Pakistan has placed last among 148 countries in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2025, highlighting persistent gender inequality in political and economic spheres, despite slight progress in female literacy.
The annual report, released this week, measures gender parity across four core areas: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
“Occupying the bottom rank of the index (148), Pakistan sees its overall parity score decline from last year’s edition from 57 percent to 56.7 percent,” the report stated, marking the second consecutive year of decline.
While there were improvements in educational outcomes—driven largely by a 2 percentage point increase in female literacy from 46.5% to 48.5%—the report noted that these gains have not translated into broader gender equality.
Pakistan’s parity in educational attainment rose to 85.1 percent, but the WEF cautioned that some of this improvement stemmed from a drop in male university enrollment, not a surge in female participation.
The situation was more concerning in economic participation. Pakistan’s score in this category fell by 1.3 percentage points, driven by a growing wage and income gap. The report pointed to a four-point rise in perceived wage inequality and a slight increase in income disparity.
According to a 2024 World Bank report, women make up just 22.8 percent of the country’s labor force, with few in leadership or managerial roles.
The political empowerment gap also widened. Parity in this category declined from 12.2 percent in 2024 to 11 percent in 2025. Although women’s representation in parliament saw a small 1.2-point increase, the share of women holding ministerial positions dropped to zero, down from 5.9 percent the previous year.
Since 2006, Pakistan has closed only 2.3 percentage points of its gender gap. The 2025 report marks a continued slide from the country’s highest score of 57.7 percent, achieved in 2023.
Despite some educational progress, Pakistan’s overall performance underscores deep-rooted gender disparities—especially in economic inclusion and political representation—keeping the country consistently at the bottom of global gender rankings.