Across the globe, the ideal of equal opportunity in the workplace is facing a sobering reality check. Recent reports from both the United States and Pakistan reveal that, despite decades of progress and policy promises, women are still encountering formidable barriers to economic participation and advancement. These obstacles, rooted in structural, cultural, and policy-driven factors, are manifesting in starkly different—yet strikingly similar—ways on opposite sides of the world.
In the United States, a nation that has long celebrated itself as the "land of opportunity," the latest labor statistics are sounding an alarm. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 212,000 women aged 20 and over have left the workforce since January 2025, while 44,000 men have entered it. Numbers like these don’t just whisper—they shout. The exodus of women from the labor force is not just a blip on the economic radar; it’s a sign of deeper, systemic issues that are undermining the very notion of equal opportunity.
The pandemic years had, for a moment, hinted at a new future. With remote work and flexible schedules becoming the norm, many women—especially mothers—were able to remain employed while managing the often invisible labor of caregiving. By January 2025, labor-force participation among women aged 25 to 44 with a child under five had climbed to 69.7%. But this progress proved fragile. By June, that rate had dropped nearly three percentage points to 66.9%, a sharp and troubling reversal.
What’s behind this sudden shift? Much of the blame falls on a rapid rollback of workplace flexibility. Corporate giants like Amazon, JP Morgan, and AT&T have led the charge in mandating a return to the office. The trend is clear: full-time office mandates among Fortune 500 companies jumped from 13% at the end of 2024 to 24% by the second quarter of 2025, according to the Flex Index, which tracks remote work policies. The public sector has followed suit, with President Donald Trump’s January 2025 directive requiring federal employees to be in the office five days a week. For many women, the loss of flexibility has made it nearly impossible to balance work and caregiving responsibilities.
As Julie Vogtman, senior director at the National Women’s Law Center, told Time, “Women still take on the lion’s share of caregiving responsibilities.” Without the option to work remotely or with flexible hours, women are often the first to scale back—or step out—of the workforce entirely. The situation is exacerbated by a crumbling childcare infrastructure. Federal childcare subsidies ended in September 2024, leading many centers to shut down or raise tuition. Meanwhile, immigrant workers, who make up about 20% of childcare providers, have been hit by mass deportations and heightened immigration fears, further reducing availability and driving up costs. The result? For many families, maintaining two incomes is simply out of reach, and it is women who are most often pushed out of paid employment.
The argument that bringing workers back to the office boosts productivity doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. A 2024 study analyzing resumes from companies like Microsoft, SpaceX, and Apple found that return-to-office mandates led to an exodus of senior employees, ultimately weakening these companies’ long-term competitiveness. A survey by Walr, conducted on behalf of Upwork and Workplace Intelligence, revealed that nearly two-thirds of C-suite executives admitted that return-to-office orders resulted in a “disproportionate” number of women resigning. The data paints a clear picture: rigid workplace policies are not only failing to deliver promised productivity gains, they are driving experienced women out of the workforce.
This contradiction is especially glaring given the Trump administration’s stated concerns over declining birth rates and its promotion of marriage and family incentives. Federal jobs, once seen as a haven for working parents due to their flexibility and security, are now forcing women to choose between a paycheck and parenthood. The economic consequences are far-reaching. Fewer dual-income households mean reduced consumer spending, less stable healthcare coverage, and a drag on national growth. BLS data already shows a slowdown in economic momentum in the first half of 2025. Over the long term, sidelining women from the workforce threatens both the country’s competitiveness and its standard of living.
Some women have reframed their departure from traditional employment as a form of liberation—embracing freelancing, entrepreneurship, or spending more time with their children. But for most, this is not a choice; it’s a necessity born of inflexible policies and inadequate support. The brief pandemic-era experiment in workplace empathy and flexibility has been largely abandoned, replaced by a return to rigid, top-down mandates. If America’s promise of opportunity now requires outsourcing childcare, sacrificing flexibility, and conforming to schedules dictated from above, it is no longer universal—it is selective.
Meanwhile, in Pakistan, the situation is equally disheartening, though the challenges take a different shape. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has ranked Pakistan among the worst in South Asia for gender wage disparities. According to the ILO’s latest Global Wage Report, women in Pakistan earn an average of 34% less than men—a gap not only wider than the global average, but also worse than in neighboring countries like India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.
Much of this disparity can be traced to the structure of Pakistan’s labor market. A significant portion of female employment is concentrated in the informal economy—agricultural labor, domestic work, and home-based manufacturing—where protections are minimal and formal contracts are rare. Even within the formal sector, women with similar education and experience as men earn less across industries ranging from healthcare and education to finance and manufacturing. The pay gap only widens at higher professional levels, revealing a pervasive glass ceiling that limits women’s upward mobility.
But the roots of Pakistan’s gender pay gap are not just economic; they are deeply cultural and institutional. Traditional gender norms continue to dictate both the division of labor within households and the kinds of jobs women can pursue. Social expectations around marriage, childcare, and domestic responsibilities often funnel women into part-time or low-flexibility roles. In rural and conservative areas, mobility restrictions and security concerns further limit women’s access to employment. The education system, too, frequently fails to equip women with the skills needed for higher-paying, tech-driven jobs in urban centers.
Institutional biases in hiring, promotion, and performance evaluation persist in both the public and private sectors. While Pakistan has introduced gender-sensitive policies—including maternity leave, anti-harassment laws, and quotas for women in public sector jobs—these measures are often poorly enforced, especially given the prevalence of informal employment. As the ILO report notes, these protections remain largely symbolic for most working women.
Pakistan’s poor standing is reflected in global rankings as well. The World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Gender Gap Report placed Pakistan at 151st out of 156 countries for economic participation and opportunity for women, underscoring the depth of the problem.
Whether in the United States or Pakistan, the message is clear: opportunity is still not equally distributed. The forces that push women out of the workforce or keep them in low-wage, low-security jobs are varied, but the result is the same—societies and economies that fail to reach their full potential. Until policies and cultural norms evolve to truly support women’s participation and advancement, the promise of opportunity will remain, for many, just out of reach.
As the world continues to grapple with the fallout of these entrenched disparities, the numbers serve as a stark reminder that progress is neither inevitable nor irreversible. The challenge now is to ensure that the next chapter is written with all hands on deck—and with opportunity that is truly universal.
