Pakistan Ranks 143 Among 144 Countries on the Global Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum.
Islamabad/Geneva - 26 October 2016 - The world is facing an acute misuse of talent by not acting faster to tackle gender inequality, which could put economic growth at risk and deprive economies of the opportunity to develop, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2016, which is published today.
The report is an annual benchmarking exercise that measures progress towards parity between men and women in four areas: Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, Economic Opportunity and Political Empowerment. In this latest edition, the report finds that progress towards parity in the key economic pillar has slowed dramatically with the gap – which stands at 59% – now larger than at any point since 2008.
Iceland (1) takes the top spot for the eighth consecutive year, closing more than 87% of its overall gender gap. Followed by Finland at 2nd and Norway at the 3rd place. Nordic nations continue to rank among highest performing countries, but several developing and emerging markets have also made it into the top 20; the US falls to 45th
Pakistan at (143) remains the region’s lowest-ranked country and second-to-last ranked overall. It records progress on closing the secondary education enrolment gender gap, and on women’s estimated earned income, but this is partly offset by reversals on wage equality and female-to-male literacy ratios.
Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer of Mishal Pakistan, the country partner institute of the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network, World Economic Forum said, “Pakistan remains one of the few countries in the world, which does not have female federal minister, whereas, there are only two state ministers at the centre”. He further said, “the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, each also have only one female minister in their cabinet. Balochistan remains with no female minister in its cabinet”. Jahangir further said, “Pakistan needs to concentrate more in creating enabling environment to bring its women leaders into decision making roles, both in the public as well as private sectors”.
Pakistan’s scores on the Four Pillars of the Global Gender Gap Index has not improved much from last year. Both on the Economic Participation and Opportunity Pakistan Scores at (143) and Education Attainment (135) Pakistan has not changed from last year. On Health and Survival Pilar Pakistan has improved from 125 last year to 124 in 2016. However, on the Political Empowerment, Pakistan has been ranked at 90 as compared to 87 in 2015.
The report is an annual benchmarking exercise that measures progress towards parity between men and women in four areas: Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, Economic Opportunity and Political Empowerment. In this latest edition, the report finds that progress towards parity in the key economic pillar has slowed dramatically with the gap – which stands at 59% – now larger than at any point since 2008.
Iceland (1) takes the top spot for the eighth consecutive year, closing more than 87% of its overall gender gap. Followed by Finland at 2nd and Norway at the 3rd place. Nordic nations continue to rank among highest performing countries, but several developing and emerging markets have also made it into the top 20; the US falls to 45th
Pakistan at (143) remains the region’s lowest-ranked country and second-to-last ranked overall. It records progress on closing the secondary education enrolment gender gap, and on women’s estimated earned income, but this is partly offset by reversals on wage equality and female-to-male literacy ratios.
Amir Jahangir, Chief Executive Officer of Mishal Pakistan, the country partner institute of the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network, World Economic Forum said, “Pakistan remains one of the few countries in the world, which does not have female federal minister, whereas, there are only two state ministers at the centre”. He further said, “the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, each also have only one female minister in their cabinet. Balochistan remains with no female minister in its cabinet”. Jahangir further said, “Pakistan needs to concentrate more in creating enabling environment to bring its women leaders into decision making roles, both in the public as well as private sectors”.
Pakistan’s scores on the Four Pillars of the Global Gender Gap Index has not improved much from last year. Both on the Economic Participation and Opportunity Pakistan Scores at (143) and Education Attainment (135) Pakistan has not changed from last year. On Health and Survival Pilar Pakistan has improved from 125 last year to 124 in 2016. However, on the Political Empowerment, Pakistan has been ranked at 90 as compared to 87 in 2015.
| Pakistan's Performance on the Global Gender Gap Index of the World Economic Forum | Rankings 2015 | Rankings 2016 | Change |
| Economic participation and opportunity | 143 | 143 | 0 |
| Labour force participation | 140 | 139 | -1 |
| Wage equality for similar work (survey) | 88 | 114 | 26 |
| Estimated earned income (US$, PPP) | 140 | 138 | -2 |
| Legislators, senior officials, and managers | 124 | 122 | -2 |
| Professional and technical workers | 122 | 119 | -3 |
| Educational attainment | 135 | 135 | 0 |
| Literacy rate | 136 | 138 | 2 |
| Enrolment in primary education | 134 | 127 | -7 |
| Enrolment in secondary education | 124 | 134 | 10 |
| Enrolment in tertiary education | 99 | 1 | -98 methodology change |
| Health and survival | 125 | 124 | -1 |
| Sex ratio at birth | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Healthy life expectancy | 131 | 130 | -1 |
| Political empowerment | 87 | 90 | 3 |
| Women in parliament | 72 | 70 | -2 |
| Women in ministerial positions | 141 | 139 | -2 |
| Years with female head of state (last 50) | 26 | 28 | 2 |
The World Economic Forum identifies the key data on Pakistan as; Country GDP at (US$ billions) 269.97GDP per capita (constant '11 intl. $, PPP) 4,745. The total population (thousands) 188,924.87. The Population growth rate at (%) 1.97. The Population sex ratio (female/male) at 0.95 and Human capital optimization (%) 53.10.
“These forecasts are not foregone conclusions. Instead, they reflect the current state of progress and serve as a call to action to policy-makers and other stakeholders to double down on efforts to accelerate gender equality,” said Saadia Zahidi, Head of Education, Gender and Work, and Member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum.
In South Asia, with 67% of its overall gap closed, is home to two of the top 10 climbers of the world since 2006: Nepal (110) and India (87). Nevertheless, progress in closing the economic gap has been negligible and it could take over 1,000 years to close the economic gender gap fully unless efforts are accelerated.
With an average remaining gender gap of 33%, the South Asia region is the second-lowest scoring on this year’s Global Gender Gap Index, ahead of the Middle East and North Africa and behind the Sub-Saharan Africa region. Bangladesh and India are the top-ranked countries in the region, having closed just under 70% and 68% of their overall gender gap, respectively, while the lowest-ranked countries are Bhutan and Pakistan, having closed 64% and 56% of their overall gender gap, respectively. No country in the region has fully closed its Educational Attainment gender gap, and only one country, Sri Lanka, has fully closed its Health and Survival gender gap. However, the region is also home to one of the top five climbers over the past decade on the overall Index and on Educational Attainment: Nepal.
On the global front the global prospects for workplace Gender Equality has Slip to the Year 2186 now. There are several factors behind this decline; One is salary, with women around the world on average earning just over half of what men earn despite, on average, working longer hours taking paid and unpaid work into account. Another persistent challenge is stagnant labour force participation, with the global average for women standing at 54%, compared to 81% for men. The number of women in senior positions also remains stubbornly low, with only four countries in the world having equal numbers of male and female legislators, senior officials and managers, despite the fact that 95 countries now have as many – if not more – women educated at university level. In 2015, projections based on the Global Gender Gap Report data suggested that the economic gap could be closed within 118 years, or 2133. However the progress has reversed since then, having peaked in 2013.
The slow rate of progress towards gender parity, especially in the economic realm, poses a particular risk given the fact that many jobs that employ a majority of women are likely to be hit proportionately hardest by the coming age of technological disruption known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This “hollowing out” of female livelihoods could deprive economies further of women’s talents and increases the urgency for more women to enter high-growth fields such as those demanding STEM skills. “Women and men must be equal partners in managing the challenges our world faces – and in reaping the opportunities. Both voices are critical in ensuring the Fourth Industrial Revolution delivers its promise for society,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.
Key Messages
The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2016 finds economic parity between the sexes could take 170 years after a dramatic slowdown in progress
Slowdown partly down to chronic imbalances in salaries and labour force participation, despite the fact that, in 95 countries, women attend university in equal or higher numbers than men
Nordic nations continue to rank among highest performing countries, but several developing and emerging markets have also made it into the top 20; the US falls to 45th
The Methodology
The Global Gender Gap Index ranks 144 countries on the gap between women and men on health, education, economic and political indicators. It aims to understand whether countries are distributing their resources and opportunities equitably between women and men, irrespective of their overall income levels. The report measures the size of the gender inequality gap in four areas:
- Economic participation and opportunity – salaries, participation and leadership
- Education – access to basic and higher levels of education
- Political empowerment – representation in decision-making structures
- Health and survival – life expectancy and sex ratio
Index scores can be interpreted as the percentage of the gap that has been closed between women and men, and allow countries to compare their current performance relative to their past performance. In addition, the rankings allow for comparisons between countries. Thirteen out of the 14 variables used to create the index are from publicly available hard data indicators from international organizations such as the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Health Organization, and one comes a perception survey conducted by the World Economic Forum.
In this year’s report, a key methodological change relates to the cap on the estimated earned income (raised from $40,000 to $75,000) to align with the UNDP’s new methodology and reflecting the change in income levels since the report’s inception in 2006.
System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Education, Gender and Work
In addition to benchmarking gender gaps through the Global Gender Gap Report series and other topical studies, the World Economic Forum’s System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Education, Gender and Work aims to ensure that talent is developed, nurtured and deployed for maximum benefit to the economy and society by mobilizing business, governments and civil society leaders to rethink education, close skills gaps, accelerate gender parity and boost employment.
Established in 2003, Mishal has been engaged with some of the most dynamic organizations, including media enterprises and global development agencies helping them develop their communication strategies and solutions for better understanding and creating synergies with their concerned stakeholders. Mishal is the country partner institute of the Center for Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network of the World Economic Forum. Mishal’s research and capacity building initiatives have assisted and helped successive governments to improve Pakistan’s global ranking on competitiveness, gender gap, trade and information technology indices.
In this year’s report, a key methodological change relates to the cap on the estimated earned income (raised from $40,000 to $75,000) to align with the UNDP’s new methodology and reflecting the change in income levels since the report’s inception in 2006.
System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Education, Gender and Work
In addition to benchmarking gender gaps through the Global Gender Gap Report series and other topical studies, the World Economic Forum’s System Initiative on Shaping the Future of Education, Gender and Work aims to ensure that talent is developed, nurtured and deployed for maximum benefit to the economy and society by mobilizing business, governments and civil society leaders to rethink education, close skills gaps, accelerate gender parity and boost employment.
Established in 2003, Mishal has been engaged with some of the most dynamic organizations, including media enterprises and global development agencies helping them develop their communication strategies and solutions for better understanding and creating synergies with their concerned stakeholders. Mishal is the country partner institute of the Center for Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network of the World Economic Forum. Mishal’s research and capacity building initiatives have assisted and helped successive governments to improve Pakistan’s global ranking on competitiveness, gender gap, trade and information technology indices.
