Status of Women in

Pakistan
 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
• Private expenditure on health is 98% (WHO)
• Malnutrition/Stunted Growth:
– 44% children
– 14% women in reproductive age
– (National Nutrition Survey)
 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
• 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
• Maternal mortality alarmingly high
– Ratio of number of deaths during pregnancy
– 260/100,000 births
– In Baluchistan, it is 762/100,000 births
----
 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.
 References
• Education for All Review Report (2015)
• Pakistan Education Statistics 2015-16
 Women and Employment
• The world’s second worst economic participation
and opportunities for women
• Pakistan ranked 143rd out of 144 countries in the
gender inequality index
– Global Gender Gap Report, WEF 2016
– Parity between men and women in four areas:
• educational attainment,
• health and survival
• economic opportunity and
• political empowerment
• 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
• 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
• 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
Who decides whether a woman will work?
 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
• 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
• 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)
 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
• 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
• 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
Women and
Politics
 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
• 20.5% in National Assembly
• 17.0% in the Senate
 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
• 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
• 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
 Vomen 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
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
Women and Law
 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”
• 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’’
 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
 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
– Criminal Law Act (Second Amendment, 2011)
referred as Acid Control and Acid Crime
Prevention Act
– Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection),
Act 2012
 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
– 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
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
• 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