Pakistan: Gender employment gap remains wide

A report released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on March 8th showed that the number of women in employment in Pakistan and India remains among the lowest levels in Asia. The study found that the number of women in paid employment is low in Pakistan and India, while Sri Lanka and Bangladesh fare better, although still below the global average. The Economist Intelligence Unit believes that breaking down barriers to women entering the workforce is important as it can help these countries to reach their economic growth potential.

The ILO report, Towards a Better Future for Women and Work: Voices of Women and Men, revealed that only 22% and 25.8% of women in Pakistan and India were in paid employment, respectively, in 2015. This number is much higher in Bangladesh, at 41%. Sri Lanka is not included in the survey data, but official national statistics show that 34.9% of women were employed in 2015. Nonetheless, all four countries remain below the global average of 52% female participation in the workforce.

Educational attainment is only part of the story

Education and literacy levels provide only some explanation for the difference in women's participation in the labour force. In Bangladesh, 58.5% of females over 15 years old are literate, and the gender difference (the percentage-point difference between male and female literacy rates) is fairly small, at 6.1 percentage points, according to UNESCO data for 2015. Meanwhile, in Pakistan, the regional laggard, only 42.7% of women are literate, with a much wider gender difference of 26.9%. However, the statistics for India and Sri Lanka, which have the highest literacy rates of the four countries, dispel the correlation. The female literacy rate in India and Sri Lanka stood at 62.8% and 91.7% in 2015, respectively. The gender difference is the lowest of the four countries in Sri Lanka, at 1.9 percentage points, while in India it stands at 18.1 percentage points.

The education system in Bangladesh is heavily subsidised by the state, which enables children from both poor and wealthy families to enter the education system. According to UNICEF data, 93% of girls and 90% of boys attended primary school in 2014 (the latest data available). Tellingly, 88% of all children in the poorest quintile were attending primary school, only slightly lower than the 93% for the richest quintile. Bangladesh met the UN's Millennium Development Goal for attaining gender parity at primary and secondary school levels. India and Sri Lanka have also fared well in achieving gender parity in primary school. According to 2012 UNICEF data, 81% of girls and 85% of boys attended primary school, although the gender difference increases to 9.8 percentage points for secondary school attendance. Sri Lanka performs extremely well in this area with 98% of boys and girls attending primary school as at 2012. The gender difference in primary school attendance is low in Pakistan, at 7 percentage points (67% of boys and 60% of girls attended school in 2012). However, there is a wide discrepancy between the poor and the rich. Only 39% of all children in the poorest quintile attended primary school in that year, compared with 87% for the richest quintile.

Reducing gender inequality

Although efforts to improve access to education are important in closing the gender gap, other factors also play a role in improving women's access to the workforce. The World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index for 2016 accesses countries not only on their educational attainment, but also looks at factors that influence the gender gap for economic participation and opportunity. These include the wage difference between men and women and the ratio of female professional and technical workers. Life expectancy, health and political empowerment also influence the index. The index is scored on a scale of 1 to 0, with 1 being the highest possible score—indicating gender equality. Of the four countries, Bangladesh scores the highest with a score of 0.693 and is ranked 72nd (out of 144 countries). India is next at 87th, followed by Sri Lanka at 100th place, with Pakistan near the bottom of the global ranking at 143rd.

India: bucking the regional trend

Nonetheless, female participation in the labour force has been rising steadily in Pakistan in recent years, as has been the case in Bangladesh. Meanwhile, the number in Sri Lanka has stabilised, while in India female labour force participation has fallen. ILO figures show that 34.1% of women participated in the workforce in 1990–91, considerably higher than the latest data. In Bangladesh, the readymade garment sector, which accounted for almost 70% of total exports in 2015, is a large employer of women. Over 80% of the 4m employees in the garment sector are women. The prevalence of women working in the garment sector has helped to make it more culturally acceptable for women to enter the labour force in general.

Societal attitudes towards women working do play a role in preventing females from entering the workforce in all four countries. However, research suggests that this does not account for the falling female labour force participation rate in India. The decline in the number of women in the workforce appears to be linked to the growing mechanisation of the agricultural sector, which has traditionally been an important source of employment for women. According to the National Sample Survey for fiscal year 2011/12 (July-June), compiled by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, the number of women working in rural areas fell to 36% in 2012, from 49% in 2005. With agriculture's share of GDP expected to decline over the forecast period (2017–21), policies will need to be put in place to create opportunities for those women who want to work.

Women can help with reaching economic potential

Female participation in the workforce has important implications for raising a country's economic potential over the long term. The presence of barriers to women participating in the workforce prevents countries from obtaining the economic gains that can be made by increasing this indicator. According to the World Bank, if an additional 2.5m women were added to the labour participation rate each year, this could add up to 1.8 percentage points to potential GDP growth per year.

Changes in societal and cultural attitudes to women entering the workforce are gradually being made. Government policy can also play an important role in making it easier for women to participate in the labour market, particularly with helping them to move from the informal to the formal economy. Encouraging businesses to adopt a flexible approach to a female workforce is particularly important. In all four countries, the task of caring for children and the elderly primarily falls on women. Factors that would help women from low-income households include the creation of part-time positions or enabling flexible working hours. The provision of childcare facilities, or a contribution towards them, would allow women to balance work and family life. Private companies could offer vocational training for women to help them to enhance their skill sets, which would help to close the skills gap between men and women over the longer term.