1

Status of Women in
Pakistan
2 Status of Women’s Health

 0.9% of budget on health (World Bank)

 Pakistan failed to achieve most of the health related MDGs
 8Th Highest newborn death rate in the world
 Women have a 54-year life expectancy, compared to 55 for men. 
 48.1 per cent of women and girls aged between 15 and 49 years in
Pakistan have no say in decisions regarding their own health care, but
rates vary significantly by location, wealth and ethnicity
 Malnutrition/Stunted Growth:
 44% children
 14% women in reproductive age
 (National Nutrition Survey)
3 Health Services Delivery

 Comparative improvement in KPK and Punjab

 Worst conditions in sindh and balochistan
 Absenteeism and inadequate supply of medicines
 Leading causes of women’s death
 Breast, ovarian, cervical and colon cancers
 No screening programs to prevent these cancers
 Very few trained surgeons for women specific cancers
 Treatment too expensive for poor women
4

 Abortions (natural or induced)

 Estimated 1 million abortions per year
 Infections/Heavy bleeding
 Delayed Pregnancies
 Delay in decision: when to consult doctor and BHU
 Unavailability of transport
 Delay in emergency care (Non-availability of doctor, midwives,
anasthesist, OT staff, oxygen, blood)
 Delay in recognition of post natal complications
5

 Maternal mortality alarmingly high

 Ratio of number of deaths during pregnancy
 260/100,000 births
 In Baluchistan, it is 762/100,000 births
----
6 Issues

 Bias in food distribution leads to nutritional deficiencies among

female children.
 Early marriages of girls, excessive childbearing, lack of control
over their own bodies,
 and a high level of illiteracy adversely affect women’s health
 a woman has no control over decision-making, difficulty in
accessing health centers and discomfort with communicating with
male physicians.
7 Policies of the Government

 In the Constitution of Pakistan, Articles 38(a), 38(d) and 25(1)

refer to women's health.
8 Status of Women Education

 Prominent Gender inequality in education

 Reasons:
 shortage/distant location of girls schools, especially in rural and
remote areas of the country
 Shortage of qualified and trained female teachers;
 high opportunity cost of a girl attending school as she has to
undertake or help out in household chores;
 the cultural factors especially among tribal and conservative
segments restricting female mobility;
 overall deteriorating law and order situation are other barriers,
discouraging parents from sending their daughters to school.
9

 GENDER DISPARITY IN EDUCATION

 44% OF BOYS AND 56% OF GIRLS DO NOT GO TO
SCHOOLS
 40,000 OUT OF 163,000 PRIMARY SCHOOLS ARE OF
GIRLS
 RATIO IN MALE TO FEMALE STUDENTS IS 10:4
10 Women and Employment

 The world’s second worst economic participation and

opportunities for women
 Pakistan ranked 153/156 countries in the gender inequality index
 Global Gender Gap Report, WEF 2021
 Parity between men and women in four areas:
 educational attainment,
 health and survival
 economic opportunity and
 political empowerment
11

 Women work primarily in homes or farms

 Lowest female labour force participation rate in South Asia: 22%
 75pc have no formal education
 32pc women have education levels of intermediate and higher
 Only about 25% of Pakistani women who have a university
degree work outside the home
12

 Women do not take up paid employment because of mobility

restrictions
 cultural and social norms
 security concerns
 religious restrictions
 Because of restrictions against women, households rely more on
child labor, especially that of boys—a finding that suggests that
increasing female labor force participation might decrease child
labor
13

 Legally, there is no industry that is closed to women but certain

professions see higher concentrations of female workers
 especially teaching and medicine-related vocations
 Almost 40% of women who are not working report that the main
reason for this is that male family members do not permit them to
work outside the home
14 Major Hurdles

 Wage
 jobs available to women pay low wages
 women on average earn 38.6pc less than men, and this difference has
been persistent
 a large percentage of firms hire no women at all
 specific costs perceived by employers for having women in the
workplace, such as the cost of ensuring their security
15

 Norms and Exposure

 Men are seen as the primary breadwinners, and most people agree
that if jobs are scarce, employers should favor men
 women’s work is generally actively stigmatized in Pakistan
 Since this stigma affects the whole family, other decision makers in
the family may restrict a woman’s decision of whether to work
outside the home
16

 Mobility
 limited mobility outside the home because of cultural norms and
security concerns
 Even if the work environment itself is considered safe and
acceptable, traveling to work may create a level of exposure that
violates norms
 E.g: in a small survey of women in Karachi who travel regularly,
85% of working women said they had been harassed on public
transport in the past year (ADB 2014)
17 What makes a suitable job?

 Changing Norms
 initiatives that bring women into public leadership positions
 media interventions to promote a more positive image of women’s
work
 Making more workplaces suitable
 improving the workplace environment
 Projection and implementation of the Protection against Sexual
Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, 2010
18

 Education: Preparing Women for Jobs They are Willing to

Take Up
 white-collar work is considered more acceptable for women in
Pakistan
 education increases their access to these jobs, secondary and tertiary
education would be particularly important
19

 Security and Criminal Justice

 security, criminal justice, and public safety are clearly critical in
determining female labor force participation
 Improving public safety for women is crucial to improve their
mobility
 Transportation
 no state-provided transportation in most cities
 completely absent from rural areas
20

Women and
Politics
21 Women’s Representation in
Political Institutions
 Over the past 15 years Pakistan has made significant progress in
increasing women’s representation in politics
 Local bodies elections played a significant role in improving
women’s political involvement at grass root level
22 The Quota System

 Policy option to overcome the low representation of women on

general seats, to redress gender imbalance in parliament
 17% seats in Senate and National and Provincial Assemblies
reserved for women
 But it does not guarantee real political empowerment and
democratic participation of women
23

 In its current form, reserved seats are distributed proportionately

among political parties
 Parties nominate their candidates
 Indirect system of selection, complete control of selection to political
party leadership
 Serves as a tool to strengthen patriarchal system
 Many women relatives of key party leaders
 Inability to make independent decisions
 No interaction/support of constituencies
 No access to public funds to use for welfare of citizens
24

 Essential to allow women to have impact in legislative bodies

 Women parliamentarians are more active in putting forward bills,
introducing resolutions, and raising questions, outcompeting their
male colleagues
 Focus on social issues
 E.g: during 2008-2013, 55 women legislators asked 8138
questions compared to 7918 questions asked by 161 men
25 Women as Voters

 Women’s participation has increased in electoral process

 Number of voters increased from 33.2 million to 38.2 million
between 2002 and 2013
 But percentage of women registered voters has decreased from
46.1% to 43.6% despite efforts by ECP
 11 million fewer voters registered than men
26 Factors deterring participation
of women
 Societal pressures
 Low levels of female literacy
 Lack of segregated polling stations and insufficient female staff
 In ECP, women are only 1.8% of 2288 full time employees

 Forceful restrain from voting

 E.g: women barred from voting in 4 districts in KPK
27

Women and Law

28 Equality of Women in
Constitution of Pakistan
 Article 25:
 “Citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of
law”.
 “There shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex”.
 “And Nothing shall prevent the state from making any special
provision for the protection of women and children”
29

 Article 34:
 “Steps shall be taken to ensure full participation of women in all
spheres of national life.”
 Article 37:
 The State shall make provisions for securing just and humane
conditions of work, ensuring that children and women are not
employed in vocations unsuited to their age or sex, and for maternity
benefits for women in employment’’
30 International Commitments

 Pakistan is signatory to:

 CEDAW: Convention of all Forms of Discrimination Against
Women
 FLSAW: Forward Looking Strategies for the Advancement for
Women
 CRPW: Convention on Political Rights to Women

 These conventions have been made a part of national policy

framework
 Lack of accountability and poor governance has resulted in non-
implementation of women related laws
31 Laws for Protection of Women

 Last 15 years, highest number of laws passed/amended for

women in country’s history
 Protection of Women Act 2006
 Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2010 (on sexual harassment)
 Protection Against Harassment of Women at Work Place Act 2010
 Protection of Anti-Women Practices (Criminal Law Amendment)
Act, 2011
32

 Criminal Law Act (Second Amendment, 2011) referred as Acid

Control and Acid Crime Prevention Act
 Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection), Act 2012
33 Women’s Access to the Legal
System
 Limited access to justice system
 Social barriers
 Poverty
 Geographic distance
 Limited decision making power in family
 Overwhelming household responsibilities
 Violence from husband/relatives in case of access to judiciary or
police
34

 Lack of knowledge about legal rights and correct procedures to

appeal to law
 Custom of purdah
 Hostility/prejudice of institutions that are supposed to provide justice
 Lengthy, expensive judicial processes
 Insufficient number of courts
 Parallel justice systems
35 Books and References for
Gender Studies
 50 key concepts in gender studies –Jane Pilcher & Imelda
Whelehan
 Feminism and its relevance in south asia – Kamla Bhasin
 The Social Construction of Gender - Judith Lorber
 Understanding Gender – Kamla Bhasin
36

 Variety of Feminism and Their Contribution to Gender Equality –

Judith Lorber
 Human Development in South Asia 2016 (Empowering women in
South Asia)
 Gender Planning and Development – Caroline Moser
 Preventing and Responding to Gender Based Violence:
Expression and Strategies