{"id":16909,"date":"2026-02-11T12:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2026\/02\/11\/breaking-barriers-women-leadership-pakistan\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T12:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:54:12","slug":"breaking-barriers-women-leadership-pakistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/2026\/02\/11\/breaking-barriers-women-leadership-pakistan\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking Barriers for Women Leadership in Pakistan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new PILDAT report released ahead of National Women\u2019s Day highlights persistent obstacles to women leadership across Pakistan&#8217;s public sector despite constitutional guarantees and workplace protection laws. Titled <em>Women in Public Service in Pakistan: Barriers and Recommendations<\/em>, the study, prepared with support from Interloop Limited, examines the structural and institutional factors shaping leadership outcomes for women in politics, the civil service, law, media and civil society.<\/p>\n<p>The report launch and dialogue in Lahore gathered women leaders from multiple sectors to discuss how informal power structures, weak accountability, and inconsistent enforcement of existing laws continue to limit women\u2019s meaningful participation in decision making. Mr. Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, President of PILDAT and Provincial Ombudsman for Protection against Harassment, and Nabila Hakim Ali Khan were among those who joined the session to reflect on practical reforms.<\/p>\n<p>Data presented in the report show a clear gap between numbers and influence: women make up about <strong>22%<\/strong> of National Assembly members but chair fewer than <strong>10%<\/strong> of Standing Committees, and only <strong>1<\/strong> of <strong>31<\/strong> federal ministers is a woman. In the federal civil service women account for just <strong>5.1%<\/strong> of the workforce, with over <strong>75%<\/strong> of those positions below BS-17. Women represent only <strong>3.2%<\/strong> of the police force nationwide, and while roughly <strong>18%<\/strong> of judges and judicial officers are women overall, only <strong>5.5%<\/strong> serve as judges in superior courts.<\/p>\n<p>Survey findings in the report reveal mixed progress: <strong>85%<\/strong> of respondents saw increased representation of women in their fields over the past decade, yet only <strong>35%<\/strong> felt women\u2019s voices are adequately present in decision-making spaces and just <strong>19%<\/strong> believed women hold positions of genuine authority. Nearly four in five respondents said they had personally experienced or witnessed barriers that limited women\u2019s advancement, indicating systemic challenges even for those who reach senior roles.<\/p>\n<p>Respondents identified overlapping barriers to women leadership, with socio-cultural norms cited as a strong barrier by <strong>40%<\/strong> and work-life balance pressures by <strong>43%<\/strong>. Institutional gatekeeping and exclusionary informal networks, unsafe or hostile workplaces, and weak enforcement of gender equality and anti-harassment policies were also highlighted as serious constraints.<\/p>\n<p>The report points to practical enablers that can strengthen women leadership, with flexible work arrangements and childcare support seen as effective by <strong>44%<\/strong>, training and capacity building by <strong>41%<\/strong>, and mentorship and leadership programming by <strong>40%<\/strong>. When asked about urgent priorities, <strong>49%<\/strong> called for stronger enforcement of existing laws and policies and <strong>47%<\/strong> stressed the need for safer, more inclusive work environments.<\/p>\n<p>PILDAT urges cross-sector reforms to translate formal gains into real authority for women, recommending focused enforcement, workplace reforms, and targeted leadership development so women can exercise genuine influence across Pakistan&#8217;s public institutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PILDAT report urges reforms to strengthen women leadership in public service with enforcement, flexible work, childcare and mentorship measures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}