ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s newest Labour Force Survey shows women’s employment in Pakistan remains far below men’s, with a refined female labour force participation rate of 24.4% in 2024-25, compared with 69.8% for men. Economists and labor specialists say the gap is driven less by “willingness to work” than by barriers that make paid jobs impractical or unsafe, including commuting risks, childcare and weak deterrence for workplace harassment, Jan. 5, 2026.
Using the report’s comparable series, the figure is up from 21.4% in 2020-21 — but the gains are modest. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics’ Labour Force Survey 2024-25 annual report also shows how sharply geography shapes women’s employment in Pakistan: female participation is 31.7% in rural areas but only 13.5% in urban areas, where many formal-sector jobs are clustered. For an international benchmark, World Bank ILO-modeled estimates put Pakistan’s female labor force participation at 24.3% in 2024 — reinforcing how stubbornly the rate has hovered around one in four working-age women.
What’s holding back women’s employment in Pakistan
Time poverty is a major constraint. The survey estimates 77.1% of working-age women are engaged in unpaid domestic and care work, compared with 55% of men. When most unpaid work sits with women, a “good job” must also solve for childcare, elder care and household labor — or it becomes unsustainable, limiting women’s employment in Pakistan to narrower, less stable options.
Safe transport: the missing link between skills and jobs
For women’s employment in Pakistan, a job offer is often only as real as the commute. Research discussed by VoxDev’s summary of safe, subsidized transport in Lahore found that adding women-only “pick and drop” options can double or even triple the rate at which women apply for otherwise similar jobs. The takeaway is not that segregation is the endpoint, but that safer streets, harassment-free public transit and reliable last-mile options are immediate ways to widen the applicant pool.
Childcare: a make-or-break factor for retention
Childcare pressures do not end once a woman is hired. A World Bank case study of WAPDA’s in-house childcare describes how on-site daycare, maternity support and safe transport can improve retention in a male-dominated sector. For employers, subsidized childcare can be cheaper than turnover; for government, minimum standards and targeted incentives can help normalize childcare as workplace infrastructure — a practical lever for women’s employment in Pakistan.
Harassment law: enforcement, not just legislation
Pakistan has had a dedicated workplace harassment statute since 2010, but deterrence depends on enforcement that workers can see and trust. The Protection against Harassment of women at the Workplace Act (Act No. IV of 2010) sets out a legal route for complaints, yet many workers still fear retaliation or stigma. Specialists say faster case handling, trained inquiry committees and routine compliance checks are key to making the law real in offices, factories and shops.
A familiar diagnosis, and a chance to move faster
The idea that transport, childcare and harassment are the “big three” barriers is not new. The Centre for Labour Research warned in 2018 that these constraints keep women out of decent work and weaken labor protections. A 2019 World Bank analysis similarly argued that unpaid care burdens and unsafe public spaces limit participation. And in 2021, researchers at LUMS’ Mahbub ul Haq Research Centre cited women’s participation hovering near 22% — a reminder that gains in women’s employment in Pakistan have been incremental, not transformational.
That is why the latest 24.4% reading matters: it is progress, but slow progress. Treating safe mobility, affordable childcare and credible anti-harassment enforcement as core economic infrastructure, rather than side issues, may be the most direct way to widen the labor pool, lift household incomes and change the trajectory for women’s employment in Pakistan.
