An interview with Dr Zeba A Sathar, Country Director, Population Council, on education and employability through the gender lens

The News on Sunday (TNS): Over the years, we have seen women’s literacy and labour participation rates improve. What encourages parents to send their daughters to school — to seek knowledge, to become better wives and mothers or employability and empowerment?

Zeba Sathar (ZS): The tipping point for girls’ schooling, at least primary level, was in the late 1980s. Clearly parents recognised the worth of literacy and a few years of schooling for girls for a variety of reasons. As a result, the gender gap in access to education is narrower than it was more than 20 years ago, but levels of education of girls in Pakistan are way behind the rest of the region.

It is actually secondary schooling which is critical in terms of employability and labour force participation, since it provides technical training and advanced skills for the productive labour force. Additional indicators of empowerment of women arise only after they have a secondary schooling. Unfortunately, secondary school enrollment rates, especially for girls, are even lower by Asian standards in Pakistan. This can be attributed to the gap in primary school enrollment. Girls are more disadvantaged because of fewer secondary schools and also more vulnerable to dropping out of secondary school than boys.

Employment rates of females rose between 2007 and 2017-18, but have levelled off at 22 percent since then. In contrast to education, the main rise in employment rates is in rural areas. The relationship between educational levels and employment for women is U-shaped with highest employment among the uneducated and most educated females. Poorest women and girls work, even in the most marginal or unpaid employment. At the higher end of the scale, employment rises for those with secondary or higher education but so does unemployment.

TNS: How does it vary from class to class?

ZS: Poverty is strongly related to lower levels of schooling. In poor households in Pakistan, twice as many girls (of secondary school age) are not attending school compared to their better-off counterparts. This is due to lack of schools for girls and inability to meet the costs of travel, fees and opportunity costs for girls to remain in school.

Higher levels of child work are associated with poorer households because of the compulsions of having to help out as family labour, dropout of school and accept the lowest level work to supplement household income. This work, which is often not paid for and not classified as employment, is not empowering in any way. Urban and rural differences as well as provincial differences are significant.

TNS: Is the current system of education desirable for girls? Is it aligned with their aspirations and goals?

ZS: The Population Council conducted a study in 2018, titled Adolescent Girls’ Voices on Enhancing their Own Productivity in Pakistan that looked at education and employability of young girls and parents. Most girls and their mothers, regardless of class, are determined for girls to study to the highest level to have access to alternative options in their lives. Aspirations of young girls, it was found, are much higher than the levels of schooling they achieve. Young women want to shoot for the moon. They want to be educated to the highest level and contribute to society and achieve self-realisation. The tragedy is that their dreams are thwarted mostly by non-availability of opportunities even in urban areas.

TNS: We know that women are less empowered because their access to education is limited, schools they attend are of poor quality, even when they can attain education it doesn’t always pay dividends when it comes to employment, and even if they are able to overcome all these hurdles, social attitudes of elders in the family limit their job search. If you were asked to remove one of these barriers to empower women overnight, which one would it be?

ZS: Family barriers to female employment would be easily removed if opportunities became available nearby and safety of women and girls was ensured. The main concern is with the violence, both verbal and physical against females when they leave the home. If the work place is secure, all family barriers would vanish. Portrayal in the media of positive cases and a conducive social and economic environment that invites women and girls rather than poses barriers is what is required.