Ali Nawaz Rahimoo
Only 52 per cent of adult women in Pakistan own a mobile phone, and women are 49 per cent less likely than men to use mobile internet. Studies further suggest that nearly six in ten women face some form of restriction on internet use, whether due to household controls, social norms, or concerns around safety and reputation. These figures place Pakistan among the countries with the widest gender digital gaps in South Asia. While this divide has received growing attention in recent years, the more critical question is what it means for women’s work and for Pakistan’s economic future.
Digital technologies now underpin almost every aspect of modern life. Education, healthcare, labour markets, banking, and public services are increasingly mediated through online platforms a shift that accelerated sharply after Covid-19. In this context, unequal digital access does not simply reflect existing inequalities; it actively deepens and reproduces them. Women without reliable access to devices or the internet face reduced opportunities to learn new skills, build professional networks, access credit, reach customers, or participate in the formal economy. Recognizing this transformative role, the United Nations declared access to the internet a catalyst for the enjoyment of human rights, including freedom of expression and economic, social, and educational rights. When access is equitable, digital technology can be a powerful enabler of empowerment. The stakes are especially high in the labour market. Pakistan consistently ranks near the bottom of the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index for women’s economic participation and opportunity. Female labour force participation hovers around 22 per cent, compared to over 80 per cent for men, one of the largest gaps in the world. This is not because Pakistani women lack skills or ambition. Rather, decades of research point to structural constraints at multiple levels: heavy unpaid care burdens, restrictions on mobility, lack of safe and affordable transport, and hostile public and workplace environments. Women routinely report close monitoring of their movement outside the home, long hours of housework and caregiving, and harassment while commuting or at work. These factors severely limit not only their ability to work, but often their desire to seek employment outside the home.
In this context, digital technology appears to offer a partial way around long-standing barriers. Improved connectivity can enable remote work, online learning, and access to global freelance markets, reducing the need for daily physical mobility. During Covid-19, this shift occurred at scale, and evidence suggests it has endured. Pakistan has emerged as one of the world’s fastest-growing freelance markets, and women are increasingly part of this ecosystem. Online learning platforms report growing female enrolment, while social media communities connect women to remote employers, mentorship, and peer support.
Importantly, digital opportunities are not confined to educated, urban women. Research from low-income and low-literate communities shows women using basic technologies to run and expand home-based businesses, manage orders through WhatsApp, market products on Facebook, and receive digital payments. Community organizations and donor-supported programmes in Sindh, Punjab, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have prioritized digital upskilling for women home-based workers, demonstrating that motivation and perceived value rather than formal education alone drive adoption.
Donor-supported initiatives have played a significant role in expanding these opportunities. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, World Bank–supported programmes under the Digital KP and youth employment initiatives have trained thousands of women in market-relevant digital skills and supported women-led start-ups. In Punjab, UN Women and development partners have focused on employment-oriented digital skills for young women, linking training to labour market demand. In Sindh, donor-backed programmes have combined digital literacy with mobile health, social protection payments, and support for women-led microenterprises, particularly in rural areas. In Balochistan, where connectivity remains limited, digital initiatives have focused on distance education for girls and telemedicine, often serving as women’s first sustained interaction with digital systems.
Where women do gain access, they use digital platforms in diverse and meaningful ways — to earn income, organise collectively, seek information and justice, explore identity, and even for leisure, a dimension rarely acknowledged in public discourse. Platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, X, and TikTok allow women to navigate social restrictions creatively, carving out autonomy without openly confronting entrenched norms. Research consistently shows that when women recognise the value of digital spaces, they are able to learn and adapt quickly, regardless of income or literacy levels.
Yet digital technology is not a panacea. One of the most significant — and often overlooked — barriers lies in technology design itself. Most women in Pakistan access mobile phones as shared household resources, while applications such as mobile wallets and messaging platforms assume a “one user, one device” model. This creates serious challenges around privacy, safety, and sustained use, particularly for financial services. As a result, digital inclusion programmes can inadvertently exclude the very women they aim to empower.
Moreover, digital inclusion often comes with trade-offs. Field research with low-income women employed in factories, domestic work, and other outside-the-home occupations reveals a strong reluctance to use mobile phones in public spaces. Many women report that phone use outside the home invites suspicion, family conflict, or even violence. In contrast, women engaged in home-based work tend to be far more digitally active. In effect, many women face a stark trade-off between physical mobility and digital mobility, gaining access to one space only by retreating from the other.
The economic implications of this exclusion are profound. According to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2024–25, GDP growth remains modest at around 2.5–2.7 per cent, well below what is needed to generate sufficient employment for a young and growing population. At the same time, Pakistan under utilizes half its potential workforce. Estimates by UNDP and the World Bank suggest that closing the gender gap in labour force participation could raise Pakistan’s GDP by 30 to 60 per cent over the long term. Even incremental gains, particularly in technology-enabled sectors, could significantly expand productivity, household incomes, and the tax base.
Regional comparisons underline the missed opportunity. Female labour force participation stands at around 36 per cent in Bangladesh and over 30 per cent in Sri Lanka, well above Pakistan’s level. Across South Asia, the World Bank estimates that raising women’s participation could increase regional GDP by over 50 per cent. Pakistan’s persistent digital gender gap in mobile ownership, internet use, and digital skills risks leaving the country further behind its peers. Bridging this divide therefore requires action on multiple fronts: affordable connectivity, gender-responsive technology design, safer public and online spaces, and sustained efforts to shift social norms. Research institutions such as the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) have emphasized the need for better gender-disaggregated data linking digital access to employment outcomes, so policies move beyond access towards meaningful economic inclusion.
Digital technology is already reshaping women’s work in Pakistan but unevenly and incompletely. Whether it becomes a force for empowerment or another layer of inequality depends on the choices made today. In an economy struggling to break out of low-growth cycles, enabling women to work, earn, and innovate through digital means is not merely a matter of equity. It is one of Pakistan’s most underused and most urgent growth strategies.
The writer is a social development professional and freelance writer. He can be reached at anrahimoo@gmail.com
