KARACHI: The Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) on Monday said that businesses should strive to have one-fourth women employees in the overall workforce as well as in management roles by 2025.

This will play a critical role in ensuring an inclusive economy and robust business growth, the chamber said in a position paper titled “Increasing women’s inclusion in the Pakistan economy: an OICCI perspective” that the foreign investors’ representative body presented to Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari.

“OICCI members are extremely concerned that Pakistan ranks second-to-last for women globally, as per the Global Gender Parity Report, and that Pakistani women earn roughly 34 per cent less than men,” said OICCI President Irfan Siddique.

The recommendations by the OICCI on women inclusion cover three areas: equal opportunity, protection against workplace harassment and building inclusive workspaces.

OICCI urged the government to set a minimum goal of 25pc women in management roles by 2025 in all key segments for government and non-government organisations/businesses that employ more than 50 people.

Other recommendations include initiating awards for spotlighting outstanding women business leaders and mandating equal pay for equal work by adopting gender-neutral compensation and benefit structures.

In addition, it recommended that tax credit be granted for organisations that have female employment at the management level beyond a set threshold.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2021