Is Pakistan becoming more Patriarchal?

Over the 20th century, the entire world became more gender equal. Or so I thought. But Pakistan has rocked my priors. Female employment has slightly risen. Meanwhile, young Pakistani women are more sexist than their grandmothers. What is going on?

Female employment is well below the global average - in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India

Women are far less likely to participate in the labour market than women in similarly wealth countries. This was true in both 1995 and 2019.

Although Pakistani female labour force participation is low, it has risen slightly.

Bussolo et al 2023

Punjab is Pakistan’s most densely populated province. Women rarely work outside agriculture. The overwhelming majority of Punjabis are also strongly opposed to female leaders, and in some villages there are restrictions on female voting.

Novaira Junaid et al 2021

Photo by Farooq Naeem (AFP)

Across Pakistan, women report major restrictions

Only 30% of female respondents to the 2013 Labor Skills Survey said they could go to local markets or health clinics alone. One fifth of women reportedly never go to the local market. Women who are not allowed to venture outside the home are also much less likely to work.

World Bank 2018

Fear and discrimination constitute further impediments. Most Pakistani women say they do not feel safe in public places. Surveyed Pakistani firms have usually expressed strong resistance to hiring women.

Female labour force participation has risen, slightly

Even though Pakistan remains extremely patriarchal, gender gaps in labour force participation have actually fallen. In every province, rural and urban women are now more likely to work. This indicates that restrictions are loosening.

World Bank 2018

World Bank 2018

In rural Pakistan, women of all levels of education are much more likely to work. In towns and cities, employment has risen amongst university graduates. Skilled employment is both better paid, culturally esteemed and psychologically rewarding.

World Bank 2018

Pakistani women working in a garment factory. Photo: The Express Tribune

Is Pakistan becoming more patriarchal?

Even though female labour force participation has slightly risen, young Pakistani women appear much more sexist.

Intimate partner violence is more justified by the young

Wife-beating is justified by almost half of young women in Pakistan - find Bussolo and colleagues. Grandmothers are much more opposed. This bucks a global trend, since younger generations are usually more supportive of gender equality. In neighbouring India, attitudes are at least stable across generations.

Women’s acceptance of intimate partner violence. DHS data. Bussolo et al 2023

“When jobs are scarce, men have more right to a job”

The overwhelming majority of young Pakistani women say that when jobs are scarce, men have more right to a job. Compared to their grandmothers, young women are actually more sexist.

Women who agree or strongly agree that when jobs are scarce men have more right to a job. World Values Survey. Bussolo et al 2023

Hostility is corroborated in a recent survey by Leonardo Bursztyn and colleagues. Only 54% of Pakistani men say that women have the right to work outside the home.

Leonardo Bursztyn, Alexander W. Cappelen, Bertil Tungodden, Alessandra Voena, and David H. Yanagizawa-Drott 2024

“University education is more important for a boy”

60% of young Pakistani women say that university education is more important for boys. Only 40% of their mothers’ generation concurs.

Bussolo et al 2023

“Both partners should contribute to household income”

Pakistan is in deep economic crisis. But younger people are far less likely to say that both partners should contribute to household income.

Bussolo et al 2023

Women’s participation in household decisions

The vast majority of young Pakistani women say that they have no say in household decisions, their preferences are overlooked and ignored. Whereas in India, women of all ages usually have their say.

Bussolo et al 2023

Is Pakistan becoming more patriarchal?

Something unusual is clearly going on in Pakistan.

On the one hand, female employment has risen slightly (though remains well below the global average, even compared to similarly poor countries). On the other hand, younger women are more likely to justify wife-beating, endorse male bias, and say their preferences are ignored.

We lack panel data on attitudes, so it’s impossible to say whether Pakistani youth are always more sexist or whether something new is impacting the current generation of young women.

Both of these trends are surprising! Elsewhere in the world, younger women are the strongest proponents of gender equality. Furthermore, rising female employment usually fosters support for gender equality. But both are flipped in Pakistan.

I share this data to motivate wider inquiry:

• Are young Pakistanis becoming more patriarchal?

• If so, what’s driving sexist attitudes?

• Why has urban female employment slightly risen, while ideologies remain so sexist - in terms of education, employment, gender-based violence and household decision-making?

• How can this (possible) trend of rising sexism be averted?

What explains the Pakistani paradox?

Lahore, Pakistan

Hypotheses for rising patriarchy:

1. President Haq (1978-88) strengthened religious laws, institutions and madrasahs;

2. Saudi funding and labour migration has encouraged Wahhabism;

3. Does the incongruence of behaviour and attitudes indicate backlash? As slightly more women enter the workforce, are conservatives preaching that men have the authority to make decisions and beat their wives?

4. Have instability, insecurity, and economic crises fostered what Michele Gelfand terms “cultural tightening”? Threats (like neighbouring Afghanistan) may make people less culturally permissive.

Keen to understand the drivers of change over time, I’m heading to Lahore and Karachi for a month for qualitative research.

I am very keen to learn from Pakistanis. Please do email me (alice.evans@kcl.ac.uk) if you’d like to meet. Thank you!

My next Substack will explore how migration to the Gulf affects religion and gender