The sustainable developments goals (SDGs) were written by the UN in 2015 following the success of the Millennium Development Goals. One such example of an SDG is gender equality. The goal specifies that by 2030, women and girls will be provided with “equal access to education, health care, decent work, and representation in political and economic decision-making processes (which) will fuel sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large” (United Nations Sustainable Development, 2018). This clearly shows the intention of the international community to commit to the provision of equality of opportunity for women across the world. Notably, this includes emerging economies, such as Pakistan. Whilst the unemployment figure in Pakistan has fallen slightly over the last year (2017-2018) from 5.9% to 5.4%, there are disparities in these figures between men and women. The number of women who remain unemployed is markedly higher than the percentage of males, 7.01% compared to 3.19% (TheGlobalEconomy.com, 2018). This shows that there is a clear divide in the opportunities available to women in this region, therefore in societies where there are limitations on the opportunity for women to find work, there is the creation of opportunity for women to thrive in an entrepreneurial environment. The SDG will help to achieve this by providing adequate levels of education in order for women to be able to take adapt to and improve their situation as a consequence of entrepreneurial activities.
In order to improve the quality of life for women in Pakistan, entrepreneurship is playing a pivotal role in increasing the number of women who not only have jobs, but achieve positions within business which give them the confidence and capacity to make decisions that have the ability to improve the job prospects of women and young girls in Pakistan – causing a shift to the stereotypical, traditional roles of men and women within the family, research by the functionalist sociologist Talcott Parson’s dating back to the 1950’s. These roles centre around males occupying the instrumental role, earning money to financially support the family and women occupying the expressive role, helping to support the family emotionally. However, further research from Marxist-feminists such as Fran Ansley suggests that this can take a much darker turn, as women become “the takers of shit” which may contribute the levels of domestic violence and abuse that runs rife through much of Pakistan. A report from the Human Rights Watch (2009) stated that between 20 and 30% of women in Pakistan have experienced some form of domestic abuse, however this figure is potentially much higher than this due to the lack of reporting of such abuse as a result of the threat of an escalation of abuse (Gosselin, 2009).
It has been observed that culture within Pakistan is a considerable factor in restricting women’s ability to hold employment – and thus financial stability without the dependence on a male partner. Article 2 of the UN Charter establishes the principle of state sovereignty, which dictates that the international community can have no influence on the domestic policies of a particular nation. Therefore, the UN cannot enforce regulations based upon their SDG’s. As a consequence of this, the attitudes and policies towards gender equality within Pakistan will fundamentally remain under the control of Pakistan. Further to this, 96.8% of Pakistanis follow the Islamic faith, which is often quoted as being male centric, and thus reinforces the principle that women should take a subordinate role within both society and the private sphere (Pbs.gov.pk, 2018). As a result of this religious doctrine, the international community has neither a legal nor religious basis on which to enforce its progressive SDGs within the region.
Many restrictions on the opportunity for women to engage in entrepreneurial activities have been attributed to religion and social norms and values within society. This includes the religious standard where women are discouraged from going outside and moving freely without the accompaniment of a male chaperone, and the idea that women should only have contact with other women. This is attributed to the “cultural norm of Pardah” (Roomi 2006). The fact that this belief is held so highly means that for many women, access to education and literacy is limited, resulting in 55% of women being illiterate. This can be compared to Zimbabwe, where the literacy rate amongst women is 88.28% (Uis.unesco.org, 2018). It is therefore worth noting that education and literacy rates might not have a direct correlation to employment rates, as unemployment in Zimbabwe currently stands at 11.3%, 6.9% higher than in Pakistan (Zimstat.co.zw, 2017). So, if it is not solely the alarmingly low levels of literacy and basic education amongst women in Pakistan which affects the number of women who have access to decent jobs or careers, could it be said that religious and cultural expectations may in fact have the biggest impact? Traditionally, women in Pakistan have taken the expressive role within the family, staying at home to cook, clean and generally tend to the needs of the extended family. This may be one of the reasons that women are seen as disobedient if they decide that they instead want to start a business or chase a particular career path. So, while women may have ‘jobs’ they generally take up agricultural jobs, often for little or no pay. “moreover, working women in Pakistan are double burdened, due to the household as well as business/job-related activities” (Panhwar, 2004).
“Whilst financing is a challenge for every entrepreneur, women owned businesses encounter more constraints than male owned businesses in accessing finance generally” (Constantinidis et al., 2006). With 55.8% of Pakistani women living below the poverty line (Hdr.undp.org, 2018), it is one thing for a women or girl to have a great business idea or plan, it is another thing turning that plan into a reality. The opportunity cost of financing their businesses may cripple these women into starvation; those already living in poverty are unable to use their money to finance their businesses when this will curtail their ability to put food on the table. This is where we encounter the rise of microlending and microfinance. Microfinance programmes, such as was provided by The World Bank, are “encouraging women and girls in developing economies to pursue enterprise to overcome economic and social barriers by providing them with collateral free loans and simplified application procedures” (Morrison et al., 2007). Microfinance has gained praise from many developing countries – not just Pakistan – for the way it empowers the poorer members of society and gives them a chance to show off their talents through entrepreneurial activities. Human rights minister, Senator Kamran Michael said that “provision of interest-free loans will not only help the deserving and poor youth but will also support small scale entrepreneurs in Pakistan” (Pakistantoday.com.pk, 2018). This aims to help all members of society and to reduce discrimination and promote financial and societal equality between men and women. Microfinance in Pakistan has allowed women particularly to take out small, interest-free loans of around 10,000 rupees, to help establish their businesses. This has helped women to generate an income to support themselves and their families financially in addition to emotionally. However, research carried out by (Mahmood, 2011) showed that although women were accessing these loans to financially back their projects, 81% of women borrowers of The World Bank microfinance programme were not provided with business training. This is often suggested to be a significant factor that has led to many of these small and medium enterprises (SME’s) failing in their early stages.
Learning from this drawback, The Grameen Bank, another microlender, follows a very similar path in regard to offering interest-free loans. However, The Grameen Bank replaced interest-free loans with low interest loans, providing borrowers with more motivation to pay back the loan in its entirety. What sets it apart from The World Bank is that it also offers training for borrowers so that they can thrive within their chosen field and make a difference to not only their lives, but also act as a role model for other would-be entrepreneurs. The Bank’s training and education policy has led to far greater repayment rates than was experienced by the World Bank; with 99.6% of borrowers successfully repaying their loans. Interestingly, 97% of borrowers from The Grameen Bank are female, showing that when granted with financial opportunity to establish their businesses, they are generally very successful; by providing them with loans rather than grants, the borrowers are pushed to be able to transform this into something which will make them money in order to repay, and the incredibly high rate of repayment shows their overwhelming success in achieving this.
The First Women Bank LTD (FWBL) has also pledged to support women in Pakistan. The president of FWBL, Shafqat Sultana said that “FWBL will continue to support businesswomen to remove obstacles that hinder their growth. Pakistan’s sustainable future requires significant participation by women in the economic activities and our aim is to help them flourish” (Pakistantoday.com.pk, 2018). Having witnessed the rapid growth of microlending in Pakistan and the rise of the female entrepreneur, Unilever Pakistan launched a pilot scheme providing entrepreneurial support using a similar microlending strategy to The Grameen Bank; with an emphasis on education training. 50 entrepreneurs from this study benefited from the initiative and “gained training covering fund management, basic sales techniques and record keeping” (Pakistantoday.com.pk, 2018).
In Mahmood’s study of microfinance and female entrepreneurs in Pakistan (2011), he identifies that the majority of the women borrowers felt that they were more empowered within their homes and were given more say in how money was spent, the health of the family and the education of the children. This suggests that even though on a small scale, microfinancing has helped women access the means to start their own businesses and in turn are helping to contribute to the growth of Pakistan’s economy and improves their general quality of life. However, since men still have the majority of control over family and financial matters, they still hold dominance over the household income and use of the loan (Goetz and Gupta, 1996). Within many families, men have encouraged women to take out loans in their name for reasons other than for starting or financially supporting businesses, some in order to pay off existing loans and others purely for consumption and self-indulgence.
With the increased numbers of borrowers from microfinance institutions, more and more women are becoming empowered and may begin to create flourishing businesses, consequently creating job opportunities for many other women in an attempt to give them the same opportunities that their male counterparts have much greater access to. One of the biggest hurdles faced by women in Pakistan, as well as other developing countries where religion tends to play a much larger role, is breaking the societal norms within both the family and society. Because the UN doesn’t have any legal bounds on which it can enforce rules or influence government outside of the agreed SDG’s, it could be suggested that it is solely down to increased education of women rights and sustained effort by the Pakistani government as well as domestic institutions, such as the Grameen Bank and FWBL, to support female entrepreneurs in the country. Until this is widely accepted and encouraged throughout Pakistan, only the most developed and urban areas of the country will see continued, long term change. Subsequently, while work is being done to give women in Pakistan jobs and better career prospects, discrimination against women in the workplace is still endemic and there is a strongly held belief that women in Pakistan will not be equal to men until much later than 2030 suggesting a potential failure to meet the agreed international standards set by the SDG’s. This isn’t only the case in Pakistan and developing countries however, as the glass ceiling and gender pay gap is still an ongoing concern in countries that are deemed to be the ‘most forward thinking’ when it comes to gender equality. Perhaps suggesting a global systematic failure in addressing equality towards women.