{
  "id": 8047992,
  "title": "Pakistan ranked among bottom three in WEF's Global Gender Gap Report 2026",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/17/pakistan-ranked-among-bottom-three-in-wefs-global-gender-gap-report-8047992",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-17T14:54:47.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dawn - Pakistan",
    "slug": "dawn-pakistan",
    "url": "https://www.dawn.com/news/2030632/pakistan-ranked-among-bottom-three-in-wefs-global-gender-gap-report-2026"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Pakistan has been ranked third-to-last in the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report 2026, with only 59.5% gender parity. This represents a nearly 3% increase from the previous year's report. The annual report assessed gender parity across four key areas: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. Pakistan scored the lowest out of the 38 lower-middle-income economies and seven South Asian countries included in the report.\n\nOver the past two decades, Pakistan has narrowed its gender gap by 5.2 percentage points, reaching 54.3% in 2006. The 2026 report marks the sharpest annual improvement in a decade, largely driven by significant gains in educational attainment. In economic participation and opportunity, Pakistan ranked 144th, an improvement of three places from 2025. Only 28.21% of women participated in the labor force, compared to 81.46% of men. In wage equality for similar work and estimated earned income, Pakistan ranked 140th and 144th, respectively. Female ownership of firms was at 4.9%, while female top management positions were at 3.4%.\n\nPakistan's educational attainment ranked 130th in the report. While boys had a literacy rate of 69.14%, girls' literacy rate was 48.52%. Enrollment in primary education was higher for boys (83.01%) than for girls (81.08%). In secondary education, boys' enrollment was 49.99%, compared to 46.48% for girls. Pakistan ranked first globally for tertiary education enrollment, with 10.71% of women and 11.01% of men enrolled.\n\nHealth and survival ranked Pakistan 127th in the report. The country achieved the highest parity in sex ratio at birth, with male and female births being nearly equally represented. Male healthy life expectancy was 57.1%, compared to 56.69% for women. Pakistan ranked 107th globally in political empowerment, with 78.31% of parliamentarians being men and 21.69% being women. In ministerial positions, 96.55% were held by men and only 3.45% by women. With a female head of state ruling for 4.73 of the last 50 years, Pakistan ranks 39th in this subindex.",
  "summary": "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 . 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. Pakistan scored…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Dawn",
        "title": "Pakistan ranked among bottom three in WEF's Global Gender Gap Report 2026",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/17/pakistan-ranked-among-bottom-three-in-wefs-global-gender-gap-report",
        "published": "2026-09-17T14:54:47.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}