How important is your job to you?
In Pakistan, only 21 percent of women ever enter the workplace 1. Of those who do, many leave due to marriage, relocation, or care of elderly relatives or children. These factors also play a part in why so many women never enter the workforce to begin with.
Empowering women to return to work in Pakistan
Voiceover: What does your job mean to you?
Independence? A network or connection? Fulfillment?
In Pakistan only 21 percent of women ever enter the workforce.
Marriage relocation and having children as well as care of elderly relatives all contribute to women not entering or leaving the workforce.
For those who wish to, it can be hard to return after a break.
But Philip Morris Pakistan Limited is working to change that.
Alina Khan, Engagement, Learning and I&D Lead, Philip Morris International, talks to camera.
Make Your Comeback is a program that we launched in 2021.
This is a program for women who have taken a break and wish to transition back to the workforce.
It aims to empower women and help them thrive in their chosen careers.
And we as a company, we wanted to provide that opportunity to women by giving them inspiring and meaningful projects based on their aspirations and their expectations, while also working to challenge and change the mindset on career breaks for both employers and women.
My hopes for the future of this program are that eventually I want Make Your Comeback to be a brand that women want to be associated with.
Applications are up by 200 percent on last year with the surge of new applicants who want to take part in the scheme.
Tomorrow when a woman decides that she is not in the workforce it is her decision and not because she does not have avenues to come back to the workforce.
And eventually, we don't need a program like Make Your Comeback because we have broken barriers and there is no longer a stigma against taking a break.
Music ends.
Words on screen read: Sustainability – transforming for good.
Philip Morris International’s logo is seen on screen.
For those who wish to return to work after a break, it can be daunting, and sometimes carries an unjust stigma due to preconceived notions of what it means to take a break from work, coupled with a lack of consideration or value attributed to work in the domestic sphere.
Too often, the transferrable skills involved in commitments outside of the workplace—as well as the drive that still exists within these women to thrive in their chosen profession—are not leveraged. In many cases, domestic work is equivalent to another full-time job that requires many skills that are often overlooked.
But Philip Morris Pakistan is spearheading an initiative called “Make Your Come Back.”
This initiative was created to ease women back into the workforce after time away. The aim of the initiative is to empower them, helping them thrive in their chosen careers, while also working to change the mindset on career breaks, for both employers and women.
Speaking about the initiative, Alina Khan, who is Engagement, Learning & I&D Lead, at PMPKL, said: “For a lot of women, there is a fear of taking a break, and that if you have taken a break—that’s it—your career is over, and you can’t rejoin the workforce.”
With applications up by 200 percent from last year, Alina has seen a surge of new applicants who want to take part in the initiative, and it’s something that she’d love to see rolled out in other countries.
“I want ‘Make Your Come Back’ to be a brand that women want to be associated with,” she says. “In the future, I would hope that we will not need a program like this, because we will have broken down barriers, and there will no longer be a stigma against taking a break.”
1 Pakistan Female labor force participation - data, chart | TheGlobalEconomy.com
