Shifting Gender Roles in Society and the Workplace: Implications for Environmental Sustainability

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG-5) focuses primarily on the need to provide women and girls with equal opportunities in all spheres of society, such as education, technology, and work. The research looked at the impact of women's empowerment on Pakistan's environmental sustainability agenda from 1975 to 2022, using a market-based methodology. The findings demonstrate that increasing the number of women in the labour force positively impacts the environment by decreasing carbon emissions. Despite improvements in women's rights and literacy rates, as well as technical and economic progress, the country is producing more carbon dioxide because of its economic and industrial conditions that cannot reduce its adverse effects on the environment. The Granger causality estimates verified that economic development caused female labour market outcomes and female autonomy. In contrast, the bidirectional causality estimates proved that female autonomy caused technical progress and vice versa. The research concludes that even though the technology industry continues to expand astoundingly, women are still disproportionately underrepresented. This is a severe issue because women make up more than half of the population yet still account for less than one-quarter of tech jobs. Women's shifting roles in society and the workplace demand more attention. Several causes, including shifts in economic focus from manufacturing to services and shifting cultural norms about women's moral responsibilities, have all played a part in this development. Women's independence significantly impacts the economy, liberal arts, and environmental footprint. More independent women also tend to have more education and work experience than their less independent counterparts. In turn, it reduces carbon output.