Pakistan has been ranked at the bottom — 148th out of 148 countries — in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2025. The annual report evaluates gender parity across four key dimensions: economic participation, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment.

This year, Pakistan’s overall gender parity score declined for the second consecutive year, dropping from 57% in 2024 to 56.7% in 2025.

While there was a modest improvement in the education sector, the gain was marginal—educational attainment improved by 1.5 percentage points to 85.1%, largely due to a slight increase in female literacy, which rose from 46.5% to 48.5%. The report also noted that the progress at the university level was partly the result of declining male enrollment rather than a significant rise in female participation.

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However, the situation worsened in other critical areas. Economic participation and opportunity fell by 1.3 percentage points due to widening income and wage gaps. A 4-percentage-point increase in perceived wage inequality and continued underrepresentation of women in leadership positions highlighted this trend. According to the World Bank, women account for only 22.8% of the labor force in Pakistan.

Political empowerment also declined, with the score decreasing from 12.2% in 2024 to 11% in 2025. Despite a slight increase in the number of women in parliament, their representation in ministerial positions dropped to zero from 5.9% last year.

Since 2006, Pakistan has closed just 2.3% of its overall gender gap. The 2025 results represent a continued decline from the country’s best score of 57.7% achieved in 2023.