The challenges to increasing female participation in mainstream economic activity, and the creation of leadership within women entrepreneurs, are manifold. These challenges range from social taboos; conservative lobbies; lack of access to education, information, and finance to discriminatory behaviors by male counterparts, severely inhibiting the ability of women to develop leadership skills and to participate in the policymaking process. Yet another complexity is the non-existent gender focused institutions such as women chambers, which generally act as facilitators in networking, mentorship, and learning opportunities.
In Pakistan, the low literacy rate, especially for girls, is alarming. That is compounded by a high dropout rate from schools. According to the Population Census the current female literacy stands at 36%. Astonishingly, starting at 33% enrolment at the primary school, only 6.59% enroll at the high school level, reducing further to 1.2% at the University Degree level! This reduces the chances of females emerging in the leadership role both in the political structure as well as entrepreneurs and senior executives.
Pakistan is a country of 160 million people, more than half of the population’s gender is female. It is widely recognized that although female participation in the paid labor force is increasing, it is still at a low level. According to Federal Bureau of Statistics, Pakistan’s labor force survey, only 0.3% employers are female.
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