ecently launched the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Global Gender Gap Report 2023 ranked Pakistan among the five worst performers, placing the country 142 among 146 countries, despite progress in some areas including literacy rate and enrolment in secondary and tertiary education.

The Global Gender Gap Index annually benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions (economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; and political empowerment). It is the longest-standing index tracking the progress of numerous countries’ efforts towards closing these gaps over time since its inception in 2006.

Key findings include the index results in 2023, trend analysis of the trajectory towards parity and data deep dives through new metrics partnerships and contextual data.

Pakistan, ranked 142 out of 146, is considered at 57.5 per cent parity, its highest since 2006. It has improved by 5.1 percentage points on the economic participation and opportunity sub-index over the last decade to attain 36.2 per cent parity. This level of parity remains one of the lowest globally.

“There is broad progress across all indicators on this sub-index, but particularly in the share of women technical workers and the achievement of parity in wage equality for similar work. Despite relatively high disparities, parity in literacy rate and enrolment in secondary and tertiary education are gradually advancing, leading to 82.5 per cent parity on the educational attainment sub-index,” the report mentioned said.

“On health and survival, Pakistan secured parity in sex ratio at birth, boosting sub-index parity by 1.7 percentage points since 2022. Like most other countries, Pakistan’s widest gender gap is in political empowerment (15.2 percent). It has had a female head of state for 4.7 years of the last 50 years, and one-tenth of the ministers as well as one-fifth of parliamentarians are women,” it added.

Recent years have been marked by major setbacks for gender parity globally, with previous progress disrupted by the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on women and girls in education and the workforce, followed by economic and geopolitical crises. Today, some parts of the world are seeing partial recoveries while others are experiencing deterioration as new crises unfold. Global gender gaps in health and education have narrowed over the past year. Yet, progress on political empowerment is effectively at a standstill, and women’s economic participation has regressed rather than recovered.

Recent years have been marked by major setbacks for gender parity globally, with previous progress disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic impact on women and girls in education and the workforce, followed by economic and geopolitical crises. Today, some parts of the world are seeing partial recoveries while others are experiencing deterioration as new crises unfold. 

Examining a subset of 102 countries that have been included in every edition of the index since 2006 provides a large constant sample for time-series analysis. The Global Gender Gap Index measures scores on a 0 to 100 scale, and scores can be interpreted as the distance covered towards parity (i.e. the percentage of the gender gap that has been closed). Cross-country comparisons support the identification of the most effective policies to close gender gaps.

According to UN-Women, Pakistan is the fifth most populous country in the world, with a population of nearly 227 million (49.2 per cent female; 50.8 per cent male). Gender inequality is of significant concern in Pakistan.

In 2022, Pakistan was ranked 145/156 for economic participation and opportunity; 135/156 for educational attainment; 143/156 for health and survival; and 95/156 for political empowerment. Furthermore, Pakistan ranks 130/139 countries on the Rule of Law Index of the World Justice Project.

UN-Women believes that Pakistan has taken progressive steps towards protecting human rights by ratifying most international human rights conventions and introducing pro-women legislation. However, while laws for women’s empowerment and protection from violence are in place at national and sub-national levels, their implementation remains weak.

As per the 5th CEDAW periodic review of Pakistan, one of the biggest challenges faced is the lack of consistent data on violence against women to support the development of appropriate policy responses. This has led to ineffective and weak policy reforms.

On the economic front, women account for a mere 22.63 per cent of the labour force. On average, a Pakistani woman’s income is 16.3 per cent of a man’s income.

The Pakistan Vision 2025, which aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2023-2027 for Pakistan, also prioritises basic rights and gender equality as central tenets of the country’s development agenda, focusing on the need for gender-responsive planning, engagement of vulnerable and marginalised groups, and increased reporting of violence against women and related cases. In its first National Security Policy (2022-2026), the government recognised ‘gender security’ as a key pillar and aims to “ensure integration of gender equity into national security narratives through full and meaningful participation of women in decision-making, law enforcement, the justice sector and peacekeeping.”

The UN-Women observes that Pakistani communities, especially women, are becoming more vulnerable to disaster-driven displacement. Gender-sensitive resilience measures and relief policies must become part of the national discourse.

In Pakistan, climate migration has become a growing reality. Pakistan alone is expected to have around 2 million climate migrants by 2050, not including those who will be displaced due to the sudden onset of climate disasters such as floods and cyclones.

The Human Rights Commi­ssion of Pakistan, in a recent national conference, declared strong labour without a gender gap, as the backbone of a true democratic movement. A resolution presented at the conference stated that all forms of labour must be respected as dignified work and that labour relations and the right to collective bargaining should be free of barriers around religion, caste, gender and ethnicity.

The writer can be reached at vaqargillani@gmail.com. He tweets at:@waqargillani