women in decision making

PAKISTAN ranks low on the Gender Gap Index in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, 2023. On women’s political empowerment, it ranked 95th out of 146 countries, with only a handful of women occupying senior, managerial, policy- and decision-making posts. The main factors preventing women from achieving gender parity in politics are a patriarchal system, systemic gender discrimination, socioeconomic disparity, and hidebound cultural norms.

When the 2010 parliament comes to an end on 30 March, 10 of the Labour party’s most high-achieving female MPs and former ministers will be standing down. Some of them began their parliamentary careers in 1987, and together they have clocked up 200 years in parliament.