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The missing half of the labour force

By Majyd Aziz
20 January, 2025

Despite economic liberalisation and economic growth, Pakistan has not encouraged more women to join the economic ecosystem. According to the Labour Force Survey 2020-21 (the 22-23 LFS is still incomplete and probably in the doldrums), out of the 71 million workforce, only 23 per cent are women.

The missing half of the labour force

Despite economic liberalisation and economic growth, Pakistan has not encouraged more women to join the economic ecosystem. According to the Labour Force Survey 2020-21 (the 22-23 LFS is still incomplete and probably in the doldrums), out of the 71 million workforce, only 23 per cent are women.

The much-touted Pakistan's development roadmap, ‘Vision 2025’, aims to increase female labour force participation (FLFP) to 45 per cent by 2025. How? No one can provide a logical answer. According to a World Bank report, “In 2022, 36.43 per cent of the workforce in Pakistan worked in the agricultural sector, about a quarter worked in industry, and 38.05 per cent in the services sector.

Pakistan's FLFP is quite low even among women with a university degree, of which about 25 per cent are working. This insignificant FLFP is a manifestation of the loss of potential productivity and negative consequences for the campaign for women's empowerment.

Pakistan is a patriarchal society where men are the principal decision-makers while women are relegated to being secondary. Although much is said of gender equality, the stark fact is that patriarchal and chauvinistic values rooted in local traditions, culture, and even religion, ordain the social status of gender. The Global Gender Gap Index Report 2022 ranked Pakistan at 145 out of 156 countries in terms of women's economic participation and opportunity, at 135 for women's educational attainment, 143 for women's health and survival, and 95 for political empowerment.

According to the ILO, “equality in the world of work is still out of reach” for women. “Although more women are working today and their participation in employment has grown during the last three decades, this explosive growth hasn’t been accompanied by true socio-economic empowerment nor has it led to equal pay for work of equal value nor balanced benefits which would make women equal to men across nearly all occupations.”

There are, of course, cogent reasons for these dismal statistics. Notwithstanding this, there are also convincing aspects to induce ways and means to bring change. The standard reasons include restrictions on mobility, especially working outside places of residence. While this premise holds in many instances, the fact is that women in urban areas are determined to either work or be self-employed. The apparel and knitwear sector has provided employment opportunities to a huge number of women, and this is exhibited through a random survey of industrial estate roads in the mornings and evenings. There is a ray of sunshine because there has been an increase in garments, knitwear, and textile made-ups that can be further confirmed by surveying the rise of factory buildings in these industrial estates.

According to a Gender & Development Network report, “partly as a result of the social undervaluing of care, sectors such as healthcare, social care and education, disproportionately employ women, and are characterised by low pay and poor working conditions. Public investment in care services could therefore create new jobs primarily for women but, crucially, in their role as an employer, governments could increase pay and improve conditions, including through the recognition of collective bargaining. Studies have highlighted that public investment, including in public services, not only creates jobs directly in the sector where the investment takes place – predominately for women – but can also generate multiplier effects in other sectors.”

Women workers are vulnerable to violence and harassment at their workplace. This is also a serious concern for their families and hence the onus lies on employers to ensure that these situations do not occur in their plants and offices

Ms Nazish Shekha, head of initiative, CERB at the Pakistan Business Council, in a WhatsApp interaction expressing her point of view stated that “enhancing women's employment in Pakistan is complex, and it’s important for companies to develop gender strategies which focus on family-friendly initiatives, provide gender sensitisation training, and report gender-segregated data. While companies are focusing on creating an internal enabling environment, policymakers need to focus on the external barriers such as safe transport and security.”

Ms Rabia Razzaque, senior programme officer at the ILO Country Office in Islamabad, says: “in the scenario which we are in, the lack of vision at the top in terms of what sort of jobs or employment the country needs, what is the quality of current inputs to production? What mix of labour do we need? It is difficult to talk about the FLFP without answering these questions. These can be answered only when you are truly thinking about creating change and bringing reforms. But, at the core of it is the real problem that we don’t want to talk about because that means talking about changing power dynamics, and giving vulnerable sectors voice, agency and control.

“We don’t want to change the status quo. So, you see we are primitive. We are so far behind that this won’t change unless women take charge of their lives. Until parents start to believe that investing in their daughter’s education won’t only get them the conditional cash transfer but that one day they will actually contribute to the family’s wellbeing and welfare, nothing will change.”

The fact is that social and cultural customs cloud the decision-making of those who are averse to the concept of women working in industries or services. Transportation is also a hindering factor. The public bus system is still pathetic and has a limited number of seats for women. However, the public transport system has improved with the induction of new public buses, including exclusive buses for women. Due to procrastination by decision-makers (at least for Karachi), what is really missing is the go-ahead to re-energise and operate the circular railway line. Another positive endeavour is that many industries and services are providing company transportation to women, and this has enabled many women to take up employment. An added advantage is that there is safety and security from becoming victims of either street crimes or serious criminal attacks.

Women workers are also vulnerable to violence and harassment at their workplace. This is also a serious concern for their families and hence the onus lies on employers to ensure that these situations do not occur in their plants and offices. It is now incumbent upon parliament to immediately ratify ILO Convention 190 on Violence and Harassment in the World of Work.

Digital technology is critical in nearly all sectors nowadays and its impact and importance continue to increase with rapid digitalisation. Banking, commerce, service providers, and even education and healthcare, are accessible over digital platforms. This super-speed digitalisation is enabling women to become strong players in the digital ecosystem.

The target of Sustainable Development Goal 5 is to achieve gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls and SDG5B relates to enhancing the use of information and communications technology to promote and project women empowerment. Digital technology-savvy women would be better placed to enter the workforce and create a widening field to forge ahead and excel. A pragmatic and profitable opportunity for women is to be part of Business Process Outsourcing companies. Since most of the work done by BPO for their overseas clients is done during night hours, enlightened entrepreneurs in the BPO sector could farm out tasks to women who could work from home. This would be a promising potential for women that would counter issues such as transportation, security, and being out of home.


The writer is a former president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.