school. Rural/urban divide and government policy Females are educated equally like Males in urban areas such as Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi. However, in rural areas, the education rate is substantially lower. This has begun to change with the issuance of government policy, in which 70% of new schools are built for girls, and also plans to increase the size of women's school so that the infrastructure matches those of men's schools and more female colleges have also been established in order to provide women with higher education. Women in elite urban districts of Pakistan enjoy a far more privileged lifestyle than those living in rural tribal areas. Women in urbanized districts typically lead more elite lifestyles and have more opportunities for education. Rural and tribal areas of Pakistan have an increasingly high rate of poverty and alarmingly low literacy rates. In 2002 it was recorded that 81.5 percent of 15- to 19-year-old girls from high-income families had attended school while 22.3 percent of girls from low-income families had ever attended school. In comparison, it was recorded that 96.6 percent of Pakistani boys ages 15–19 coming from high-income families had attended schooling while 66.1 percent of 15- to 19-year-old boys from low-income families had attended school. Girls living in rural areas are encouraged not to go to school because they are needed in the home to do work at a young age. In most rural villages, secondary schooling simply does not exist for girls, leaving them no choice but to prepare for marriage and do household tasks. These rural areas often have inadequate funding and schooling for girls is at the bottom of their priorities. Employment Pakistan is a largely rural society (almost two-thirds of the population lives in rural areas) and women are rarely formally employed. This does not mean that women do not participate in the economy: quite on the contrary, women usually work on the farm of the household, practise subsistence agriculture, or otherwise work within the household economic unit. However, women are often prevented from advancing economically, due to social restrictions on women's movement and gender mixing, as well as due to low education. Workforce participation Although women play an active role in Pakistan's economy, their contribution has been grossly underreported in some censuses and surveys. Part of the understimation of women's economic role is that Pakistan, like many other countries, has a very large informal sector.