The economic empowerment of women has been a hotly debated issue globally for at least half a century or more. Particularly the female labor participation has increasingly become a primary focus of various governments, policymakers, feminists and economists all over the world. This debate is also quite intense in Pakistan as well, especially in recent years.
That said, while the rest of the world has witnessed notable improvement over the years, the Pakistani women lag far behind compared to women in other countries. However, in recent years, significant strides have been observed in women empowerment that has increased the level of female participation in the labor market. Since 1990, female labor force participation increased by around ten percentage points.
But even with these leaps of success, Pakistani women remain untapped resources comprising fifty percent of the total population, and yet their contribution to income is far below its potential. According to Female, Labour Force Participation (FLFP) rate in 2014 remains at 25 percent compared to 56 percent of Bangladesh and in the South Asian region, this figure stood at 35 percent in 2014.
Multiple pieces of research have proven over the years that economic growth is necessary for poverty reduction, and the potential of the female labor force is essential to this type of growth. A recently published report by International Monetary Fund on macroeconomic gains from raising female labor participation in Pakistan has estimated that the potential benefits from the greater inclusion of women in the economy are enormous: closing the gender gap in Pakistan could boost GDP by almost 30 percent!
In Pakistan traditionally the labor force participation of women has remained small compared to male counterparts. Despite an increase in the participation rates, 64 percent of female employment is in unpaid family work, double the South Asia average. They also face significant wage differentials-18 percent-vis-à-vis their male colleagues.
The 2015 global gender gap index puts Pakistan second from the last. The index looks into economic participation and opportunity, education attainment, health and survival and political empowerment. It pointed out that the gender gap is quite problematic in health, education and most of all economic opportunities. Despite an increase in the rate of female legislators in national parliament mainly due to quota, the gender gap is quite wide in Pakistan’s public service. According to the IMF report, total female legislators, senior officials, and managers are only consisting 3 percent of the total, while the world average is 29 percent.
According to the IMF, the major factors that can predict male-female gender gap are fertility, educational attainment, daughter inheritance rights, being the head of household and guaranteed equality. On the other hand, higher female schooling, the presence of daughter’s rights of succession, being the head of the family and guaranteed equality help reduce the gap.
But, the good news is that the ratio of girls to boys in enrolment in primary and secondary education is 82 percent. The improvement primarily has to do with increased awareness in the country, but certainly, there is massive room for improvement since Pakistan is well below the low-income country average of 93 percent.
In countries like Pakistan, compared to men a woman is either pushed or is being pulled from the labor force. The financial reasons are the push factors especially if the women are from the lower layer of the society. The pull factors usually have to do with the opportunities and the increased demand for labor. The federal and provincial government should create a comprehensive policy that includes higher investment in education, significant reforms in both the financial sector and business climate. This will provide women with the much-needed independence they seek to take the advantage of the opportunities available to them.
First published: March 8, 2016.
