- The percentage of women in the workspace has risen since 2013, but it still remains low
- ILO report highlights women find it difficult to play “an equal role”
- Women have fewer aspirations due to limited knowledge of possible prospects
- More public spaces need to become “female-friendly” to better facilitate women
- Better wages, safer office spaces, and equal opportunities still missing in corporate culture
In a 2013 report, BBC cited the Pakistan Federal Bureau of Statistics (PFBS)’s data that the percentage of female workers in the country’s male-dominated public space had risen from 16.3 percent to 24.4 percent respectively. Despite such an increase in the number of working females in the country, activists remained concerned that women were still subjected to unfair treatment with regard to acceptance in the workspace.
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Gender Inequality: Underrated, Hardly Celebrated
According to another report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2014, Pakistani women continue to face an unfair advantage due to the prevalence of gender stereotypes in the country’s media which makes it difficult for them to play “an equal role” in a professional setting.
The report titled “Underrated, underreported: Working Women in Pakistan” focused specifically on female journalists in Pakistan and argued that underreported journalists continue to fight against public perception by reshaping the image of a woman in the workforce. One such example is Nida Fatima Zaidi, who represented Pakistan Television at the time. According to Zaidi, women in Pakistan as portrayed in the media only appear in “two major roles, either as sex objects or housewives”.
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Elaborating on her statement, Zaidi said that women can belong to any field of work, and play any role possible yet at the end of the day they will be classified into either of the two categories. She argued that despite contributing to the economy, woman remains “underrated, underreported and hardly celebrated”. An issue close to her heart, as Zaidi too had faced similar discrimination in her line of work according to the ILO.
Likewise, fellow journalist Aoun Sahi argued that women have limited contribution in “most activities or decision making” which tends to be a central obstacle in their professional development within the country. Sahi stressed that women’s voices must be heard without any stereotypes.
Knowledge Gaps in Aspirations & Prospects
A more recent report published by the World Bank Blogs (WBB) in 2021 argued that women’s representation in the workplace remains low. The World Bank report argued that while women, in general, struggled to enter and stay in the workforce, rural women and those with low education levels had an even greater battle which was indicated by gaps in their aspirations and a stark lack of knowledge about possible options.
More so, many women and girls had dropped out of school because of either safety issues or financial limitations. Other women had to fight against resistance from their families especially male members if they wished to pursue a job outside of the home environment. At the time, opportunities for remote work in a professional capacity were limited so women had an uphill battle to be heard.
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From the few that managed to step into the professional world, they had to struggle with unfair and lower, unequal wages in comparison to their male peers while simultaneously juggling housework and other domestic responsibilities. Focusing on Peshawar the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), WBB surveyed a greater chance of approximately seven percent more female workers if access to prospective employment information was increased.
Female-Friendly Public Spaces?
In a similar survey, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) looked through how “female-friendly” the organizations and businesses are across urban Pakistan. This report highlighted that Pakistan has the lowest rates of the female labour force in Asia with only 22 percent of women participating in the labor force in 2019. In comparison, 24 percent of women in South Asia and 59 percent in the East Asia and Pacific region, as confirmed by the World Bank, in 2019.
At the helm of it all, women’s issues stemmed from cultural and societal norms including domestic responsibilities, transport problems in public settings, and interactions with unrelated men have served as major barriers to their professional progress despite many hoping to get a job. Another major hurdle for many married women is that of limited reliable childcare facilities.
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Conclusion:
While most women are motivated to work per their personal and/or professional aspirations, many also turn to working outside the home for financial reasons, hoping to support their families yet they face hesitance because of “limited resources”, fear of workplace harassment, and lack of workplace regulations to support female employees in such unsavory situations.
Some ways to ensure more women can enter the workspace safely include implementing fixed work hours, provision of a secure transport option to and from work, and stricter policies by the government to ensure maternity and paternity leaves are allowed to women to facilitate their childcare responsibilities and safer return to the workforce in the likelihood that they do have a baby rather than being fired or discriminated against because they are either getting married or announcing their pregnancy.
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