ABSTRACT
Female youth unemployment in Pakistan is a real, widespread, and largely invisible problem, hidden behind the ideal of women as non-workers. Aside from simple financial convenience, polio eradication leadership has long used the supposed commitment of its volunteers as a strategy to convince potential donors that there is overwhelming community support for polio eradication's activities. Trustworthy statistics on unemployment rates for women in Pakistan are difficult to obtain for several reasons. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan of US$11.3 billion, which they accepted to keep the government afloat, carried conditions that further entrenched the neoliberal agenda. Reliance on underpaid or unpaid labor is frequently justified with the argument that diseases of poverty are crises demanding exceptional action from citizens and governments. The political economy of modern Pakistan also shapes the conditions of informal employment. In the early 2000s under Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Pakistan embraced neoliberal policies, and experienced robust economic growth.
