A large number of women are working in informal labour market, which does not offer fringe benefits, health care and transport facilities. This is a key finding of a book "Gender and Empowerment: Evidence from Pakistan".
The book that presents secondary and survey-based evidence on the role and status of women in society says that female labour is concentrated in a few occupations like stitching and other low return jobs despite the fact that they work more days and hours per week.
It says that in large families, there is a lower chance that a girl will get education. About hierarchy within the family which determines income and resource use, the book reveals that in most cases the mother/mother-in-law controls income not daughter/daughter-in-law.
It depicts that gender based differences are significant for physical and mental health and socio-economic characteristics also affect mental health significantly.
Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) would launch this book jointly authored by Rehana Siddiqui, Shahnaz Hamid, Rizwana Siddiqui, Naeem Akhtar and G.Y Soomro here at P-Block Auditorium, Pak Secretariat on Tuesday (today).
This is the first attempt in Pakistan to provide a comprehensive analysis of gender-based conventional and non-conventional indicators in one place.