Women play an essential part in every society. Since they constitute a significant part of Pakistan’s population, they contribute to the professional life and labor force.

 Although men are more prominent in the Labour Force Participation Rate, Pakistani women are still present and participate in many professional fields such as education, healthcare service, banking, and other administrative job positions.  

However, there is a noticeable gender difference in Pakistani employment. Men, rather than women, occupy sectors related to engineering, agriculture, and military occupations. In a previous article, we published the best 2020 female jobs. This time, we will talk about the challenges and the difficulties that every working woman is facing in Pakistan.

Problems of Working Women in Pakistan.

1. Exploitation:

Women without qualifications are subject to exploitation from many angles. Women who are engaged in domestic work in the private sector are facing various problems such as the absence of pension after retirement, absence of social protection in case of workplace accidents, illness, or maternity.

2. Lack of Safety :

 Women who are engaged in daily paid jobs have started working from a very young age, without having enough skills and knowledge for safe domestic work like cleaning services for companies and government institutions. Therefore, one of the significant problems facing uneducated women is working without any legal protection from employers as domestic workers, home-based workers, and workers for the manufacturing firms. 

3. Operating in Male-Dominated Jobs

First let’s explain the concept of male jobs in Pakistan. Many jobs are dominated by men such as driving, construction and building jobs, sports coaching, café management, and so many jobs that from early decades are attributed to the male gender. 

However, very few women in Pakistan are present in male jobs. For example, you can find female security agents in airports and police stations to check female and hijabi passengers.

 Some female engineers work or supervise a group of male workers. Being the one in a whole staff of male employees in a bit intriguing for Pakistani women. It might also lead to some family problems such as having family members who oppose their daughters getting such employment.

4. Leaving Studies

Many Pakistani women were forced to leave school or abandon studies under different circumstances. Having fewer academic qualifications would affect future career choices for women.  

Although many Pakistani women didn’t complete college studies, there is a decent amount of female Pakistani graduates that have reached the MA degree or Ph.d. Degree, not to mention qualified Pakistani women who have perused studies in foreign colleges as well. However, this amount of highly qualified women is minimal because many girls quit their studies at a very young age. 

In recent years, Pakistani Women organizations have contributed to the increase of graduated Pakistani girls. Efforts have culminated in the return of an essential number of girls who left studies. Thus, this procedure helped the rate of female qualifications and helped women to reach an advanced academic level.

5. Low Payment:

Gender differences in Pakistan have contributed to many social injustices, such as excluding women from many rights among their payment. In many fields, female laborers are paid less than male laborers. 

For example, in agriculture, craftwork, or manufacturing work, women are paid less than men, even though they work the same working hours. This hourly gender wage difference is due to the dominant mentality that men should be paid more than women, because men are more professional, or because men are responsible for family expenses and many other patriarchal justifications.

6. Using Women for Manual Work

Many employment sectors are dedicated to women, even though there are justified reasons for accumulating female working force in these specific sectors. Employment-to-Population Ratio (EPR) represents that female workers in farms, manufacturers, or crafts are 80% of total workers. The majority of them are concentrated in agriculture as (72%), manufacturing (14%), and community and personal services (11%). Despite this widespread, less than 2% of the female laborers are registered with the provincial social security institutions.

7. Personal Hinders

Many personal life issues affect the presence of Pakistani women in employment. If the educational side is fulfilled, women are sometimes forced to quit jobs for many personal reasons.

 For example, married women who cannot reconcile between professional life and family life would choose to abandon employment, especially when they have a good family income. Some social norms, including marital status, do not encourage working women to get a job.

8. Geographically Distant Jobs

 In Pakistan, the availability of work depends on the region. If women live in urban societies where employment is far from their locations, they would not change their address or move elsewhere, as they are linked to their families. If job opportunities are far from your reach, consider freelancing. Get ideas by reading this article:

13 Best Freelance Jobs in Pakistan

9. Lack of Employment Benefits.

In the governmental sector, legislation is ensuring maternity protection for female workers, including 12 weeks of maternity leave. Nowadays, maternity benefits are only granted for working women who are registered in a social security institution. In the private sector, there is no room for maternity leave as employers require an income replacement for the absent female employees. That is, a working lady in the private sector might lose employment after being replaced by another one and cannot restore her job after maternity leave. You can also read:

Different Homework Jobs in Pakistan to Earn Money with Flexible Hours 

10. Harassment:

Although Pakistan is a very safe and conservative country, it is not excluded from crimes and abuse. Harassment is indeed a current problem, and many working women were harassed at work, which pushed them leaving their jobs.

These were the different gender gap problems in Pakistani employment. They can be based on the way people regard women as less professional and competent than men employees.

 Still, many achievements are done for working women empowerment in Pakistan. Less pressure on working women would exist in the future as legislations are working on encouraging female workers in Pakistan.