FEMALE LABOR PARTICIPATION IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

This study covers the female labor force participation in Pakistan. The nature and sphere of women’s productivity in the labor market is largely determined by socio-cultural and economic factors. Women do not enter the labor market on equal terms vis-à-vis men. Their occupational choices are limited due to social and cultural constraints, inherent gender bias in the labor market, and lack of supportive facilities such as child care, transport, and accommodation in the formal sector of the labor market. Women’s labor power is considered inferior because of employers’ predetermined notion of women’s primary role as homemakers. As a result of discrimination against female labor, women are concentrated in the secondary sector of labor market in Pakistan. Women play a vital role as farmers, workers in the informal sector, as employees in the manufacturing industries, and in the service sector. Women are an integral part of the economy: their problem is not of exclusion, but of invisibility, and a disadvantaged position. They are not represented in economic decision-making forums, and their access to credit, formal labor markets and land ownership is constrained by social and economic factors. These include the existing inequities in education and skill levels social constraints to women's mobility, and attitudinal and institutional barriers. There are considerable differences in women's and men's access to and opportunities to exert power over economic structures in their societies. In most parts of the world, women are virtually absent from or are poorly represented in economic decision-making, including the formulation of financial, monetary, commercial and other economic policies, as well as tax systems and rules governing pay. Since it is often within the framework of such policies that individual men and women make their decisions, inter alia, on how to divide their time between remunerated and unremunerated work, the actual development of these economic structures and policies has a direct impact on women's and men's access to economic resources, their economic power and consequently the extent of equality between them at the individual and family levels as well as in society as a whole. 2 In many regions, women's participation in remunerated work in the formal and non-formal labor market has increased significantly and has changed during the past decade. While women continue to work in agriculture and fisheries, they have also become increasingly involved in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and, in some cases, have become more dominant in the expanding informal sector. Due to, inter alia, difficult economic situations and a lack of bargaining power resulting from gender inequality, many women have been forced to accept low pay and poor working conditions and thus have often become preferred workers. On the other hand, women have entered the workforce increasingly by choice when they have become aware of and demanded their rights. Some have succeeded in entering and advancing in the workplace and improving their pay and working conditions. However, women have been particularly affected by the economic situation and restructuring processes, which have changed the nature of employment and, in some cases, have led to a loss of jobs, even for professional and skilled women. In addition, many women have entered the informal sector owing to the lack of other opportunities. Discrimination in education and training, hiring and remuneration, promotion and horizontal mobility practices, as well as inflexible working conditions, lack of access to productive resources and inadequate sharing of family responsibilities, combined with a lack of or insufficient services such as child care, continue to restrict employment, economic, professional and other opportunities and mobility for women and make their involvement stressful. Moreover, attitudinal obstacles inhibit women's participation in developing economic policy and in some regions restrict the access of women and girls to education and training for economic management. The third world countries and especially the neighboring countries face the same dilemma as women in Pakistan. They are meagerly paid for their contribution and suffer immense barriers while joining the workforce. Over the past years their participation has been far less than members as is the case in our country.