The world is falling short of achieving gender equality despite global efforts. If the current trends continue, eight percent of women and girls global population will live in extreme poverty by 2030. Suggest strategies to improve gender balance, especially with reference to Pakistan.

Introduction

Addressing students at Aligarh in March 1944, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah said: "No nation can rise to the height of glory unless your women are side by side with you." Eight decades later, the world, and Pakistan in particular, has yet to act on this truth. UN Women warned in its Gender Snapshot 2023 that, if current trends continue, more than 340 million women and girls, about 8 per cent of the world's female population, will still live in extreme poverty in 2030. Despite global commitments, gender equality under Sustainable Development Goal 5 is off track, and Pakistan sits at the bottom of global gender rankings. Closing the gap requires strategies that address education, work, law, safety and social attitudes together.

Overview

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, 1979), the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995) and the SDGs (2015) committed the world to equal rights and opportunities for women. Progress has been real in girls' schooling and maternal health, but slow elsewhere. The World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2025 estimated that, at the current pace, full parity would take about 123 years, and ranked Pakistan 148th out of 148 countries. In Pakistan, only about one in four women is in the labour force, and female literacy, according to the 2023 Census, lagged far behind male literacy.

Why the world is falling short of gender equality

1. Poverty and unpaid care work.

Women do about three times as much unpaid care and domestic work as men, which limits their time for education and paid work and keeps them poorer. (Reference: UN Women, Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: The Gender Snapshot 2023.)

2. Gaps in education and health.

Millions of girls remain out of school, especially in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and maternal mortality remains high where health systems are weak. (Reference: UNESCO, Global Education Monitoring Report, 2024; WHO, Trends in Maternal Mortality 2000–2020.)

3. Discriminatory laws.

Women enjoy on average only about two-thirds of the legal rights of men worldwide, with gaps in property, inheritance, work and family laws. (Reference: World Bank, Women, Business and the Law 2024.)

4. Violence against women.

Nearly one in three women worldwide has experienced physical or sexual violence in her lifetime, which damages health, work and participation. (Reference: WHO, Violence Against Women Prevalence Estimates 2018, published 2021.)

5. Low political representation.

Women hold only about 27 per cent of seats in national parliaments globally, so their needs receive less attention in policy and budgets. (Reference: Inter-Parliamentary Union, Women in Parliament 2025.)

6. Economic exclusion.

Women are paid less, work more in informal jobs and own fewer assets and businesses, so economic growth benefits them less. (Reference: International Labour Organization, Global Wage Report 2018/19; WEF, Global Gender Gap Report 2025.)

7. Conflict, pandemics and climate shocks.

COVID-19, wars and disasters such as Pakistan's 2022 floods hit women hardest, pushing girls out of school and into early marriage. (Reference: UN Women and UNDP, COVID-19 Global Gender Response Tracker; Government of Pakistan, Post-Disaster Needs Assessment 2022, gender chapter.)

8. The digital divide and backlash.

Women are less likely to own a mobile phone or use the internet, and in some countries, such as Afghanistan, women's rights have been reversed outright. (Reference: GSMA, Mobile Gender Gap Report 2024; UNAMA reports on the rights of women and girls.)

Strategies to improve gender balance, especially in Pakistan

1. Girls' education.

Pakistan should enforce Article 25-A (free and compulsory education), build girls' schools close to homes, recruit female teachers, provide transport and stipends, and focus on the more than 26 million out-of-school children, most of them girls. (Reference: Constitution of Pakistan, Article 25-A; Pakistan Institute of Education, Pakistan Education Statistics 2021–22.)

2. Women's economic participation.

Safe transport, daycare at workplaces, flexible and home-based work and fair wages can raise women's labour force participation, which could add substantially to GDP. (Reference: Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force Survey; McKinsey Global Institute, The Power of Parity, 2015.)

3. Financial and digital inclusion.

Expanding women's bank accounts, mobile wallets, credit and mobile phone ownership, as targeted under the State Bank's Banking on Equality Policy (2021), empowers women economically. (Reference: State Bank of Pakistan, Banking on Equality Policy, 2021; GSMA, Mobile Gender Gap Report.)

4. Legal reform and enforcement.

Laws such as the Enforcement of Women's Property Rights Act 2020, the anti-honour-killing law of 2016 and the Islamabad Child Marriage Restraint Act 2025 must be enforced, and inheritance rights guaranteed in Islam must be delivered in practice. (Reference: Acts of Parliament of Pakistan, 2016, 2020 and 2025; Council of Islamic Ideology reports on women's inheritance.)

5. Protection from violence.

Special courts, women's police stations, helplines and shelters, together with the Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Act 2021 and the Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act, can make women safe at home, at work and in public. (Reference: Anti-Rape Act 2021; Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act 2010, amended 2022.)

6. Political representation.

Reserved seats in assemblies and local governments should be complemented by more general-seat tickets for women, as the Elections Act 2017 requires at least 5 per cent of general-seat tickets for women. (Reference: Constitution of Pakistan, Articles 51 and 106; Elections Act 2017, section 206.)

7. Health and social protection.

Better maternal and reproductive health services, nutrition for girls and cash transfers through the Benazir Income Support Programme, which pays women directly, strengthen women's position in the household. (Reference: BISP annual reports; Pakistan Maternal Mortality Survey 2019.)

8. Changing social norms.

Religious scholars, media, schools and community leaders can promote the Islamic teachings on women's dignity, education and property, challenging customs such as early marriage and denial of inheritance. (Reference: UNFPA Pakistan, engagement with religious leaders; National Commission on the Status of Women reports.)

Conclusion

Speaking at the United Nations in July 2013, Malala Yousafzai said: "One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world." Gender equality begins with such simple investments, but it also needs laws, jobs, safety and changed attitudes. The world is falling short because it has treated women's empowerment as a side issue rather than a foundation of development. For Pakistan, which ranks at the bottom of global gender rankings, empowering women is not only a matter of justice but the surest path to growth, as Quaid-e-Azam foresaw.