Pakistani women face significant barriers that prevent them from entering the labour market such as limited access to education, safe transport, and norms of seclusion. One of the biggest barriers, however, is the time-consuming responsibility of childcare and eldercare which falls on women due to the traditional division of household roles in Pakistan. This care burden significantly impacts women’s participation in the labour market as it limits the time women can devote to paid work. However, past literature has also found that older female dependents may be able to lessen the reproductive burden on women and, by doing so, allow women more time for paid work. Considering these differentiated impact that young and older dependents could have, we sought to analyze the impact of the childcare and eldercare burden on the labour force participation of Pakistani women.

We used the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement 2018-19 dataset and estimated how likely it is that women will be a part of the labor force. Of particular interest to us was how the presence of dependents with the household affected women’s likelihood of participation. Here, we divided dependents by age ranges, for example, children under 6 or elders between the ages of 66 and 70, as we expected that care burdens varied by ages.

One of the biggest barriers, however, is the time-consuming responsibility of childcare and eldercare which falls on women due to the traditional division of household roles in Pakistan.

We found that dependents under 6 had a negative impact on female labour force participation (FLFP) while children between 10 and 13 increased the probability of FLFP. This may be because children under 6 require more vigilant childcare than older children who would be more independent. Furthermore, our model revealed that the presence of elderly dependents had no significant impact on FLFP. We expect that this is due to the opposing effects that the presence of elderly within the household may be exerting on women’s ability to work. While on the one hand, older dependents may well be able to help with childcare thereby freeing up women’s time, they may require caretaking themselves which would reduce women’s propensity to work. In addition, our model found that the presence of older female dependents increased the likelihood of FLFP which suggests that they may take on some of the reproductive burden and allow women to participate in the labor force.

Our research therefore found that women’s decision to work is significantly influenced by the burden of childcare. Policy interventions should then focus on providing women with assistance in care work by developing day care services in the short term and promoting a change in the understanding of the division of household responsibilities in the long term. Development theorists and economists have long since proven that female labour force participation results in a multitude of benefits for the community at large. However, in order for Pakistan to realize the full potential of its female labour force, it is critical that more inclusive polices are implemented.

Eraj is a senior at LUMS studying Economics, Sociology, and Anthropology. She is interested in studying the intersection of gender and economics, and social policy.

Mahnoor is a senior at LUMS doing a Bachelor’s in Economics with a minor in Computer Science. She is particularly interested in understanding how education and labour polices can be made more inclusive and accessible.