By: Riaz Haq
FREMONT, CA, US: This is with reference to Tazeen Javed’s article “Gender-neutral Pakistan, a distant dream” (August 8). Achieving a gender-neutral society is an ideal that no nation has achieved yet, though some nations are further along this road than others. Data shows that right now, Pakistan is in the midst of a silent revolution as far as the role of women in society is concerned.
About 22 per cent of Pakistani females over the age of 10 now work, up from 14 per cent a decade ago, according to government statistics. Women now make up 4.6 per cent of board members of Pakistani companies, a tad lower than the 4.7 per cent average in emerging Asia but higher than the percentage achieved by South Korea (one per cent), India (4.1 per cent), Indonesia (4.1 per cent) and Malaysia (4.2 per cent), according to a February 2011 report on women in the boardrooms.
