More women voting

Pakistan's democratic landscape is in the middle of a quiet revolution, as millions of women have been showing up at the ballot box for the first time in recent elections. In just one cycle, the Election Commission says, the gender gap on the nation's electoral rolls has narrowed from 11.8% in 2018 to 7.1% in 2025 — a change driven by women's registration rates outpacing men's by a considerable margin. The outcome is the result of broader efforts by successive governments to increase women's public participation and access to basic rights, starting with targeted national identity card campaigns that have literally given legal recognition for the first time to many women in conservative areas.

For a country where women constitute 49% of the population, each percentage point closed is a move toward a more legitimate and representative democracy. However, before dropping everything to celebrate the rise in female participation, we must also recognise waning enthusiasm in the electoral process, with a significant drop in both women's turnout and overall voter turnout.

In fact, turnout has been steadily declining since hitting a record high of 55% in 2013, with the estimate for 2024 at around 48%, while women's turnout was down by 9% in just one election cycle. This disconnect reflects how, even when given access to the right tools, societal pressure denies women the right to choose their public representatives.

Moving forward, it is essential that the Election Commission continue working on its Gender and Social Inclusion Framework and other voter registration and mobilisation initiatives. Political parties also need to do more to turn out the vote, and to treat women as independent voters, rather than extensions of their fathers and husbands. The shrinking registration gap proves change is possible. The goal is now to ensure that by the time the next general elections roll around, men and women alike are able to vote in large numbers with no social hurdles to hold them back.