Gender gap at crisis level

Pakistan continues to be ranked near the bottom of the table in terms of its gender gap, with the WEF's Global Gender Gap Report 2026 ranking only two nations lower than us - Iran and Chad. While spin doctors may try to highlight the ranking this year as an improvement, that is only true because we ranked dead last in 2025. Most of the structural problems that earned us last place are still there, and no government has been able to take substantive measures to address them. In fact, we have been so bad in recent years that this year's improvement - the one that took us from last place to third from the bottom - is also our biggest gain ever in the rankings. The headline figures are terrible, and even then, they do not tell the whole story, because allocating reserved seats for women in parliament and government offices skews the numbers higher - at least some of these women would not have gotten their jobs in a competitive situation. Parliament is the most egregious example, as familial ties to any relatively prominent male politician are usually the only qualification required. The handful of women who do win direct elections, or who can genuinely be considered technocrats, end up having their reputations hurt by scores of unqualified reserved-seat holders. Despite the reserved jobs, female labour force participation remains astoundingly low, at a mere 28.2% against 81.5% for men, and barely 6% of all senior officials and managers are women. Meanwhile, the one area where Pakistan is objectively doing well in the gender gap ranking - education - is also an area where Pakistan has consistently been among the worst across gender lines. Although we now have some of the highest tertiary enrolment rates for women, our overall literacy rate is among the worst in the world. Experts also say that having many people with higher education is unhelpful because a lack of economic opportunities will lead them to migrate to developed nations. Developing economies should instead focus on primary and secondary education, develop a productive workforce and let demand for skilled workers grow organically.