News: Women contributions towards economic growth identified
Name of NewsPaper: Business Recorder
Date of Publication: Saturday, 08 March, 2008
URL:http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=706232&currPageNo=5&query=&search=&term=&supDate=

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD (March 08 2008): The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) said on Friday it has identified importance of future contributions by women towards economic growth in Pakistan on the occasion of International Women's Day.

The International Women's Day, 8th of March, has been observed since the early 1900's, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialised world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies. The new millennium has witnessed a significant change and attitudinal shift in both women's and society's thoughts about women's equality and emancipation.

The unfortunate fact is that women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women's education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men.

However, Pakistan has been one of the front runners on the political empowerment, where it had a woman prime minister and increased participation of women in the political platforms. The Women's Day also reminds us that Pakistan has still a lot to do such as school girls are welcomed into universities, women can work freely with respect at their work places.

The tone and nature of International Women's Day has, for the past few years, moved from being a reminder about the negatives to a collaborated work force aiming at a more optimistic future.

The International Women's Day is marked across the world, where women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day. On this occasion, they can look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace, development and economic empowerment.

According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2007, published each year by the World Economic Forum, the social and economic empowerment of Pakistani women is still very low and their struggle is still on.

Pakistan is ranked at 126 among 128 countries in 2007 in the Global Gender Gap Report (GGG). This report provides a comprehensible framework for assessing and comparing global gender gaps and by revealing those countries that, regardless of the overall level of resources available, are role models in dividing these resources equitably between women and men.

The Global Gender Gap Report 2007 also identifies a gap in the overall participation of the women to be integrated into the workforce in Pakistan. Although the enrolment ratio between female and male at the primary education level is 59 percent (females) to 77 percent (males) only 2 percent of the females reach the position of senior officials, legislators and managers, as compared to 98 percent of the males in similar conditions.