WIR 2026, now released on December 10, 2025. It’s a comprehensive update on global economic, social and environmental disparities.
For Pakistan, report comment that it is still the same unequal economy in both income and wealth with notable disparities.
The estimated world population share of women is approximately 49.7 % of the total world population. In most of the countries female contribution to population is between 49 % and 51%.
However, when their contribution in economic activity is measured it comes out to be below their total potential, that is, women around the globe are underutilized. When inequality is analysed it is revealed that one of the major reasons is gender gaps. The topic is very much related to gender inequality.
This is not only true for Pakistan, India and Asian region but it is observed same everywhere in the world. Gender disparity/ discrimination is common around the globe. This effect both developed and developing economies.
Women participation in the labour work force observed much less globally. Labour force percentage of female participation within the age bracket of 25–54 as per 2022 estimates account for 61.2 % as compared to 90.6 % for men.
It is unfortunate that new figures for female participation reported in WIR recently has been fallen to 8.5 % from 9.8 % a decade ago.
When look at the World Economic Forum of Gender Gap it has fallen to the bottom ranking 148th out of 148 countries according to the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Index 2025.
It is heartening to learn of the announcement made by Food and Agriculture Organisation
Today, that is, 4th January, 2026. The good news is they have launched Year of Woman Farmer in order to highlight women contribution in agriculture. It is reported that in Pakistan 74 % of working women are engaged in agro farming, whereas globally agrifood workforce is almost equal to men that is, 40 % .
It is observed that in paid jobs men are given higher and important positions despite the same level of education, hence the gap in wages/ income.
From this, one can infer that income inequality is directly and strongly related with gender inequality. There is also an ongoing debate as what factors relate with gender inequality. Economists in their research are of the view that gender inequality is the outcome of gender gap in economic participation.
In a study, a case of Pakistan, women make up nearly 50 % of the population, that is, 49.2% to 49.3%. But sadly face much lower rate of participation in
Work force, politics and other relevant economic opportunities.
Unfortunately due to lack of education, as mostly country is comprised of rural population, the contribution of women in household income is far below their potential.
Another fact is that, it was estimated that around 64 % of women regrettably account for unpaid workforce which is primarily a family work, either in farms or business. This gap is basically analyzed in:
1) Economic participation
2) Education
3) Health
4) Political empowerment
The gender gap is witnessed in all the above.
However, in the recent past less female representation in the country’s Parliament has somewhat increased, a little improvement seen. In rural areas of Pakistan women are not allowed to work outside home. Their basic and major responsibility is to take care of their home and children. In this way women are deprived of many opportunities that may have reap fruitful outcomes.
At this point researchers raised the issue of, “Social Protection”. Well this is another topic which need detailed discussion, hence, will be addressed later.
If analyse the trend in female workforce participation the gap was vast , only 40 % of the global workforce were women as compared to the 50 % of working age population of women. Over the decade this gap has been narrowed though, but in most of the countries in the region it is still high. As mentioned above, it is a work practice that women largely are engaged in unpaid family work. In some countries women do participate in paid labour force but not on senior positions. Wage differential are also observed primarily due to gap in the level of education. It is found that gender wage gap somehow is narrowed in OECD countries. As women reach the child bearing age, the gap surfaces which is as estimated by researchers is equal to 14 %, and termed as motherhood penalty. Women population, young to old, in low income countries are vulnerable to the effects of economic crisis. The financial crisis first affect the women workers. They continue working as low paid labour. Despite the set targets for Vision 2025 that aimed for higher female participation not much could be achieved unfortunately.
Reason highlighted as no significant required changes were made to overcome the obstacles.
According to researchers gender equality means a lot when it comes to economic development. It is now a universally accepted fact that gender equality is a strong driver for economic growth. It is itself an important development goal (Loko and Diovy 2009,
Dollar and Gatti 1999; Mc Kinsey 2015; Cubers and Teignier 2016) thus it has become necessary to engage more women in labour force by creating more job opportunities for them. This will sure increase their contribution in household income, hence, will be abe to participate by contributing in country’s economic growth. As stated by ILO, increase in the women lobour will be the single strong factor that will help in reducing the gap in low income countries (Heintz, 2006). Women are also motivated and ready to make large investments in order to educate their children. Therefore, there is a need to invest on girls education specifically in rural areas. In areas where infrastructure is improved, now this process has begun. Equal laws should be implemented where there is discrimination among men and women. Robert J. Barro in his book,” Determinants of Growth”, argues that education, good health, lower fertility rates and on government side , less government consumption/ expenditure, relation to GDP, greater adherence to uncorrupted rule of law, better terms of trade and lower inflation rate all help in faster economic growth of the country. Yet in another research paper, “in his empirically investigated study for economic growth for a set of semi industrialised export oriented economies, argue that the reason for selecting these economies is that in these economies women are involved in the bulk of labour in the export sector. Author investigated the effects of education and gendered outcomes in labour markets where gender inequality affects the economic growth. His research provide the evidence in consistency with the argument that gender inequality stimulates investment and enhances the productively as in case of gender inequality, probably due to the low wages paid to women workers.
David Dollar and Roert Gatti (1999) in their paper,” Gender Inequality and Growth: Are Good Times Good for Women?” debate about the status of the women in the developing world. He further generalizes that the relative status of women is poor in the developing countries, when compared with developed countries. On both education and health, less is spend on girls. They get less education, less health facilities as compared to their counterparts, that is Boys.
Women are less educated they get junior category low paid jobs. The discrimination starts right at the time when they are born.
Main finding of their research is that gender inequality specifically in the education sector is bad for economic growth. The reason the developing countries which tend to invest less on girls education has to pay price for it in terms of slow growth and low income. However, spending on education between girl and boy child, boy build a gap in gender inequality, which eventually result in low wages to women in labour market. This way household income affect a lot. Author in his study concluded that increase in per capita income leads to reduction in gender inequality which in result leads to increase in economic growth in the country.
Entire debate in the paper is about how to eliminate the gender gap, bring women in the main stream as working women, invest more on girl child as compared to boys in the family. All such measures when taken will help in promoting women’s economic participation. Thus, help in increasing the economic growth.
Developing world has to take it as a challenge in order to create new jobs for women with equal pay as their male counterparts. When women have greater opportunities in the working environment, it will help in contributing to economic growth. As stated by economists that women in urban areas are still more then male but their contribution in economic activity and growth has been much less than their potential. Thus, it is a dire need to create more opportunities for women in the process to bring out their full potential. This can only be achieved when gender gap is eliminated or reduced to a greater extent by providing girls with education and health facilities.
Gender equality is mostly taken as,” women social right “, but it is much more.
It is termed as a smart economic strategy that unlock the complete potential of women, the 50 percent of the population aim in making economies stronger and prosperous.
