Empowering the Women Working in Pakistan's Textile Industries: A Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis for Sustainability Assessment of E-Health Technologies

While civilized nations around the world are witnessing an unprecedented evolutionary shift towards embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), developing societies continue to struggle with deep-rooted socio-economic disparities. Working women in Pakistan continue to face many challenges including health and safety issues in the workplace. This research establishes a decision-making framework for the adoption of electronic health (e-health) technologies among the women in Pakistan's textile industry. It is based on the sustainability assessment of screened e-health alternatives across four domains: technological, environmental, economic, and socio-political. Three stakeholders including the female workers, health practitioners, and policymakers are taken on board for the main phase of multi-actor multi-criteria analysis (MAMCA). There is an interesting variation in the obtained criteria weights among all stakeholders with the highest weights assigned to ‘cost-effectiveness’ and ‘carbon footprint’. Wearable devices have the highest overall ranking apart from policymaker opinions which place it at second rank. Sensitivity analysis ensures the model's robustness which is followed by a validation step using the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). Obtained rankings of sustainability criteria and e-health technologies can be utilized by a broader range of stakeholders including investors, researchers, female industry workers, industrialists, and DEI promotors.