Covid effect on women employment
GENDER parity is the main focus of every country because it contributes to economic progress and prosperity of the people.
Women employment trend in Pakistan as patriarchal society has been affected by Covid-19. During lockdowns they have been engaged in extra responsibilities of housework and they had to face job insecurity.
A recent data from the World Bank indicates the women’s contribution to the labour market can be enhanced to 5% of a country.
But in some economies, this gap has widened in terms of female labour force participation. The reason for this might be the gender wage gap due to unskilled female workers.
Female participation in the labour market of low-income groups is considered as unskilled labour due to illiteracy or low level of education.
They are working in the informal sector and earn low wages, leading to a gender wage gap. Many countries have closed the gap of gender inequality and most of the countries have achieved this gap but Pakistan is still far behind.
Gender equality is not only having equal access to all opportunities but also to a quality of job.
Despite the fact about gender inequality across the globe, the WB has closed this gap in primary education to 10% and health to 5% working with public and private sectors in the last two decades.
Economic opportunities due to Covid led to economic uncertainty in female labour force participation rate.
A UN study found the lack of job opportunities affected by Covid-19 has dispersed this gender gap.
Gender inequality as 80% women and girls are displaced due to climate effects indicating influence on rural working women.
Due to the climate crisis, females have 14 times more chances to be affected than males. Women constitute 48.4% of the total population in Pakistan.
Efforts are on to make progress through investing in female education, health and economic opportunities to close this gap.
Though there is investment in education through different programs namely Kamyab Jawan programme, Waseela-i-Taleem, youth loan scheme and free education yet results are not up to the mark.
But Covid pandemic has affected female education, health and increased gender violence against women.
Pakistan is the second worst country in respect of gender inequality except Afghanistan according to a world development rank.
Pakistan’s ranking in terms of economic opportunities depicting female labour force participation has declined since 2020.
Female role in officials, technical workers, professional and senior officials has also declined in Pakistan as compared to world level.
Pakistan has been ranked as 8th country in the top ten countries that is most affected by climate change.
In Pakistan it was estimated that female-male ratio is very low in top management and other manufacturing units as compared to the informal sector.
Gender equality as the goal of SDGS plays a key role for the development of a country.
Pakistan has to improve its education system after Covid which is the most important determinant of female labour force participation rate and can be helpful in closing the gender gap.
Indirectly, education will be helpful in eliminating this inequality by providing social justice to the deprived people.
Policy makers should focus on the quality of education (beyond secondary education) that directly increases the quality of employment.
For gender equality, govt should focus on investment in human capital (women) relating to technical training in professional fields.
There is a need to improve education relating to the agriculture sector. In this way females can contribute to the increase in productivity in the agriculture sector.
—The writer is a PhD scholar of the University of Sargodha in the Economics Department.
