Gender Inequality
(GP IR)
Research Question = Does gender inequality contribute to the growth restriction in many
developing countries?
Gender Inequality is the greatest problem for developing nations to grow and prosper in recent
globalized times. First, let us break down the key terms starting with gender. Gender refers to the
different cultural and social roles between male females. Then there is "inequality" which
means being in a state of not being equal by gender or race. Personally, choosing this have a
great significance because within the society of globalization, each country (especially
developing) needs to grasp every aspect and achieve every opportunity to not only grow
economically and socially but to be able to be positioned by the side or move even further
beyond than the developed countries. Unfortunately, primitive judgments, one of the main
factors significantly hinders them to rise from their unhatched form and become the greatest
version of themselves. For every country to grow, every citizen should work together for the
betterment of the society, including women.
Moving deeper into this topic, we can see that since ancient times the unimportance of women
was at a high time who relatively had low rights and values, especially in the 18th century many
married women especially those of a lower background were neglected by many rights. Moving
forward some changes were seen as disclosed that how the voting rights for women were only
enacted in the United States in 1920 by the 19th Amendment (Archives, 2022) after a long
struggle of discrimination and inequality. This shows the lack of credibility for the government
to solve these major problems and provide basic rights to its citizens.
The further effect of gender inequality in restricting developing countries to achieve their fullest
potential can be seen across the globe. Gender Inequality causes severe low labor participation
especially of women mainly because of disputed laws, societal norms, and unpaid domestic
responsibility. A major example can be seen in Afghanistan, the female Labour being just 21.8%
in 2020, one of the lowest in the world, all because of the reemergence of the Taliban (Group,
2025). This causes extreme high cost labor because of insufficient employees in the market
which automatically leads to a long tenure of slow innovations since women are tend to be more
innovative than most men as disclosed by different researches, companies with more women in
executive positions are more creative and financially successful due to diverse perspectives
(Turban, 2019). To further signify the point, it can be observed that in many developing
countries girls are often rejected from going to school and being properly educated. This is also
mainly caused by societal norms and unjust implementation of laws which leads to a
generational chain of illiteracy among women because the mothers would hesitate to send their
children to school as approximately 1.1 million girls were left uneducated due to the
reemergence of Taliban in 2020 validate the statement (UNESCO, 2023). This long tenure of
illiteracy and low innovation leads to low per capita income because a major chunk a population
having the potential to achieve greater heights and contribute to great extent will either be
uneducated to do anything or they would be working low wage jobs in small industries that
would soon be collapsed as it can be seen that 104 economies with labor laws that restrict the
types of jobs women can undertake, and when and where they are permitted to work. (Wood,
2018)
However, looking at the wider picture, gender inequality is not the major reason for a country to
achieve its full potential. There are several other factors that may not show immediate effects,
but deeply and subtly hurt the economy as evoked in a report that closing labor force
participation gaps (gender inequality) could add 0.10 p.p. of additional economic growth per
year, culminating in a 3.9% boost to GDP per capita by 2060 which taken into contrast with
other factors is comparatively low (Fluchtmann, 2024). To start with, the first and foremost issue
is the increased crime rate in a country. What happens here is that a significant increase in crimes
like murder, robbery, Kidnapping etc, not only creates a dead fear within the hearts of the
citizens about whether or not a good future will arrive, but the government starts to spend more
on the security and military to stop these crimes. A significant example can be observed in
Pakistan how in the fiscal year 2024-25, Pakistan's government increased its defense budget by
17.5%, allocating Rs2.12 trillion ($6.15 billion) to address security needs (News, 2024). This
eventually results in low budgets on other sectors like jobs, education, medical care, and
geopolitics due to which the services provided to the people are not satisfactory which eventually
leads to brain drain, a long chain of loss of professionals leading to a great downfall in the labor
market, that would cause further deterioration of the economy. Such examples can be seen all
around the world, like Venezuela where migration resumed, with the stock of migrants reaching
6.1 million in 2021 after a halt in the pandemic years (Alvarez, 2022). Moreover, it was noticed
that the first wave of migrants was mostly professionals with high levels of education. The
second consisted of middle-class young people with a university degree (Arena, 2022).
Now after an unembellished evaluation of the issues mentioned above, it has been concluded,
that brain drain and gender inequality are to be the most important for the country to develop.
Now among, them, the most imperative one is gender inequality since it severely affects
economic performance with disparities in labor participation. Research shows that with a 1%
increase gender wage gap, there is a leading chance of a 0.013% decrease in economic
development in OCD countries (Talafha, 2025). Gender inequality is comparatively more of an
internal structural issue that weakens the economy from within and is more dangerous than the
eternal effects caused by brain drain, which only affects a small sector.
Moving towards Pakistan, severe observation can be seen of how the economy has rigorously
deteriorated in recent times as shown in studies that in 2024, the inflation rate increased up to a
whopping rate of 23.4% with a significant depreciation of the Pakistani rupee reaching PKR 290
per USD (Pakistan, 2024). The cause of this degradation can be seen through various factors of
which gender inequality seems to be a leading cause. In Pakistan, societal norms play a vital role
in many areas. Women tend to be seen as sexual objects and dependent being restricted to
households and child-rearing responsibilities (Ali, 2022). Female labor participation in Pakistan
is only 20% compared to the average 50% within other countries making it one of lowest in
south asia (Group, Labor force participation rate, female (% of female population ages 15+)
(modeled ILO estimate) - Pakistan, 2025). These severe low stats signify the great restriction
within the economic growth as the potential GDP is being reduced with limited industrial
development that is not only weakening the consumer demand but also reinforcing the gender
pay gap as it has been researched that the gender pay gap in Pakistan is 34%, meaning women
earn 66% of what men are being paid (UN Women Pakistan Strategic Note 2023 - 2027, 2023).
Due to limited investment in business and other economic activities, there is slow economic
progress with a low per capita income. There is also an increased poverty rate since men are the
only standing figure for the source of income in a household. This ultimately leads to an
increased crime rate since men would be forced to commit robbery, pickpocketing, etc, to feed
their families, making the county unsafe. Moving on there are also other factors for the economic
disruption in Pakistan and one of these insignificant issues is the high illiteracy rate. This is one
of the major factors leading to overpopulation because many individuals lack the knowledge for
family planning and reproductive health due to which the population rises with each passing
year. Studies evoke the current population standing at 249.9 million with a projection to increase
by a staggering 10% by 2029 making it 259.8 million (O'Neill, 2024). With this much increase in
population density, there would be a significant toll on resources like water, electricity, housing,
etc, since it would be difficult to accommodate this many youngsters. Moreover, there would be
a high demand for work and unassailable competition in the labor market, which would further
deteriorate the economy.
There are many ways to address these situations Moreover it can be observed different steps and
actions have been taken and planned to solve these issues as by doing so, there is nothing but
benefits. One example can be observed from a research estimate evoking a 30% increase in the
GDP by just closing the gender gap participation in the labor market (Shaikh, 2022). To fully
solve this issue the government should take strict actions and amend laws that hamper women's
participation. For instance, Pakistan’s SHIFT program allows it to address the gaps that hinder
women's participation and facilitates them to enter both formal and informal sectors (Group,
Supporting legal reforms to increase women's workforce participation in Pakistan, 2022).
Furthermore to have better results ensuring quality education for women is crucial as it allows
for groomed and talented students to emerge. It can be seen with the Noor project that how
Pakistan is trying its best to empower women with education and break the long chain of poverty
and illiteracy (Tahir, 2024). Lastly, Gender inequality is not the only issue that needs to be
solved, in contrast, other issues like security are also very vital for an economic spurt. Pakistan
needs to further advance its forces by introducing different strategies allowing for a strict
environment and a change in the crime rate. Pakistan established a crime control department,
which would use modern technological methods like surveillance drones and many more to fully
grasp the situation and allow for much safer zones (Report, 2025).
Personally as a student there are many ways, that I would adopt and contribute for the betterment
of the society. Starting off with the distribution of old books and reading materials to
underprivileged kids, especially girls and women, to allow them to learn as much as possible and
cope up with the modern world. Further more with all the knowledge rooted in me, it would be
better to share it with those who lack it and thus I would set up educational courses mostly face
to face, for those students or women who are eager to learn and contribute to the society. Lastly
not only I would spread awareness around the society, but also set up a fundraiser utilizing to buy
technological devices like smart phones and distributing to those girls and women who are still
refrained to use one with addition lecture on how to use them and socialize.
The research consists of and cooperated with many trusted websites and organizations like the
World Bank, United Nations Program, National Archives, and International Monetary Fund with
other reports and articles from the World Bank and United Nations, in assistance to Pakistan. In
addition, some news websites/articles like the Arab News have made my report more evaluative
and trusted for further research and understanding. However, there were a few websites and
reports that were outdated which hindered the excellence of my research but I made sure to
thoroughly check and add information from the updated ones to further validate my report.
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