Token seats won't empower women entrepreneurs

According to The Express Tribune, the question of women's representation in Pakistan's business community is regaining attention ahead of the next election cycle across Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The writer, a founding executive member and former president of Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry Karachi South, argues that the debate must move past whether women hold seats and ask whether they influence decisions. Women run businesses of every size across many sectors, yet their presence in top leadership and policy structures is described as limited.

A rule set by the Director General Trade Organisation is cited as an example, requiring half of each women's chamber's executive committee to be corporate members with annual turnover of at least Rs50 million. The writer calls this unrealistic for many such chambers, arguing that a turnover threshold excludes the micro, small and emerging SMEs that make up most women-owned firms. Chambers that cannot meet the condition, the piece says, lose capacity to represent the wide range of women entrepreneurs they were set up to serve.