Daily Times

Women’s labour force participation is very low in Pakistan. Roughly a quarter of women work. There is need to both explore the causes behind low women’s labour force participation and come up with recommendations to increase it. This article refers to some literature (ADB 2016; Khan 2007) to illustrate the discussion.

Mobility has a huge impact on the potential of women’s employment. The ADB policy brief shows that in districts where women’s mobility is higher, it has led to higher female labour force participation. Women are likely to work outside their homes in those districts where they have the ability to travel easily.

There is a misconceived expectation that women in urban areas are more likely to work outside their homes and enjoy greater mobility. It fact, it is not the case. Less women in urban areas work compared to women in the rural areas. Even when women in the urban areas express the desire to work, they often do not want to work outside their home. Urbanization creates great challenges like anonymity, mixing with strangers, and more public exposure. This often prevents women from working outside the homes.

The literature refers to Cheema and co-authors’ work to show that a large number of firms are not willing to hire women. This confines women to the prevalent gender norms and accepts them as suitable for only certain kinds of work. Employers believe that there are ‘specific costs’ to hiring women to work for them outside their homes.

Returns on education for women in terms of wage differential are very low for primary and middle education. Only the higher secondary and tertiary level education promise good return in terms of wages. However, these returns too do not work as an incentive for women to join the labour force after attaining higher levels of education. In the past it was noticed that only about 25 per cent of women with a graduate degree joined the active labour force.

Since there are greater returns to higher education in the job market, women’s increased access to higher secondary and tertiary education might have a positive impact on them entering the labour force

Women work mainly in the agriculture in rural areas. In urban areas they work in the services and manufacturing sectors. A lot of them work as home-based workers and are employed in the informal sector. The literature suggests that collection of time-use data would help provide better estimates of women’s labour force participation in the informal sector in urban areas. Overall, the main job options for women are in agriculture, domestic services and small-scale industry. In the informal sector, most women work as home-based workers in the urban areas.

One positive impact of home-based work is its impact on child survival. If women work in the informal sector outside their homes, it might lead to higher levels of fertility and may decrease chances of child survival and education of children. Home-based workers are at an advantage in terms of child survival against those who work outside their homes, even amongst poor households.

Khan links the lack of ability for women to work outside their homes with the social norm of segregation. Access to pubic spaces for women is often contested, negotiated and re-negotiated. The state plays a role in facilitating women’s access to spaces in the public sphere. Despite the social norm of segregation, the state has played a positive role in employing women in the education and health sectors such as hiring the Lady Health Workers even in remote parts of the country.

More women are needed in the health sector to correct the imbalance of availability of women workers between the primary and tertiary level. There is some recognition of it in the government’s efforts to expand the Lady Health Workers programme. However, the Lady Health Workers need better working conditions and terms of employment. Women’s numbers in non-traditional white-collar professions such as engineering, law, and banking have not increased greatly.

Government policies should aim to increase demand in the feminized types of jobs where there is more likelihood for women to work. If the demand is expanded in the textiles and apparel manufacturing or professional services, it might attract higher labour force participation.

Since there are greater returns to higher education in the job market, women’s increased access to higher secondary and tertiary education might have a positive impact on them entering the labour force.

Similarly, there is a need to rigorously research the relevance and quality of vocational training opportunities for women. It needs to be done keeping in mind the high levels of segregation in many occupations. There is a lots of literature calling for increasing vocational training for women and making the process respond to their needs and constraints.

A useful tool for enhancing women’s mobility is urban infrastructure development and public transportation. There is some research on the impact of introduction of metro bus services in urban areas on women. There is a need to publicize the results of that research. State provided public transportation is not available in the rural areas. Close contact with men is a major obstacle in women’s mobility; therefore, women-designated compartments in public transport need to be increased substantially.

The writer is based in Islamabad