Managing Director, Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC), Dr Khalida Ghaus, on Tuesday said that women's complete integration into the economy was an essential component for inclusive and sustainable economic growth. Addressing as a keynote speakers at the International Women Day Conference organised by Employers' Federation of Pakistan, she said that unfortunately, in many countries including Pakistan women's economic potential had not yet been fully capitalised.
"The labour force statistics reveal that a large part of the adult female population is considered out of the ambit of the definition of the labour force," she added. "There is a clear recognition amongst the policy makers, academicians, researchers and practitioners that women's marginalisation can stifle poverty reduction, productivity, competitiveness, and growth, therefore the pledge for gender parity in employment has a strong economic case," she added.
She said that out of total women population, labour force participation rate of women stands at 22 percent. "Though this rate is growing overtime and the overall gender gap in labour force participation rate is declining, it is still depressing as out of the total female population 78 percent are out of the labour force as compared to 17.6 percent in the case of males. Even those who are included in the labour force, they largely work in agriculture and informal sectors. They are vulnerable to market conditions and do not have pensions and other old age benefits," she added.
In addition, Dr Khalida said that the unemployment rate among females was higher than the male counterparts. This higher and persistent unemployment rate pushed them out of labour force as "discouraged workers." Furthermore, there is extremely low share of female employment in the formal sector of the economy at only about 7 percent as compared to 18 percent for males, she added.
"There is a similar pattern of participation by females in the informal sector, both relatively low and is declining. Clearly, the transition of the female labour force, from traditional agricultural activities to the informal sector, and eventually to the formal sector in urban areas of Pakistan, is not happening," she said. "A body of recent theoretical and empirical literature demonstrates that without capitalising women's economic potential and enhancing the quality and quantity of female labour force participation, rapid and sustainable economic growth is not possible," she said.
MD SPDC said that the absence of women from the labour force or their participation in unpaid and low paid work was one of the main reasons for their lack of economic empowerment and poor status in society. While, many aspects of female labour force participation have been studied in Pakistan, there are various aspects which have not been explored. She said that labour market was not capitalising the potential of Pakistani women and they were highly disadvantaged in labour force participation.
Dr Khalida said that once these unobservable factors were eliminated from society, women labour force participation as well as overall labour force participation will increase in Pakistan.
"A prime reason of less participation of women in labour force is their less chances of being employed and higher chances of unemployment if participating in labour force activities. This discourages women to actively participate in labour market. Moreover, they have fewer chances to get into jobs in formal sector," she mentioned. She said that there were various theoretical approaches and conceptual frameworks that can be applied to explain this perpetual trend of gender disparity in labour market. "Theoretical approaches to gender inequalities in labour market outcomes can be broadly divided into the categories of those which focus on 'individual choice' and those which focus on structural constraint," she added.
Talking about the global situation, she said that the gender parity in enrolment at lower levels had been achieved and at the tertiary levels the enrolments were in favour of women. "Improvement in life expectancy across regions has increased for women from 54 percent to 71 percent. Similarly, a rapid decline in fertility from 5 percent to 2.5 percent birth per women, however, the gap continues to persist in the area of economic opportunities," she added.
"A look at the labour force participation for women 15 plus years globally is 50 percent compared to 70 percent for men. Women globally are half as likely as men to have full time wage jobs; whereas in paid work, women earn on an average between 10 and 30 percent less than men; and the share of women in senior management roles globally is only 21 percent, she added.
In Pakistan case, Dr Khalida pointed out that more women than men were unemployed. The women unemployment rate in 2014-15 was nine percent compared to five percent for men. This rate is 14 percent for the young women aged 20-24, while for the male counterpart it is 7.6 percent. With the age and experience, this start declining, however, It is alarming that after 55 years unemployment increased sharply in women and crosses 17 percent after 60 years.
She informed that unemployment rate among women having graduate or above education was highest. While, unemployment rate in both male and female increases with the level of education, it is educated women who have the highest unemployment rate. For instance, unemployment rate among women having graduate or above education is an alarming 42 percent compare to 10 percent in male for the same category.
Employed women are concentrated in less skilled and elementary occupations. Almost 90 percent of employed women in 2014-15 were working in three less skilled occupations including agricultural, forestry and fishery, craft and related trades and elementary occupations, she added. Majority of employed women are unpaid workers contributing in family works. In 2014-15, some 55 percent of employed female were contributing in family works without any remuneration, compare to only 15 percent male, Dr Khalida mentioned.