The Gender Gap

• Action is urgently needed to close it

That Pakistan has been ranked 151^st out of 153 countries in the world on gender equality, by the Global Gender Gap Report, now in its 4^th year,  should not be taken to mean that Pakistan is being judged unfairly, excessively negatively, because of its cultural conservatism, by standards alien to our social values. Not only is Pakistan lower on the list than other Muslim countries, which share Pakistani cultural and social values, but the lowness of its ranking reflects a gap which is reflective of all that is misogynistic in our culture. It should not be forgotten that Muslim values are not misogynistic at all, and if they had been followed, the ranking would not have been so low.

One of the most glaring examples of this is that Pakistan ranks 150^th on the count of economic participation, which includes the vexed question of equal pay for equal work. There is no way that Islamic values can be blamed for this, though untrammelled capitalistic impulses may be blamed for this. Similarly, coming in 143^rd in educational attainment or 149^th in health and survival reflect an essentially pagan misogyny, while the ranking of 93^rd in political empowerment may show that a certain narrow slice of the population, the upper-class urban elite, may be better off. However, this last variable also shows that women in politics have not done much for their less fortunate sisters, and that the reservation system has permitted certain women to gain membership of every elected body from union council to the National Assembly, but it has not translated into greater opportunities in either health or education for women.

Health or education may remain problem areas as long as the situation is not improved for all, irrespective of gender. However, there has still to be concerted government action in other areas to ensure that progress is made. There may be some point in passing new laws, but it would be better if existing laws were operationalised first. There has been too much attention paid to taking measures only to satisfy one foreign lobby or another. The time has come for action to change the way that half the population lives out its life.