Cruella de Vil is hardly the character anyone would cite as a source of wisdom. The flamboyant villain of 101 Dalmatians, obsessed with fur and infamous for her pursuit of Dalmatian puppies, is hardly a feminist icon. Yet one of her lines in the 1996 film contains an uncomfortable truth:

“More good women have been lost to marriage than to war, famine, disease and disaster. You have talent, darling. Don’t squander it.”

Strip away the irony, and the question it raises is worth asking in Pakistan: How much female talent do we lose; not because women lack ability or ambition, but because marriage, motherhood, and social expectations push many of them out of education, employment, leadership, and public life?

Despite all odds, Pakistan educates millions of girls every year. Families proudly celebrate daughters who become doctors, engineers, lawyers, teachers, and graduates. Yet for too many women, marriage marks the beginning of a gradual withdrawal from professional life. Education, once celebrated as an achievement, becomes secondary to domestic responsibilities, while the country loses much of the economic and social return on its investment.

Pakistan’s overall literacy rate is 63 percent among the population aged 10 and above, according to the 2024–2025 Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement survey. The gender gap is stark: 73 percent of men are literate, compared with just 54 percent of women. But the challenge is not only getting girls into schools, colleges, and universities; it is ensuring that educated women can turn their qualifications into careers, businesses, economic independence, and leadership.

If a woman becomes a doctor, engineer, economist, lawyer, scientist, teacher, journalist, or entrepreneur and then leaves the labour market during her most productive years,........

© The Friday Times