Daily Times

Much is written today about gender and the workplace with comparison of rights, duties, performances and issues concerning women and men. If we move to the rural areas of Pakistan we find active involvement of women in agricultural and livestock farming. In Pakistan, these sectors are not reported in detail by the national and international working bodies. A majority of jobs in agriculture and in the rural economy, such as street vending, hawking and small businesses are not yet within the purview of state regulation. Similarly, as in industrialised nations, third world professional women are over-represented in such professions as nursing and teaching. Divisions between female and male work have obvious economic and political implications.

In some developing regions, women face substantial entrance barriers in the labour market. The overall global female labour force participation rate is 50.3 percent in 2014, implying that half of all working-age women are either in employment or looking for work, while the other half are economically inactive, neither working nor seeking work. The corresponding participation rate for men is 76.7 percent, globally, representing a “gender participation gap” of around 26 percentage points. However, there is a wide disparity, both between advanced economies and the developing world, and across the developing regions of this gender gap. In the developed economies and European Union, the gap is 14.2 percentage points, which is roughly the same as the gap observed in East Asia. In sub-Saharan Africa, the gap is only 11.5 percent, where a massive number of women and men both remain poor and have no choice but to take up any form of work available.

At the other extreme, in South Asia and North Africa, the gender participation gap is around 50 percentage points and, based on current projections, the gap in both of these regions is predicted to shrink by around one percentage point only in the next decade. In the Middle East, the gender participation gap is 56.4 percent and is expected to remain above 55 percent in 2024. Large pools of economically inactive women represent lost economic potential. However, from a positive perspective, the large cohort of inactive women also represents a potential means to accelerate growth in output and employment, which can help to offset the adverse effects of demographic shifts and population ageing, already affecting some countries. Achieving this potential will require a strong policy framework for integrating women into economies, reducing inhibitive cultural barriers and a general shift to greater positive attitudes regarding the role of women in society in those regions where they are most excluded.

Amartya Sen has argued that education and participation in paid work are potentially significant determinants of female voice or agency in a society’s decision-making processes. Women’s work is linked to social and economic independence, resulting in the betterment of their overall conditions and, therefore, work is an agency between dependent and independent status within society but individual status may vary to this autonomy. Working women are often underrated in Pakistan having to deal with pervasive discrimination that includes a hostile environment, wages, working hours, sexual harassment, double burden and unequal opportunities. The country has crafted and formulated pro-women legislation to protect them but social stereotypes and prejudices seem stronger. Pakistan has ratified 36 Internation Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions including all eight fundamental conventions. The main conventions relating to gender and work are the Equal Remuneration Convention 1951 and Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention 1958. Pakistan is bound by these conventions to promote its women in the world of work without any discrimination.

The ILO’s work in Pakistan has ranged from supporting the ratification of international labour standards to labour policy formulation, labour administration, labour and employment and industrial relations, occupational safety and health, social security, employable skills and vocational training, workers’ education, women workers’ rights, gender equality and non-discrimination in the workplace, elimination of child labour, prevention and elimination of bonded labour, migration, rural infrastructure and livelihood recovery, among others.

The ILO estimates almost half of women’s productive potential globally is unutilised, compared to men’s 22 percent. Closing these gender gaps could yield enormous dividends for development: a Goldman Sachs study finds that narrowing gender gaps in employment could push per capita income in emerging markets by up to 14 percent higher by 2020. The 2013 World Development report on gender equality and development of women accounts for 58 percent of unpaid employment. Globally four out of every 10 workers is a woman and there is 28 percent women labour force participation in Pakistan. Labour policies matter less than assumed. When both jobs and home activities are considered, women are generally busier than men.

The World Bank Group stresses the need for bold, coordinated actions to advance equal opportunities for women in the world of work, such as addressing gender biases early, expanding women’s access to property and finance, and raising legal retirement ages with major payoffs in tackling poverty.

Strong actions in eliminating the women labourers’ issue are to be considered, including eliminating restrictions in labour and employment, allowing and encouraging women’s ownership and joint titling of land, and enforcing equitable inheritance laws. Other strategies include family-friendly leave and flexibility policies, affordable childcare and early child development programmes, and infrastructure development to reduce the burden on women’s time for household and care work. Equal access to assets and financial services are vital. Addressing constraints outside the formal sector is particularly important in Pakistan, since most people and more so women do not work for wages and salaries.

The writer is a freelance columnist and can be reached at janjuaharoon01@gmail.com