THE Global Gender Gap Report 2026 endorses how the dice are loaded against Pakistan’s women. The aggregate performance picture is dark: it is close to the bottom at 143 out of 145 economies, just above Chad and Iran. The gender parity mark rose from last year’s 56.7pc to 59.5pc, shrinking the divide by 5.2pc. The three-notch ascent, billed as the strongest year-on-year progress in a decade, is due to the 91.7pc climb in education parity. Pakistan’s total literacy rate is one of the worst in the world. Piecemeal interventions, and patriarchal systems that chip away at women’s agency have contributed to the downward performance graph in most indices. Some of the highest maternal mortality rates, and regulated access to reproductive health, puts us at 127 in the health and survival category. In a deeply gendered economic and political landscape, Pakistan stands at 144 in female economic participation and opportunity, and 107 in political empowerment, reflecting the dishonesty of political claims. Equal rights elude women in financial services, land and non-land assets, and even justice. Meanwhile, in Sindh’s first Gender Parity Report, women’s abysmal numbers in education and their employment rates in state institutions, including the justice sector, are deeply concerning.

The onus of a skewed scorecard in the primary gauges that drive productivity and progress falls on the government’s failure to install protective ecosystems, counter chauvinistic narratives and respect women’s presence in power structures. Each marker is a mainstay of empowerment. We cannot afford economic strategies where women’s safety, education, employment, and political contributions are not central. These barriers aggravate each other. For instance, education without opportunity makes human capital wither. This, together with a broken and biased criminal justice system, has created an unsafe setting where sexual abuse and other violence are daily realities. To achieve gender equality, justice in these indicators is vital. Female voices cannot remain absent from positions of power. At the same time, progress in silos is insufficient to offset the trenchant systemic constraints that defeat gender parity. Reforms, enforcement of relevant statutes, sensitised law enforcement and legislation will ensure that women are not reduced to an afterthought.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2026