Gender gap in Pakistan
The gender gap in Pakistan refers to the differences between men and women in Pakistan in terms of social, political, and economic participation and rights. The gender gap uses the gender ratio of Pakistan to compare the disparities between men and women in different fields, which mainly disadvantage women. According to the Global Gender Gap Index 2022, Pakistan ranks second to last in terms of the gender gap, with only 56.4% of its gender gap closed, a 0.8 percentage point increase from 2021. By percentage, men form about 51.46% and women form about 48.54% of the total population of Pakistan. The sex ratio of Pakistan is 106.010, meaning there are about 106 men for every 100 women in Pakistan..
Demographic disparity
General population gap
Provisional results from the 2017 6th Population & Housing Census indicated that Pakistan had 106,449,322 men, 101,314,780 women, and 10,418 transgender people. By percentage, men form 51%, women 48.76%, and transgender people 0.24% of the total population of Pakistan. The male-female sex ratio of Pakistan is 105.07, which means there are 105 men for 100 women in Pakistan.According to 2018 estimates by the World Bank, women constitute 48.54% of the Pakistani population.
Population gap by age group
By 2018 estimates, the sex ratio at birth stands at 1.05 males born for every female. It peaks at 1.08 males/female for the 25–54 years age group and reaches its lowest point at 0.87 males/female for the 65+ years age group.Population gap by location
There is a gender gap in the demographics of rural versus urban populations as documented by the 2017 census. There are a total of 67,300,171 males vs 64,886,593 females in rural areas whereas there are 39,149,151 males vs 36,428,187 females in urban areas. The provinces/territories with the greatest noted disparity include Balochistan and Islamabad.Infanticide, sex-selective abortion and neonatal abandonment
There is a documented practice of female infanticide, sex-selective abortion, and abandonment of newborn female children in Pakistan. According to the Edhi Foundation, 1210 female babies were killed in Pakistan in 2010 while an estimated 200 pregnancies were aborted on the basis of female sex and up to 90% of babies abandoned to the care of the Edhi Foundation were female. Later reports confirmed a continuing rise in the number of female infanticides.According to Bongaarts, Pakistan has the fifth highest Sex Ratio at Last Birth, which may indicate a high rate of sex-selective abortions.
Health disparity
Childhood mortality
According to the Filmer & King, a female child in India or Pakistan has a 30-50% higher chance of dying between the first and fifth years of life. This difference may be attributable to poor nutrition, lack of preventive care and delays in seeking medical care.Healthcare utilization
In line with patterns observed across South Asia, men in Pakistan play a decision-making role in women's access to healthcare including their utilization of healthcare services in the event of an emergency. Cultural barriers also include restrictions on women's mobility when unaccompanied by men.Education
Educational disparity
With more than 22.8 million children between the ages of 5-16 not in school, Pakistan has the second highest number of children who do not receive a formal education. This lack of education for children in Pakistan, while affecting all children, is more pronounced for girls as they face higher rates of dropping out of school and being illiterate, creating a gender gap. Out of 146 countries, Pakistan ranks 135 in regard to the gender gap in educational attainment. Only 45.8% of the female population is literate compared to 69.5% of the male population, according to 2015 estimates. Additionally, 59% of girls, compared to 49% of boys, no longer go to school by the time they reach the sixth grade. The school life expectancy of female children is 8 years versus 9 years for male children. According to 2018 data from UNESCO, the net enrollment in primary education is 61.61% for female children whereas it is 73.37% for male children.While the country of Pakistan has low educational numbers, the gender gap present in education also differs by location, as certain areas hold higher differences in educational attainment and enrollment between girls and boys than others. In rural areas, which compromise about 68% of the population of the country, the number of boys enrolled is about 1.5 times more than the number of enrolled girls, with 11.5 million boys and 7.6 million girls. In urban areas, the number of students enrolled is significantly less with the number of boys enrolled being 1.1 times bigger than the number of girls, with 7.5 million boys in school and 6.5 million girls. In areas with poor school enrollment such as Balochistan, a majority of women never attended school, approximately 70%, while less than half, 40%, of men never enrolled.
Reasons for educational gender inequality
There are multiple factors that contribute to the large gender gap in educational attainment in Pakistan. Poverty is a prominent issue in Pakistan, with 3 million more people expected to live in poverty since 2018, with about 22% of the population living below the poverty line. As a result of the poverty issue in Pakistan, many parents, especially in rural areas where poverty is more prominent, could not afford to send their child to school as primary education was not free. However, in an attempt to increase educational enrollment the government made education free and compulsory from ages 5 to 16. While this did increase the number of young children attending school, the costs of uniforms, transportation, as well as school supplies still proved a barrier in poor areas and the government did not enforce the compulsory aspect of primary education. Additionally, the government has a low education budget, only spending around 2% of its total GDP. Due to this low investment in education, there is often a shortage of government schools and thus limited access to education. Furthermore, as a result of this shortage, many schools have too many children and this can disincentivize parents from sending their children to school. Therefore, many poor families do not, or can not, send their children, particularly daughters, to get educated as they do not have the means to do so or if they have they prefer sending boys over girls as they are considered bread winner of the house.This lack of enrollment in education, while affecting both boys and girls has a more prominent effect on young girls due to social culture and social norms. Pakistan is a patriarchal country where many traditional social norms and standards exist. As a result of this, many women are often seen and taught to be in charge of the private sphere as men are expected to carry out functions of the public sphere. Since education is primarily seen as a way to get a good job and have a steady income, many families and parents do not find this applicable to their daughters as most women in Pakistan do not hold a paying job and are responsible for taking care of the family. Additionally, the opportunity cost of sending their daughters to school can also be a barrier to education for girls. Often in Pakistani society, most of the housework is done by the women in the family, including the daughters. Thus, sending their daughter to school can take away from many families' housework efficiency.
Economic disparity
Economic participation
In terms of economic participation and opportunity, Pakistan has a 66.9% gender gap, meaning men have 66.9% higher economic participation and opportunity in Pakistan. The labor force in Pakistan is highly gendered, with women making up about 22.63 percent of it while men make up the other 84.79 percent. While there is a large gap in the gender makeup of the labor force, there has beenBetween 1974-1975 only 1.3 million women were in the labor force compared to 17.9 million men but in 2012-2013 there were 13.3 million women in the labor force in comparison to 45.7 million men. However, Pakistan still ranks low in terms of gender equality in the labor force globally.
One factor that affects employment is marriage, as 60% of not working women are married while only 17% of not working men are married. Thus, marital status also affects the gender gap in the workforce as more married women do not pursue a paying career. The areas in which male and female employees are designated to and work in also differs, as the majority of working women are in agriculture, followed by craft services and then unskilled workers. Very few women are in the professional jobs, which are mainly male dominated. Professional and managerial participation of women remained low, with women comprising only 7.4% of STEM professionals working in the field. Women employed in the formal
sector also worked excessive hours versus men, and women with 10 years of education or more were noted as having high rates of underemployment or unemployment. Childcare labor was intentionally excluded from this study. Access to physical and financial capital significantly lags behind men, with only 5% of women above the age of 15 having bank accounts versus 21% of men according to Additionally, only 2% of women had received a loan from a financial institution, 2% owned land, and 7.4% women had joint ownership of a house.