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10.3.2 Women on the labour market
Women’s participation in economic activities continues to be very low. Many factors bear down upon women’s quest for economic productivity, including restrictions to mobility, reproductive responsibilities, limited economic opportunities, and
open or covert preference for males on the labour market. Although the overall labour force participation of 67 percent in Afghanistan is high compared to the region of South
Asia and the world at large, the gender gap in Afghanistan remains huge, given that only 47 percent of the working
age females are currently active on the labour market Section 4.2. This is only little over half 54 percent of
the 86 percent labour force participation rate of males see Table 10.4. The gender ratio is larger in the rural
and Kuchi populations respectively, 61 and 70 percent, due to female engagement in agricultural and pastoral
activities. In urban areas, the gender ratio is as small as 24 percent because of the very low female labour force
participation of only 21 percent.
The gender pattern for the employment-to-population ratio is almost exactly the same as for the labour force participation rate, reflecting large differences between women and men. However, in terms of unemployment the gender gap is
very small. Nationally, unemployment for women and men is around 7 percent, but that of urban women 18 percent is twice as high as male urban unemployment. This may indicate a strong desire for women to work on one hand and
restrictions to women’s access to the labour market on the other. Education, which is supposed to open the gate for women’s active involvement in the labour market, does not seem to help, as data show a significantly higher percentage
of educated women than educated men who are unemployed 18 and 8 percent, respectively. Greater incidence of female unemployment was also consistently noted among youth under age 25 15 percent for females and 10 percent
for males and among literates 16 percent for females and 7 percent for males. Apparently, the Afghan labour market provides difficult access to new entrants and educated women, implying a serious wastage of human resources.
Given the under-representation of women on the labour market, most industries are predictably dominated ranging from 74 to 99 percent by males. The only sector with large female representation 44 percent is agriculture and livestock,
while manufacturing has overall a 70 percent majority of women in largely home-based crafts industries among Kuchis even as high as 95 percent. This pattern does not hold true for urban areas where there is almost gender parity in
education and manufacturing sectors 49 and 48 percent women, respectively and more women than men are engaged in the agriculture and livestock industry.
The share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector MDG-3.2 is only 8 percent, indicating a serious disadvantage in securing paid jobs. Overall, 95 percent of working women work as own-account or family workers MDG-
1.7, against 67 percent of men. Thus, employed women have a 41 percent greater likelihood of being in vulnerable employment, characterised by informal work arrangements, insecure jobs, low productivity, and unstable and inadequate
earnings. As employed women also work fewer hours than men, Afghan women face a cumulative disadvantage on the labour market: fewer work, for less hours and in less secure jobs.
There are around two million working children in the age group 6 to 17 Section 4.4. The working incidence for girls is consistently lower at around 60 percent of that of boys, except for urban areas where it is even lower and the gap is
increasing with age. Overall, at least 13 percent of children in age 6-17 are specifically involved in child labor, which is internationally considered to be unfavorable for their health and development. This corresponds to around 1.2 million
children, of which close to 800 thousand are boys and 400 thousand are girls. Around 73 percent of girls work inside the dwelling compared to 25 percent of boys. The corresponding figure for work on the land is 18 percent for girls and
47 percent for boys. Confinement to home-based work is even higher among urban girls at 90 percent of the total. The adverse impacts of work to the children’s educational development, appears to be more serious for boys than girls.
Labour migration is almost an exclusively male phenomenon representing 94 percent of all in-migrants Section 4.5, confirming that economic opportunities are not a primary motivating factor for internal migration of females.
Measurement of the gender gap
In order to indicate gender inequality consistently throughout this section, the gender gap is calculated as the ratio between a female
development indicator and the corresponding male indicator multiplied by 100. A result of 100 would indicate perfect equality; a
figure of less than 100 would indicate that women’s or girls’ score on the development indicator is less than the corresponding boys’
or men’s indicator, expressed as a percentage of the latter.
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10.3.3 Educational disparities
NAPWA specifically calls for 50 percent increase in girls’ enrolment at all levels, a minimum of 70 percent girls’ net enrollment in primary schools, 50 percent female net enrolment in universities, and 50 percent reduction in female
literacy, among others. Data from NRVA 20078 reveal that the realization of the above targets continues to be a remote possibility. However, there are data that show some advancement on female education, especially on the MDG indicators
2.1 and 2.3, and former indicator 10.
Under MDG indicator 2.1 – net enrolment ratio in primary education – Afghanistan attained 42 percent enrolment of girls, which represents a 5 percentage point increase from 2005 Section 7.3. Overall, girls’ enrolment ratio is at 70 percent
of the corresponding ratio of boys see Table 10.4, but for urban areas more equity is achieved since the gender ratio there is 88 percent. It is especially to be noticed that net primary enrolment of urban girls has risen to 68 percent, very
close to the NAPWA target of 70 percent.
Overall female literacy is extremely low: only 12 percent of the female population 15 years and older are able to read and write, compared to 39 percent of males Section 7.2. For the literacy rate of the 15-24 year olds MDG indicator 2.3,
an increase of 4 percentage points up from 2005 to 24 percent in 20078 was noted. The female literacy rate of this age group hovers at a low 45 percent of the male figure former MDG indicator 10 on the ratio of literate women to men in the
age group 15-24, even though this represents a 7 percentage point improvement from the 2005 figure. The consistent acceleration of literacy rates for the youngest age groups, especially for girls, has been remarkable, indicating that the
inter-generational spread of illiteracy may be gradually grinding to a halt. The steady narrowing of the literacy gender gap in recent years has been so significant that in no living generation the difference has been so small. For the five-year
age group around age 12, the absolute difference between girls’ and boys’ literacy rates is only 20 percentage points, down from 29 for the age group around age 19. The ratio of female to male literacy in this group is 63 percent, up from
45 percent in the 19 years age group.
Nevertheless, under MDG indicator 3.1 the ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education, the ratios of 69, 49 and 28 percent, respectively, indicate large inequalities in access to education. Moreover, providing
remedial education for the 9.5 million illiterate adults, 5.5 million 58 percent of whom are women, remains a formidable task. Likewise, constraints to female education persist, most notable of which are financial inadequacy, remoteness of
schools, and denial of consent by the family, which may be an indication of the low value attached to female education.
There are also serious disparities on the literacy status of women and girls between urban, rural and Kuchi populations. While urban women seem to be gaining grounds, the improvement in rural areas is more modest and for Kuchi women
very small. This requires special attention because the great majority of population lives in the rural areas. It is possible that the increased literacy levels in the urban areas are precipitated by the uneven distribution of opportunities and resources
throughout the country, causing the migration of educated people from rural areas and depleting rural communities of human resources that are needed for their own development. Rural spread of economic programs and basic services
need to be considered. The infrastructure component of education requires serious acceleration.
10.3.4 Health conditions
Although mortality information is seriously outdated, Afghanistan may be one of the very few countries in the world where women have a lower life expectancy than men UNFPA 2008. Reproductive health complications stand as a leading cause
of women’s mortality, which is compounded by poor general health conditions such as those related to nutrition Section 6.4, access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation Section 9.3.1, and grossly inadequate presence, access and quality
of health care services Section 8.2. In addition, early pregnancies, narrowly spaced births and high fertility will exacerbate maternal mortality. Key strategies to reduce Afghanistan’s maternal mortality ratio are access to contraception to avoid
unintended pregnancies, access to skilled care at the time of birth and timely access to quality emergency obstetric care.
The overall contraceptive prevalence rate in Afghanistan MDG-5.3 was found to be 23 percent, but the proportion of currently married women using at least one method of modern family planning is significantly lower: only 15 percent of
currently married women reported using at least one modern contraceptive. Large differences are observed between the urban, rural and Kuchi populations, by educational attainment differentials and age. For instance, urban women
and women with at least primary levels of education had around twice the rate of effective protection against unwanted pregnancies than the women overall.
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