In 2018, Pakistan’s development Roadmap ‘Vision 2025’ targeted increasing female labour force participation to 45 per cent in 2025. However, as we end 2023, Pakistan’s female labour force participation remains at 24pc, with participation in the formal sector lingering at less than 10pc.

Time and again, women leave their jobs and either pursue career options which revolve around the school run or stop working as access to professional childcare facilities is restricted to those who can afford it or receive a subsidy.

Globally, research in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries identifies women lose out on 60pc of their income in the first 10 years after childbirth — calling this the motherhood penalty (Women in Work Index 2023). This leads to other forms of inequality in the workplace — unequal pay and slower career progression.

To address this, the challenge lies in three critical aspects: acknowledging that childcare is a shared responsibility of both parents, offering a range of viable solutions, and ensuring that policies holistically address the families’ needs. Both employers and policymakers require a structural relook at childcare, which needs a collaborative effort.

Employer’s Prerogative

From an employer’s outlook, female attrition impedes their ability to retain skilled workers, especially as there is growing recognition that a diverse workforce is essential for longterm value creation.

Investing in childcare is the employer’s prerogative and must make financial business sense unless an external direction requires

Global good practice recommends implementing three critical strategies for addressing motherhood-related attrition: retention diagnosis, flexible working and childcare policies, and inclusive language in family-friendly policies.

Furthermore, tone-setting is essential to address biases such as the “maternal wall.” The leadership can address the barriers by communicating family-friendly policies that apply to both parents and actively encouraging fathers to avail of them.

Moreover, the pandemic has taught employers that policies can be adapted, resulting in more employers being open to flexible working situations and remote work options. While flexible working hours have proven to be as easy to implement as they are advantageous for parents who need to do the school run, childcare remains tricky.

Managing third parties is complicated for companies, and children are at the top of the list. Options for onsite childcare only make business sense if catering to a large workforce, while offsite reduces employer responsibility but costs more.

Nevertheless, one must recognise that investing in childcare remains the employer’s prerogative and must make financial business sense unless an external direction requires them to do so.

Policymakers’ perspective

As representatives of society, two factors shape the policymakers’ point of view: the safety of children and how childcare weighs in on female labour force participation. As children are at the heart of any intervention, each decision made needs to be viewed considering a child’s needs.

As a result, policymakers bear a significant responsibility to approach childcare holistically, which involves establishing a regulatory framework for employers, facilitating access to childcare for parents, and ensuring its availability.

The policymaker is responsible for ensuring the employer addresses childcare. From this vantage point, one can summarise the steps usually taken at the regulatory level in three routes: recognising childcare as a public good and allocating public funds or providing tax relief to parents, and incentivising employers to invest in childcare through tax breaks or mandating employers to offer childcare support – the carrot and stick approach.

The first model represents the ideal approach but would require a complete rehaul of the system and political goodwill, while the latter two have drawbacks that often end up frustrating parents.

Thus, a bottom-up approach is required to address specific challenges and incorporate parental feedback to guarantee that policy caters to the parents and children. It is essential to recognise that parents face varying circumstances, and their requirements depend on factors such as the age of their children, employment status, commuting distance, and safety concerns in their surroundings.

As policy developers, their role includes undertaking data analysis on how parents manage childcare, which is a starting point for addressing shortcomings. Potential solutions can be investigated by mapping available childcare methods, including lessons from informal options.

Many parents rely on informal options which offer greater flexibility.

As policymakers pursue potential solutions to improve childcare, addressing the biases women encounter necessitates acknowledging that the responsibility for childcare falls on both parents. Here, their role is of the change maker, and stakeholder engagement is crucial for society to recognise the dual income — dual care role. To achieve this, any policies developed must include a communication strategy and maintain open communication channels to ensure progress.

Research by the Asian Development Bank highlights more women in the workforce can boost the economy by 30pc, and this interests both policymakers and employers. However, to see sustainable growth in the numbers requires the recognition of mothers’ struggles in managing their dual roles. Therefore, to ensure women remain in the workforce, solutions must address the underlying causes of the ‘motherhood penalty’.

The writer is the Head of Initiative at the Centre of Excellence in Responsible Business at the Pakistan Business Council

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, December 25th, 2023