The Role of Society in Empowering Women
From Permission to Partnership
Women do not need society to “give” them power. They need society to stop creating unnecessary barriers to the power, talent and potential they already possess.
This distinction matters.
For decades, conversations about women’s empowerment have often focused on what women need to change. Women are encouraged to become more confident, more educated, more financially independent and more ambitious. These things are important. But empowerment cannot be placed entirely on women’s shoulders.
A woman can be educated but unable to work because there is no safe transportation. She can be talented but overlooked for leadership because of gender stereotypes. She can be ambitious but expected to carry almost all household responsibilities. She can build a business but struggle to access finance or networks. She can have a professional career but be expected to abandon it after marriage.
The question, therefore, is not simply “How do we empower women?”
It is:
“What must society change so that women can fully use their abilities?”
This is where the responsibility of society begins.
Pakistan’s Gender Gap Is a Social Challenge
The scale of the challenge is visible in Pakistan’s economic statistics. According to World Bank data based on ILO estimates, approximately 24% of Pakistani women aged 15–64 participated in the labour force in 2025, compared with around 80% of men.
This enormous gap cannot be explained by ability.
Pakistan has millions of educated women, professional women, entrepreneurs, doctors, teachers, engineers, lawyers, researchers and skilled workers. Yet a large proportion remain outside paid employment.
The reasons include social expectations, unpaid care responsibilities, mobility restrictions, workplace conditions, lack of childcare, limited access to finance and concerns about safety.
In other words, women’s economic participation is not determined only by what women want to do.
It is also determined by the environment society creates around them.
Empowerment Begins at Home
The first institution a child experiences is the family.
Long before a girl enters a university or workplace, she learns what society expects from her through her home.
If a son is encouraged to speak confidently while a daughter is told to remain quiet, a stereotype is being created.
If a son is expected to become financially independent while a daughter is primarily prepared for marriage, a stereotype is being reinforced.
If boys are taught that household work is “women’s work”, they grow into men who may expect women to carry disproportionate domestic responsibilities.
If girls are told that their education is important only until marriage, society has already placed a limit on their future.
Empowerment therefore begins with something very simple:
Raise daughters with possibilities and sons with responsibility.
Education Is a Social Responsibility
Education is one of the strongest foundations of empowerment.
Pakistan has made progress in educational access, and the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025 gave Pakistan an 85.1% score for educational attainment parity. Yet the country’s overall gender gap remained among the widest in the world, ranking 148th out of 148 economies.
This tells us something important.
Getting girls into classrooms is necessary—but it is not sufficient.
Girls must also be encouraged to study subjects that lead to economic opportunity.
Science, technology, engineering, mathematics, medicine, law, finance, entrepreneurship and other fields should not be presented as naturally more suitable for boys.
A girl’s career ambition should not be treated as a temporary phase before marriage.
Families, teachers and educational institutions all have a role in expanding what girls believe is possible.
The Economic Value of Empowering Women
Women’s empowerment is frequently discussed as a social issue, but it is equally an economic issue.
When women participate in the economy, they contribute to household income, productivity, entrepreneurship and national economic growth.
When women remain outside the workforce because of preventable barriers, the economy loses productive capacity.
The World Bank’s 2025 data shows that the difference between male and female labour-force participation in Pakistan remains extremely large.
This should concern not only women’s rights advocates but also economists, businesses, policymakers and families.
Pakistan cannot afford to underuse the skills of half its population.
Society Must Recognize Unpaid Work
One of the biggest obstacles to women’s empowerment is work that society often does not recognize as “work.”
Cooking.
Cleaning.
Childcare.
Caring for elderly family members.
Managing household responsibilities.
These activities have enormous economic value, yet they are usually unpaid and disproportionately performed by women.
The International Labour Organization estimated that 66.7 million women in Pakistan participate in unpaid care and domestic work.
UN Women data indicates that women and girls aged 10 and above spend approximately 19.9% of their time on unpaid domestic and care work, compared with 1.8% for men.
This imbalance directly affects women’s ability to study, work, start businesses and build careers.
If society wants women to participate equally in the economy, it must also create a more equal distribution of unpaid responsibilities.
Men Are Essential to Women’s Empowerment
Women’s empowerment cannot happen if men are treated as spectators.
Men are fathers, husbands, brothers, employers, teachers, colleagues, policymakers and community leaders.
They influence the opportunities available to women.
A father who encourages his daughter to pursue higher education is empowering her.
A husband who shares childcare is empowering his wife.
A brother who supports his sister’s career is empowering her.
A manager who evaluates a woman on performance rather than stereotypes is empowering her.
A male teacher who tells girls that science and technology are equally theirs is helping reshape the next generation.
Gender equality is therefore not a women’s project.
It is a social project.
The Workplace Must Become More Inclusive
Employers also have a major responsibility.
It is not enough to recruit women if the workplace environment makes it difficult for them to remain and progress.
Companies need to examine the entire employee journey—from recruitment and compensation to promotions and leadership.
Are women being given meaningful assignments?
Are they being considered for senior positions?
Do they have access to mentors?
Are workplaces safe?
Is maternity support adequate?
Can employees manage work and family responsibilities?
Are promotion decisions based on transparent criteria?
These questions matter because women often disappear from the workforce at precisely the stages when they should be progressing into leadership.
Flexible work arrangements, safe transportation, childcare support and family-friendly policies can help remove some of these barriers.
The goal should not be to lower standards for women.
The goal should be to remove barriers that have nothing to do with performance.
Financial Inclusion Creates Opportunity
Economic empowerment also requires access to money.
A woman may have an excellent business idea but no capital.
She may have skills but no bank account.
She may generate income but have no savings in her own name.
She may operate a business but lack access to formal credit.
Financial inclusion can therefore become a foundation of empowerment.
Organizations such as Kashf Foundation, founded by Roshaneh Zafar, have demonstrated how financial services and entrepreneurship support can be used to increase women’s economic participation.
The broader lesson is that women should not only be encouraged to earn.
They should be encouraged and enabled to save, own, invest and make financial decisions.
Society Must Rethink Leadership
Another major stereotype concerns leadership.
Leadership is often unconsciously associated with qualities traditionally coded as masculine: assertiveness, authority, competitiveness and decisiveness.
When a man demonstrates these qualities, he may be considered confident.
When a woman demonstrates the same qualities, she may be described as aggressive or difficult.
This double standard can limit women’s progression into leadership.
Pakistan already has women who have challenged these assumptions.
Asma Jahangir became a major legal and human rights leader.
Dr. Sania Nishtar developed influence in national and international policy.
Jehan Ara became a prominent voice in Pakistan’s technology ecosystem.
Seema Aziz built a successful business and a major education initiative.
Roshaneh Zafar developed a major institution focused on women’s financial inclusion.
Lieutenant General Nigar Johar reached one of the highest ranks in Pakistan’s military.
Their stories demonstrate that leadership ability is not determined by gender.
Representation Matters
When girls see women in positions of authority, their perception of what is possible changes.
Representation matters in parliament, boardrooms, universities, hospitals, courts, technology companies, media organizations and public institutions.
According to World Bank data sourced from the Inter-Parliamentary Union, women occupied approximately 17% of seats in Pakistan’s national parliament in 2025.
The figure illustrates how much room remains for greater representation.
Women do not need to be present simply to satisfy a numerical target.
They need to be present because decisions affect women as citizens, workers, mothers, entrepreneurs and members of society.
Diverse institutions are better positioned to understand diverse populations.
Safety Is a Prerequisite for Freedom
A society cannot meaningfully empower women while women remain afraid of harassment, violence or unsafe public spaces.
Safety affects whether women can travel to work, attend university, work late, operate businesses, use public transportation or participate in public life.
UN Women data records that 13.1% of ever-partnered Pakistani women aged 15–49 experienced physical and/or sexual violence by a current or former intimate partner during the previous 12 months, based on the latest available data.
Addressing violence against women therefore cannot be separated from empowerment.
A woman cannot exercise meaningful economic or social freedom if she must constantly calculate whether exercising that freedom will place her at risk.
Media Has Power
Media and popular culture also shape social expectations.
When women are repeatedly portrayed primarily through beauty, marriage, sacrifice or domestic roles, those images reinforce limited definitions of womanhood.
When media presents women as scientists, entrepreneurs, engineers, farmers, athletes, policymakers, artists, soldiers and business leaders, it expands the public imagination.
This is why representation in media matters.
The stories society tells about women influence the stories girls tell themselves about their own futures.
From Permission to Partnership
Perhaps the most important cultural shift is moving from permission to partnership.
A woman should not have to ask whether she is “allowed” to pursue education, work or entrepreneurship.
Families should ask how they can support her.
Employers should ask how they can create fair opportunities.
Governments should ask how policies can remove structural barriers.
Communities should ask how women can participate more safely and fully.
Men should ask how they can become partners rather than gatekeepers.
This shift changes the entire conversation.
Empowerment Is Not About Making Women More Like Men
Women’s empowerment does not mean asking women to abandon family, culture or personal choices.
A woman may want to build a multinational company.
Another may want to become a teacher.
Another may want to run a home-based business.
Another may choose full-time motherhood.
Another may want to combine motherhood with a professional career.
Empowerment means that these choices belong to women themselves.
The objective is not to create one definition of the “successful woman.”
It is to create a society where women have the freedom and resources to define success for themselves.
The Responsibility of Society
Society is not an abstract concept.
Society is parents.
It is teachers.
It is husbands and wives.
It is employers.
It is policymakers.
It is religious and community leaders.
It is universities.
It is media.
It is friends and colleagues.
Every one of these institutions influences what women are permitted, encouraged or discouraged from becoming.
That means every one of them can also become part of the solution.
Empowerment happens when a father treats his daughter’s education as an investment rather than an expense.
It happens when a husband shares domestic responsibilities without describing it as “helping.”
It happens when an employer promotes a woman because she is the best candidate.
It happens when a school encourages girls to study technology.
It happens when a community makes public spaces safer.
It happens when a woman is judged by her ability rather than her gender.
HerPlanet Perspective
The future of Pakistani women will not be determined by women alone.
It will be determined by the environment society creates around them.
We cannot tell women to be economically independent while expecting them to perform almost all unpaid care work.
We cannot encourage women to lead while punishing them socially for being ambitious.
We cannot celebrate girls’ education while expecting them to abandon their professional aspirations after marriage.
We cannot ask women to become entrepreneurs while denying them access to finance, networks and mobility.
Empowerment requires an ecosystem.
The responsibility is collective.
Pakistan does not need society to rescue women.
It needs society to remove the barriers that prevent women from using their own capabilities.
The ultimate measure of an empowered society will not be how loudly it talks about empowering women.
It will be whether a Pakistani girl can grow up knowing that her gender does not determine the size of her dreams.
And whether, when she grows up, society stands beside her—not in front of her.
Because empowerment is not permission.
It is partnership.
