Pakistan placed third-to-last in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2026, with a gender parity score of 59.5%, an increase from 56.5% last year. The report evaluates countries across four dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. Pakistan scored lowest among 38 lower-middle-income economies and seven South Asian nations included in the study, although it showed notable improvement since 2006 with a gender gap narrowing by 5.2 percentage points.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-17,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
Pakistan ranked third-to-last in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report for 2026, with a gender parity score of 59.5%, marking a slight improvement from last year but still placing it among the lowest-ranked economies globally. The report evaluates countries across four key dimensions: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. In terms of educational attainment, Pakistan showed significant progress by ranking 130th, with male literacy at 69.14% and female literacy at 48.52%. Despite this improvement in education, the country scored lowest out of 38 lower-middle-income economies and all seven South Asian countries analyzed in the report. Pakistan’s overall gender gap has narrowed by 5.2 percentage points since 2006, but it continues to struggle with economic participation, where only 28.21% of women participate in the labor force compared to 81.46% for men.
Written for “Global Gender Gap Rankings” on 2026-09-17,
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Pakistan ranked third-to-last in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2026, with 59.5 per cent gender parity, up almost 3pc from last year.
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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.
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Pakistan scored the lowest out of the 38 lower-middle-income economies, as well as the seven South Asian countries, included in the report.
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“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.
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“Furthermore, the 2026 edition marks its strongest year-on-year improvement in a decade, driven primarily by substantial gains in educational attainment.”
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Economic participation and opportunity
Pakistan ranked 144th in economic participation and opportunity in 2026, moving up three places from its 147th rank in the same index in 2025.
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The report revealed that 81.46pc of men participated in the labour force, compared to only 28.21pc of women.
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According to the report, an overwhelming 93.87pc of legislators, senior officials and managers in Pakistan’s workforce were men, compared to women making up 6.13pc.
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For the professional and technical workers category, the gap was lower with 30.96pc of the positions being occupied by women.
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The country ranked 115th in wage equality for similar work and 140th in estimated earned income.
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The report also revealed that 4.9pc of firms in Pakistan had a female majority ownership, while only 3.4pc firms had female top managers.
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Educational attainment
Pakistan ranked 130th in educational attainment, marking a substantial gain in the category.
Male literacy rate in the country was reported to be at 69.14pc, while female literacy rate stood at 48.52pc.
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Boys’ enrolment in primary education was at 83.01pc compared to 81.08pc among girls.
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In secondary education, male enrolment stood at 49.99pc, compared to 46.48pc in female enrolment.
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Pakistan ranked first in the world for enrolment in tertiary education, marking high parity, as 10.71pc of women and 11.01pc of men were enrolled.
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Health and survival
The country ranked 127th in the health and survival category.
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Within the category, Pakistan ranked first in sex ratio at birth, showing high parity between male and female births.
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Male healthy life expectancy stood at 57.1pc, compared to 56.69pc for women.
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Pakistan ranked 107th globally in the political empowerment index.
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According to the report, 78.31pc of parliamentarians were men, compared to 21.69pc being women.
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Further, an overwhelming 96.55pc of individuals in ministerial positions were men, compared to only 3.45pc of positions being occupied by women.
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With a female head of state having ruled the country for 4.73 of the last 50 years, Pakistan ranked 39th in this subindex.
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The report also revealed that women in Pakistan didn’t enjoy equal rights regarding inheritance for widows and daughters.
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It added that women had “near-equal rights” when it came to access to financial services, land assets and non-land assets.
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According to the report, women had “restricted rights” when it came to access to justice, while they had “equal rights” for freedom of movement.
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The report also said that women in Pakistan had “unequal rights” for right to divorce.
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It added that 24.9pc of women had experienced gendered violence in their lives, and that women in Pakistan had “restricted rights” regarding their reproductive autonomy.
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