Pakistan continues to face significant challenges to achieve gender equality, placing the 145th place in 146 countries of the GLOBER GENDER GRAP report of the World Forum (WEF) 2024. The only lowest classified country is Sudan. In contrast, neighboring Bangladesh occupies the 99th position, and India is in 129.
The Wef report highlights that although the global gender parity in the economic and political spheres has improved since the beginning of the report in 2006, Pakistan is still far behind. The report states: “Despite representing almost half of the population, women in the country of southern Asia face important economic and social disparities.”
According to the report, only 36% of women in Pakistan participate in economic activities, and only 23% are part of the workforce. More than 40 million women remain outside the workforce. This reflects the low level of economic parity of Pakistan, with women who earn 18% less than men. The report also explains: “For each of RS1,000 that a man wins, a woman receives only RS818 for the same job.”
A World Bank report also highlights the significant gender gap in salaries and job opportunities. It emphasizes that, although government and commercial actions are crucial, the scale and stability of these interventions remain insufficient in the face of continuous transformations.
“Economies cannot risk being left behind and returning millions of women and girls to times of conflicts and needs,” emphasizes Wef’s study.
The gender wage gap is particularly surprising in the agricultural sector of Pakistan, where 68% of women employed work, but 76% of them do it without pay. This contrasts with only 24% of men who work without paying in the same sector.
The study also reveals the surrender of women in leadership roles in corporate and industrial sectors. In management positions, only 0.14% are women, compared to 2.33% of men, who underline gender inequality deeply rooted in Pakistan’s workplaces.
The Wef report also compares Pakistan with Sri Lanka, which has a highly equitable professional and technical workforce (96.8%), while Pakistan shows a significant gender imbalance in favor of men (35.8%).
South Asia, as a region, occupies the lowest second place in educational achievement, with a score of 94.5%, 2.5 percentage points lower than its performance of 2023. This decline is greatly attributed to the lagging gaps in highly populated countries such as Pakistan, which has a 67%literacy rate, compared to 78%of Nepal. There are also significant gaps in registration through education levels in Pakistan.
The Wef report requires substantial improvements in economic gender parity to ensure that women have access without restrictions on resources, opportunities and decision -making positions.
“Governments are asked to expand and strengthen the conditions of the framework necessary for companies and civil society to work together so that gender parity is an economic imperative, one that meets the most basic needs and inspires the edges of innovation,” concludes the report.
