Gender gap in Pakistan
Provisional results from the 2017 6th Population & Housing Census indicated that Pakistan had 106,449,322 men, 101,314,780 women, and 10,418 transgender people.
By percentage, men form 51%, women 48.76%, and transgender people 0.24% of the total population of Pakistan.
[5] There is a gender gap in the demographics of rural versus urban populations as documented by the 2017 census.
[8] According to Bongaarts,[9] Pakistan has the fifth highest Sex Ratio at Last Birth (SLRB), which may indicate a high rate of sex-selective abortions.
[10] According to the Filmer & King, a female child in India or Pakistan has a 30-50% higher chance of dying between the first and fifth years of life.
[18] Additionally, 59% of girls, compared to 49% of boys, no longer go to school by the time they reach the sixth grade.
[22] There are multiple factors that contribute to the large gender gap in educational attainment in Pakistan.
[24] While this did increase the number of young children attending school, the costs of uniforms, transportation, as well as school supplies still proved a barrier in poor areas and the government did not enforce the compulsory aspect of primary education.
Since education is primarily seen as a way to get a good job and have a steady income, many families and parents do not find this applicable to their daughters as most women in Pakistan do not hold a paying job and are responsible for taking care of the family.
[16] Additionally, the opportunity cost of sending their daughters to school can also be a barrier to education for girls.
[28] However, Pakistan still ranks low in terms of gender equality in the labor force globally.
[29] Thus, marital status also affects the gender gap in the workforce as more married women do not pursue a paying career.
[32] Women in Pakistan make significantly less than their male counterparts, earning 16.3 per cent of their income.
[39][40] However, local bans have existed in parts of the country and have prevented women from voting; in addition, technical prerequisites such as CNIC registration for voting have had unintended effects of disenfranchising female voters in areas where male family members do not approve of female relatives obtaining CNICs.
The CNIC includes basic information such as the citizen's name, photograph, thumbprint, age, and father's (or husband's) name for women.
This gender gap is the largest in Balochistan province (15.65 percent), followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) (13.65), Sindh (11.02), and Punjab (11.095).
In order to combat this gap, Pakistan instituted a gender quota in the form of reserved seats.
The introduction of women into politics has also had numerous effects on the legislative behavior in Pakistani politics as in 2017-2018 when there were 20% of elected women, they introduced an average of 25 agenda items versus the average of 6 agenda items introduced by male Parliamentarians.
Women lawmakers on average also attended more sittings of both the Senate and the National Assembly (64% and 67% respectively) than male colleagues did during the same period (59% and 54% respectively).
[47] The social acknowledgement of politics as part of the public sphere, which is considered the man's responsibility has proven to be a barrier for women participating and getting elected into office.
Additionally, the traditional culture in Pakistan usually delegates household responsibilities to women, as mentioned previously.
[49] The Gender Development Index value for Pakistan is 0.750 which places it amongst the lowest in the South Asian region.
