Face-off: Women and the Economic Dilemma
“Let’s read a book — why don’t you choose from the ones we got last week”, she said to her 5 year old daughter, mindfully distracting her from the television. Excitedly, she ran upstairs towards where her books were stacked. It was this simple. However, this simplicity is a state; it requires persistent effort, sheer commitment and continuous focus to be reached. That child has to be your focus — if the child is like a flower, a mother’s focus is water to it.
In Pakistan, the world’s fifth most populous country, women constitute as much as 49%¹ of the total population. That’s more than 105 Million. 105 Million. Sadly, only 22.8%² are active in the labor force against the world average of 48.5%³.
Let’s see some of the common obstacles that restrict women’s entrance in the active labor force:
Traditionally, women have been prescribed the role of a homemaker. They are meant to live a life such that it empowers the family and eventually the society, they should direct attention to uplift elders and children with dedication and today, yet scan around today to analyze the life they lead. Facebook likes and Instagram stories, anyone?
Other commonly stated reasons are mobility and commuting limitations, honor and work place harassment, and a low female literacy rate of 51.8%⁴ that reduces their chances of being matched with professional opportunities.
Concepts such as mobility, honor and harassment are how we define them to be — how women along with men choose to define them. We choose to put limitations or wrongly omit them.
Putting this in perspective, here’s how these decisions reflect mathematically:

Two results are of particular importance:
- The labor force participation rate for women is the highest for age group 40–44
- The unemployment rate for women is the highest for age group 20–24
Mapping on sociological trends, a simplistic deduction is that the unemployment rate is highest in the age group women normally get married in. For the next five years, it marginally declines from 15.17% to 14.37% and comes down to 11.94% for age group 30–34. The real dip that changes the trend completely is for age-group 35–39 — the unemployment rate is only 1.97%. Let’s see what happens such that there is a drastic drop from almost 12% in the age group just after.
As a generalization, age group 35–39 is when a woman’s children (on average 3.6) have either reached a high-school/college going age or are of a ‘marriageable age’. With an increase in family expenditure and more time on herself, she decides to be active in the labor force.
However, what about the thirty-something years of being economically inactive? How does it affect the society at large?
On a macro level, the economy of Pakistan is growing at just 3.29%⁵, whereas, the growth rate recorded by its neighboring countries for the same period has been more than double. The GDP per capita is little less than USD 1,500; the inflation rate has increased from 3.93% in 2018 to 7.5% in 2019⁶, thereby, reducing the purchasing power. The budget deficit was recorded at 8.9% of the GDP, the highest in the last eight years. To add, the total debts and liabilities amount to PKR 40.2 Trillion (yes, that exceeds the total size of the economy), of which PKR 106.3 Billion is of external debt and liabilities.
A country with total debts and liabilities exceeding the size of the economy has women as half of its population. Unfortunately, 77% of them are inactive in the labor force. 80.8 Million women of work-age are not willing to contribute to the economy. 80.8 Million!
Their decision makes them nothing more than an economic burden — Sounds harsh, right? This is why: they are not earning an income that adds to the economy, they are not producing goods or services or innovating that adds to the economy and the society indirectly, they are not paying taxes to the government to run the country with. In simple terms, 80.8 Million women are acting as free riders. There are no free-lunches, remember?
The least women can do for themselves, which they were meant to do, is nurture their children in a way that adds value to the society. Read that story book to them — make them understand how to tell right apart from the wrong, give them basic values for them to base their choices and decisions upon, build their esteem. The least women can do is become role models for their children. The least women should do is be such that their children redefine mobility, harassment and honor so the next generation of women are nation-builders.
All women have to do is reflect. Reflect upon the dreams they once had, what made them not pursue those and whether they want to continue with the same. All women have to do is reflect upon the life they want for the children and take steps towards it. This is your dream, live it.
[i] Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (2019): http://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files//Labour%20Force/publications/lfs2017_18/TABLE_1_perc_R.pdf
[ii] Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (2019): http://www.pbs.gov.pk/sites/default/files/Pakistan%20Employment%20Trend%20%20Reprt%202018%20Final.pdf
[iii] ILO (2018): https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_619577.pdf
[iv]Ministry of Finance (2019): http://www.finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_19/10-Education.pdf
[v] Ministry of Finance (2019): http://finance.gov.pk/survey/chapters_19/Economic_Survey_2018_19.pdf
[vi] Asian Development Bank. (2019): https://www.adb.org/countries/pakistan/economy
