Abstract
Based on extensive interviews in one of Karachi’s oldest working-class areas, Lyari, this chapter explores the relationship between women’s engagement in paid work, their experiences of domestic violence, and the issue of empowerment more generally. The research includes interviews with women engaged in domestic service, in the public and private education sector, in the field of health, in the service sector, and in short-term and seasonal work in factories or small-scale industries. The chapter explores women’s ability to negotiate and resist violence at the hands of their husbands and other family members. Despite the persistence of patriarchal structures, women’s narratives demonstrate the emergence of new models of womanhood at the local level as a result of wider economic, social, and cultural shifts.
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Notes
- 1.
For the purposes of this chapter, ‘neoliberalism’ will be used to refer to the decreasing role of the state in regulating the economy along with the opening up of borders in terms of economic trade. While ‘neoliberalism’ has been critiqued for its lack of precision as a term, I find that it continues to hold some explanatory relevance when it comes to referring to particular economic, social, and political processes.
- 2.
Members of the khwaja sira community, who are most often categorized as transgender women, in particular face multiple forms of violence encompassing physical, psychological, economic, and social forms.
- 3.
The Global Gender Gap Index places Pakistan at 141 out of 142 countries in terms of women’s economic participation and opportunity (WEF 2014).
- 4.
The vast majority of women engaged in paid employment in Pakistan were involved in the agricultural sector.
- 5.
Interviews were conducted in Urdu and later translated into English.
- 6.
Committees are a common, informal savings mechanism in South Asia. In a committee, several people contribute a fixed amount every month, and one person in the group receives that amount per month. This is especially common amongst women who may not have access to bank accounts.
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Kirmani, N. (2018). Earning as Empowerment?: The Relationship Between Paid Work and Domestic Violence in Lyari, Karachi. In: Hussein, N. (eds) Rethinking New Womanhood. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67900-6_8
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