ISSN: 2265-6294

Women's Economic Participation and Its Impact on the Economy of Pakistan

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Muhammad Kamran Arshad, Sahar Latif Rana, Huma Fatima, Unbreen Arif, Abida Hafeez

Abstract

Women's role in a nation's economic development cannot be neglected. Literature shows the importance of women's role in the country's development. But due to structural changes in the economy from agriculture to industry, the participation of the women labour force shows a decreasing trend in Pakistan's economic development. The aim of present study is to check how much impact women's labour force participation has on the economy of Pakistan. To find out how much impact women's participation has on Pakistan's economy, time series data will be used from 1993 to 2022, and three models will be developed to determine the relationship between these variables. The standard Least Square regression method used to analyze the data. Results show that women's participation in different sectors which is our independent variable, has a significant and positive impact on dependent variable Economy (Gross Domestic Product, Manufacturing Growth Rate, Agriculture Growth Rate, and Services Growth Rate). From this, it is clear that women's participation positively impacts on economic growth. But, there are many factors which negatively affect the participation of the women labour force, like lack of education & training, religion, culture and norms, fertility rate and unemployment. All these factors have a direct relationship with Women's economic participation and an indirect relationship with economic growth and become the cause of reducing women's labour force participation. So the Government should take concrete steps through legislation to increase women's economic participation because they play an essential role in the country's economic growth.

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