ISLAMABAD: Pakistan ranks third-last in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2026, with 59.5 per cent gender parity, up almost three percentage points from last year.
The annual report benchmarked the current state and evolution of gender parity across four key dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.
Pakistan scored the lowest among the 38 lower-middle-income economies, as well as the seven South Asian countries, included in the report.
“While Pakistan remains among the lowest-ranked economies in the index, it has nonetheless narrowed its gender gap over time by 5.2 percentage points, up from 54.3pc in 2006,” the report said.
Country records strongest year-on-year improvement in a decade, driven by gains in education
“Furthermore, the 2026 edition marks its strongest year-on-year improvement in a decade, driven primarily by substantial gains in educational attainment.”
Economic participation
Pakistan ranked 144th in economic participation and opportunity in 2026, moving up three places from 147th in the same index last year.
The report revealed that 81.46pc of men participated in the labour force against only 28.21pc of women.
According to the report, an overwhelming 93.87pc of legislators, senior officials and managers in Pakistan’s workforce were men, compared to 6.13pc women. For professional and technical workers, the gap was narrower, with women occupying 30.96pc of positions.
The country ranked 115th in wage equality for similar work and 140th in estimated earned income.
The report also revealed that 4.9pc of firms in Pakistan had female majority ownership, while only 3.4pc had female top managers.
Health & education
The country ranked 130th in educational attainment, marking a substantial gain in the category.
The male literacy rate was reported at 69.14pc, while the female literacy rate stood at 48.52pc.
Boys’ enrolment in primary education was 83.01pc, compared to 81.08pc among girls. In secondary education, male enrolment stood at 49.99pc, compared to 46.48pc for females.
Pakistan ranked first globally in tertiary education enrolment parity, marking high parity, as 10.71pc of women and 11.01pc of men were enrolled.
The country ranked 127th in the health and survival category. Within the category, Pakistan ranked first in sex ratio at birth, showing high parity between male and female births. Male healthy life expectancy stood at 57.1 years, compared to 56.69 years for women.
Political empowerment
Pakistan ranked 107th globally in the political empowerment index. 78.31pc of parliamentarians were men, compared to 21.69pc women. Furthermore, 96.55pc of individuals in ministerial positions were men, compared to only 3.45pc women.
The report also revealed that women in Pakistan did not enjoy equal rights regarding inheritance for widows and daughters. It added that women had “near-equal rights” when it came to access to financial services, land assets and non-land assets.
According to the report, women had “restricted rights” when it came to access to justice, while they had “equal rights” regarding freedom of movement.
The report further said women in Pakistan had “unequal rights” regarding the right to divorce.
Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2026
