The unprecedented growth in access to mobile phones and smartphones has opened up new possibilities in the way people live and work. However, women in developing countries are unable to take advantage of this growth due to certain factors and socio-cultural norms that give rise to the gender digital divide. In this study, using the nationally representative Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (2019-2020), we investigate the gender and rural-urban (female) digital divide in a country with one of the most considerable digital divides. Furthermore, we employ an instrumental variable approach to study the effect of mobile or smartphone ownership on female labor force participation. The results indicate that institutional and sociocultural norms explain most of the ownership gap of mobile or smartphones between men and women. The instrumental variable approach demonstrates that mobile or smartphone ownership increases the participation of women in the labor force. We also find that the differences between observable characteristics, especially literacy and education, explain the rural-urban digital divide among females. Considering the importance of mobile or smartphone ownership in facilitating

Female participation rates in Pakistan’s labor force are well below regional averages despite approximately 9 percent growth in the past three decades. To probe the underlying causes of the dynamics of female labor force participation in Pakistan, we use a synthetic panel constructed from nationally representative labor force surveys (1990–2017). The results indicate that the rising population share of working-age women does not account for changes in aggregate labor force participation rates. The age–period–cohort analysis demonstrates that for cohorts born since the 1900s, urban females’ age effects follow a slight M-shaped curve, representing the child-raising phase during which females reduce labor force participation. The cohort effects signal an increase in the labor force participation of cohorts born after the 1950s. This is particularly the case for married females and females with less education that traditionally have weaker attachments to the labor market due to social norms. Therefore, understanding and identifying the factors that can have an effect on the inhibiting role of social norms are central to devising policies to foster female labor force participation.