Pakistan's Female Employment Crisis: How Simple Changes in Job Ads Could Open New Opportunities

A World Bank study reveals that transparent job advertisements highlighting female supervisors, remote work and transportation support can help attract more women to employment opportunities in Pakistan. The findings suggest that addressing workplace barriers and improving recruitment transparency could boost women's workforce participation, although long-term hiring benefits remain uncertain.

Women in Pakistan face significant barriers to employment, but a new World Bank study suggests that simple changes in job advertisements could help improve their access to opportunities. The research, titled Job Characteristics That Matter for Women: Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment in Pakistan, was conducted by researchers associated with the World Bank's Education and Skills Global Department and Florida International University, with financial support from the World Bank South Asia Gender Innovation Lab. Authored by Norihiko Matsuda, Tazeen Fasih, Shinsaku Nomura and Emcet Oktay Tas, the October 2026 study reveals that information about supervisors, remote working arrangements and transportation assistance can significantly influence women's employment decisions.

Pakistan continues to struggle with low female workforce participation, with only 28 percent of women participating in the labour force in 2024–25. Household responsibilities, restrictive social expectations, transportation difficulties and concerns about workplace environments discourage many women from seeking employment. Researchers argue that these challenges become more serious when recruitment advertisements fail to provide information about working conditions, leaving women uncertain about whether available jobs suit their needs.

Hidden Workplace Conditions Keep Women Away from Jobs

To understand these challenges, researchers conducted a large-scale experiment on Rozee.pk, one of Pakistan's largest online recruitment platforms, between September 2021 and March 2022. The experiment involved more than 8,000 employers and examined how women responded when job advertisements disclosed workplace characteristics normally missing from recruitment information.

The study focused on five characteristics: supervisor gender, the proportion of female coworkers, flexible working arrangements, commuting assistance and overnight travel requirements. Employers were randomly assigned to groups whose advertisements either displayed or withheld this information. Researchers also modified email job alerts to examine which workplace conditions influenced women's interest.

The findings revealed that supervisor gender significantly affects employment decisions. When advertisements disclosed that a supervisor was male, women's likelihood of clicking the advertisement declined by 0.179 percentage points, equivalent to a 23 percent reduction relative to the baseline. Conversely, identifying a female supervisor increased clicking probability by 0.202 percentage points.

These findings suggest that workplace gender dynamics and social expectations influence women's willingness to explore employment opportunities. Female supervisors may make certain workplaces appear more comfortable or acceptable, although the study does not directly establish the reasons behind these preferences.

Remote Work and Safe Transport Open New Employment Opportunities

Remote working arrangements emerged as an important factor influencing women's job searches. When advertisements highlighted remote work availability, women's probability of clicking increased by 0.222 percentage points.

Researchers suggest that remote employment can help women overcome transportation difficulties, household responsibilities and restrictions on mobility. However, younger and unmarried women responded more positively to remote work than older and married women, potentially reflecting differences in technological readiness and access to suitable home working spaces.

Transportation assistance produced particularly strong responses. Advertisements mentioning employer-provided pick-and-drop services increased women's probability of clicking by 0.432 percentage points, while information about transport allowances raised it by 0.305 percentage points.

These results highlight how commuting costs, transportation availability and mobility concerns influence employment decisions. Employers offering transportation support may therefore attract more female candidates by clearly advertising these benefits.

Why Women Have Different Expectations from Their Workplaces

The study found that not every workplace benefit increased women's interest in employment. Information about flexible working hours did not significantly improve clicking rates, challenging the assumption that flexible schedules are always attractive.

Researchers suggest that some women may associate flexible hours with unpredictable shifts, irregular schedules or longer working days. Married women managing childcare and household responsibilities may particularly prefer fixed schedules that allow them to organize daily activities.

Information about overnight travel requirements and the overall proportion of female coworkers also produced no statistically significant effects across the full sample.

However, important differences emerged between demographic groups. Married women were more sensitive to workplace gender composition, while younger women showed stronger responses to information about supervisors and female coworkers.

These findings demonstrate that women's employment preferences are shaped by different combinations of family responsibilities, social expectations, age and workplace experience.

A Low-Cost Solution to Pakistan's Female Employment Challenge

Beyond individual job searches, the experiment revealed that workplace transparency can influence recruitment outcomes. Jobs offering more favourable working conditions attracted greater numbers and shares of female applicants when those characteristics were disclosed.

Conversely, revealing less favourable workplace conditions could discourage women from applying. This suggests that transparent advertisements help jobseekers identify opportunities that better match their circumstances.

Researchers also found that disclosure improved women's progression through certain recruitment stages in more female-friendly workplaces. However, evidence concerning actual hiring, salaries and employer satisfaction remained inconclusive.

The study suggests that governments, employers and digital recruitment platforms could introduce standardized information about supervisors, transportation benefits, remote working opportunities and workplace conditions at relatively low cost.

Nevertheless, researchers caution that the findings primarily reflect educated users of an online recruitment platform and may not represent women seeking informal or lower-skilled employment.

Ultimately, the research highlights that improving women's employment opportunities requires more than creating vacancies or expanding education. Making workplace conditions transparent, addressing commuting barriers and providing suitable working arrangements could help Pakistan build a more inclusive labour market while allowing women to make better-informed career decisions.