one unique answer.
Q17 — D: Gender-based violence refers to violence on the basis of sex or gender, not only men against women.
Q18 — B: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker.
Q19 — D: Trafficking, displacement/civil wars and global trade are all subjects of gendered international politics.
Q20 — B: Rebecca Walker popularised the label 'third wave' in 1992.

2026 — 20 MCQs, explanations and traps

Q1 — B: Butler: gender performativity involves repeated socially sanctioned acts.
Q2 — B: Glass cliff = precarious leadership appointments during crises, distinct from the glass ceiling.
Q3 — C: Practical gender needs address immediate necessities without necessarily transforming gendered labour division.
Q4 — C: Foucault examined how discourse and power produce subjects, not simply suppress sexuality.
Q5 — A: Deniz Kandiyoti developed 'patriarchal bargain'.
Q6 — B: 'The personal is political' is especially associated with second-wave feminism.
Q7 — A: R. W. Connell is associated with the concept of hegemonic masculinity.
Q8 — C: Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 1995.
Q9 — B: Strategic essentialism refers to temporary shared identity framing for collective political aims.
Q10 — C (closest): Standpoint theory links knowledge with social position; being marginalised can offer important insight, but not automatic universal superiority.
Q11 — B: Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza elaborated 'kyriarchy' for intersecting domination systems.
Q12 — D: None of the listed critiques accurately identifies WID's characteristic limitation (neglect of structural power and unpaid care relations).
Q13 — A: Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2016 on honour-related crimes; the question overstates that family-forgiveness problems were fully removed in every circumstance.
Q14 — D: None listed: 'Bargaining with Patriarchy' is by Deniz Kandiyoti, not the three named options.
Q15 — D: None listed: gender equality is SDG 5, absent among SDG 3, 4 and 6.
Q16 — D: None listed: anti-sati reform in the subcontinent is particularly associated with Raja Ram Mohan Roy.
Q17 — C: West and Zimmerman formulated 'doing gender' in their 1987 paper.
Q18 — A: CEDAW is widely called an international bill of rights for women.
Q19 — A: Sticky floor = concentration in low-wage roles with little upward mobility.
Q20 — D: None listed: 'matrix of domination' is developed by Patricia Hill Collins, not the three named thinkers.

Seven particularly important traps

2024 Q7: Beijing is 1995 → 'None of these'.
2025 Q3: negative question has no correct unique option.
2025 Q14: GDI and GEM both relate to gender disparities, unlike general-purpose HDI; choices overlap.
2025 Q16: Hudood / Zina / Qanun-e-Shahadat overlap as relevant 1980s controversies.
2026 Q14: Kandiyoti is absent → 'None of these'.
2026 Q15: SDG 5 is absent → 'None of these'.
2026 Q20: Patricia Hill Collins is absent → 'None of these'.

Source discipline

Use these as a study aid, not an FPSC-issued answer key. Official marking or an official amended key may resolve ambiguity differently.
The 2025 question on Roe v. Wade asks a historic 1973 fact; do not imply that ruling remained controlling after the 2022 Dobbs decision.
For current representation and legal provisions, always verify the time-specific official source.