Employer Bias, Not Women's Choice, Drives Gender Gap in Pakistan's Urban Jobs

In a revealing new study from the World Bank’s South Asia Gender Innovation Lab, the Center for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP), and Duke University, researchers expose the hidden barriers that keep women out of the workforce in urban Pakistan. Drawing on a unique mix of representative survey data, administrative records, and experimental methods, the study shows that firm-side constraints, particularly explicit gender restrictions in job advertisements, are the largest hurdle for women seeking employment. Using the Job Talash platform, a job-matching service developed to observe real-time hiring decisions in Lahore, the study provides detailed evidence that women are frequently shut out of the labor market not because of a lack of interest, but because employers systematically exclude them from opportunities.

A Platform That Tracks Every Step

The Job Talash platform operates differently from traditional job boards. Instead of letting job seekers browse listings, it sends SMS alerts only when a user meets four criteria: occupation preference, education, experience, and employer-specified gender. This design allowed researchers to pinpoint precisely where women were being blocked in the hiring process. The results were stark: women were 53 percent less likely than men to satisfy the gender criteria for job listings, even when they met all other qualifications. When matched to jobs, women applied more often than men, an important finding that debunks long-standing stereotypes that women in Pakistan are less motivated to work. For women with low education levels, employer restrictions were so severe that removing gender requirements would more than double the number of opportunities available to them.

Employers’ Biases Run Deep

To determine whether these restrictions were based on assumptions about female applicants’ qualifications, researchers conducted an incentivized resume experiment. Employers were presented with pairs of identical CVs that differed only by gender. Female-named CVs were 12 percentage points less likely to be selected than male ones. This is clear evidence of bias that persisted even when applicants’ education and experience were held constant. Yet, there was an important caveat: firms that had previously hired women showed no such discrimination; in fact, some even preferred female candidates. This pattern suggests that exposure to female employees may reduce implicit bias, highlighting the potential for structural change within firms.

Education Narrows the Gap, but Not Fully

While the gender gap was widest for women with less than a secondary education, the picture improved as education levels increased. Among women with tertiary education, the likelihood of meeting employer criteria nearly equaled that of men. However, even in these cases, women were often funneled toward lower-paying jobs. At all education levels, women were consistently matched to vacancies with lower advertised salaries than men. This suggests that although the quantity of job opportunities improves with education, the quality, especially in terms of salary, remains unequal. Moreover, tertiary-educated women appeared to be more selective in their applications, possibly due to the poor quality of options available or existing employment, reinforcing the idea that the labor market does not reward their qualifications equitably.

Women Are Ready, but Firms Aren’t

Contrary to popular belief, many women in Lahore want to work. Survey data shows that about a quarter of women who are not employed report being willing to take a job if a suitable one were available. Women who did register with the Job Talash platform were often better educated and less likely to be working than their male counterparts, pointing to an untapped pool of potential workers. The data also revealed that women who applied for jobs tended to have higher educational qualifications than the men who applied, though men had more work experience. This imbalance stems from historical exclusion: women are locked out of entry-level positions that would help build their experience. In effect, the labor market sets up a self-fulfilling cycle of exclusion.

Rethinking Labor Policy for Real Impact

The study’s findings call for a major shift in labor policy and development strategy. While supply-side interventions, such as vocational training, safe transport, or microfinance, have long been emphasized, the research shows that such measures may have limited impact if the demand side remains unchanged. Policies should instead target employer behavior. This could include banning gender-based job restrictions, providing incentives for inclusive hiring, and supporting firms in making modest infrastructural changes like installing women’s restrooms or creating safe workspaces. Importantly, the study also finds that job types matter: "blue collar" roles that involve physical labor or long hours are more likely to be closed to women. Thus, structural changes in the types of jobs being created and the industries targeted for investment could have a significant impact on gender inclusion.

The research makes a compelling case that Pakistan’s low female employment rate is not simply a story of cultural norms or household pressures. Rather, it is a market failure rooted in discriminatory hiring practices. By shining a light on how employers filter women out of the job pool before they even apply, the study forces a rethinking of what true labor market inclusion entails. To genuinely close the gender gap, efforts must go beyond encouraging women to work; they must ensure that jobs are open to them. Only then can South Asia’s economies begin to fully tap into the productivity and potential of half their population.