In the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2023, Pakistan has been ranked 142 out of 146 countries — with a 57.5 per cent gender parity — the highest since 2006.
The annual report benchmarks the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment, the Dawn reported.
In the report, which was released on Wednesday, Pakistan has been placed near the bottom of both the regional and global rankings.
Only Iran, Algeria, Chad and Afghanistan are below Pakistan. In 2022, Pakistan ranked 145 out of 146.
However, the Country has improved by 5.1 percentage points on the “economic participation and opportunities” sub-index in the last decade to attain 36.2 per cent parity, though this level of parity remains one of the lowest globally, the report pointed out.
Click Here for WEF’s Global Gender Gap Report 2023
Economic participation and opportunity
Pakistan ranked 143rd in the sub-indicator of economic participation and opportunities. The Country ranked 140th in terms of labour-force participation, 71st in terms of wage equality for similar work, 137th in terms of estimated earned income, 139th in terms of legislators, senior officials and managers, and 132nd in terms of professional and technical workers.
Educational attainment
Pakistan’s ranking in the educational attainment dimension was 138th in 2023. The country’s literacy rate is 137th, and its enrolment rates in secondary and tertiary education are 132nd and 104th, respectively.
Health and survival
With a ranking of 132nd in health and survival, the sex ratio at birth (male births per female births) is first while healthy life expectancy is at 140.
Political empowerment
In the political empowerment dimension, Pakistan ranked 95th. It ranked 94th for women in parliament, 126th for women in ministerial positions, and 36th for years with female/male heads of state during the last 50 years.
Progress
For Pakistan, there is broad progress across all indicators on the economic participation and opportunity sub-index, particularly in the share of women technical workers and the achievement of parity in wage equality for similar work.
Despite relatively high disparities, parity in literacy rate and enrolment in secondary and tertiary education are gradually advancing, leading to 82.5 percent parity on the educational attainment sub-index.
Pakistan secured parity in sex ratio at birth, boosting sub-index parity by 1.7 percentage points since 2022. Like most other countries, Pakistan’s widest gender gap is on political empowerment (15.2 percent).
It has had a female head of state for 4.7 years of the last 50 years, and one-tenth of the ministers as well as one-fifth of parliamentarians are women.
