Empowering Growth in Pakistan?

The Effects of Growth on Women’s Employment in Pakistan

“…The "male breadwinner bias" in Pakistan -the normative assumption that men's gender role as their families' breadwinners entitles them to priority access to employment and other resources, especially in periods of crises (Elson andÇagatay 2000: 1355) -leads to a perception of women as "secondary workers" (Siegmann and Majid 2014) and legitimizes reproductive work as women's main responsibility (Grünenfelder and Siegmann 2016: 19). This is reflected in women's higher reproductive burden.…”

“…These dynamics led to a closure of a significant number of knitwear units and spinning mills affecting small or informal units in particular (Siegmann 2011) where production is both labor-intensive and dominated by women. Thus, job losses for women exceeded those for men, resulting in negative women's employment elasticities that are lower than men's employment elasticities, and women bearing the brunt of the recession (Siegmann and Majid 2014).…”

“…Apart from persistent and increasing gender wage inequality in Pakistan's industrial sector, this is expressed in women workers' lack of representation in trade unions and justified by social norms that view men as primary breadwinners. Given that in Pakistan, women's earnings are often viewed as supplementary while men are considered to have a right to regular employment, in case of recessions the formal sector is likely to see employers laying-off women first (Siegmann and Majid 2014).…”

Multiple Inequalities and Policies to Mitigate Inequality Traps in Pakistan

“…As incomes rose steadily over the 1994-2011 period, it could be that families no longer have to discriminate between their sons and daughters. Secondly, labour force participation for women has increased over the last 20 years (Siegmann and Majid, 2014). This could be due either to changing attitudes towards working women or simply to the creation of jobs considered appropriate for women.…”

“…In 2011, the figure had dropped to 1.6. Similarly, there is much evidence to suggest that labour force participation by women has also increased, despite being quite low in absolute terms (see Siegmann and Majid, 2014).…”