Gender at Work in Pakistan

Hadia Majid is Associate Professor of Economics at LUMS. Her research examines gender, labor markets, digital inclusion, and development in the Global South, with a particular focus on women’s work and economic opportunity in Pakistan. She works closely with policymakers and international organizations to translate research into evidence-based policy.Kaveri Qureshi is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Social and Political Science, and a Co-Director of GENDER.ED, Edinburgh University’s hub for gender and sexualities. She researches intersectional inequalities in health, work and family life, mainly in the UK and South Asia.Karin Astrid Siegmann works as an Associate Professor in Labor and Gender Economics at the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS). She holds more than 25 years of experience in the interdisciplinary field of Development Studies, including extensive expertise on and collaboration with partners in Pakistan.

"This book is a tour de force, offering an unparalleled, intersectional analysis of gender and work in Pakistan. It masterfully weaves together rich empirical analysis using diverse methodologies to reveal the complex interplay of gender identities, class, caste, and colonial legacies in shaping access to, experiences of, and resistance within the world of work. This book is a vital contribution, challenging conventional wisdom by foregrounding diverse voices and experiences, from invisible home-based workers to political elites and gender-nonconforming individuals. By broadening our understanding of gender beyond binary confines and integrating practitioner perspectives, this volume not only enriches academic discourse but offers fresh perspectives that resonate far beyond Pakistan's borders."Uma Rani Amara, Senior Economist, International Labor Organization.“Gender at Work in Pakistan brings together an exciting body of scholarship that moves beyond narrow conceptions of gender by exploring how gender intersects with class and caste to shape people’s working experiences across productive and reproductive spheres, and by including people of diverse genders rather than focusing solely on women’s experiences. It further expands debates on gender dynamics by demonstrating how gender identities and roles may function both as obstacles and as resources. Bringing together multiple disciplinary perspectives and diverse methodological approaches, the volume makes a significant contribution to emerging scholarship on gender and work in Pakistan."Sidra Kamran, Assistant Professor, Department of Methodology, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London."If you want to understand how gender shapes work in its varied and complex intersections with respectability, femininity and masculinity, this book is a must-read! The authors examine deeply gendered perceptions of work reflected in the production of national statistics, paid and unpaid care work including domestic service, the ‘work of war,’ home-based work, sexual labor and sexual harassment as well as resistance to low-paid work and unacceptable work conditions. Though rooted in Pakistan, the wide-ranging methodological approaches and diverse subjects provide policy and theoretical insights that go far beyond the Pakistan experience."Saba Gul Khattak, Independent Researcher.“This book makes an essential and long-overdue contribution to the study of gender and work in Pakistan. Drawing on foundational debates on gender orders and classical patriarchy, it offers a rich and perceptive analysis of women’s labor in the country, that moves beyond conventional framings. By weaving together insights from social reproduction feminism, feminist critiques of mainstream statistics, and renewed perspectives on empowerment and resistance, this rich collection offers an in-depth exploration of the lived realities of women’s work in Pakistan across multiple domains. An invaluable read for scholars, students, and practitioners engaged with gender, development, and South Asia.”Alessandra Mezzadri, Professor in Global Development and Political Economy, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.“This is a foundational volume of feminist analysis of gender at work in contemporary Pakistan. The book makes visible hidden stories buried in diverse realms of work, to explore how meaning-making and work experiences are articulated by those laboring in Pakistan - where gender and sexual hierarchies are constitutive elements of social relationships. Collectively, the chapters broaden narrow readings of ‘decent work’, to appreciate local understandings of honour and respectability. The editors draw attention to threads of coloniality, Islamic traditions, intergenerational hierarchies, women’s life courses, and patriarchal dividends shaping power dynamics as key anchors. The book brings together different disciplinary perspectives and with them, diverse methodologies to appreciate the hierarchies modulating gender at work. It is a must-read for those interested in feminism, gender and sexual politics, work, labor studies, area studies and international development; and speaks to scholarship beyond Pakistan through the fine-grained engagement offered.”Kanchana Ruwanpura, Professor in Development of Geography, University of Gothenburg.

• Introduction 1: “Introducing gender at work in Pakistan” Part I: Making statistics work for gender analysis 2: “Women’s work and household income in Pakistan” 3: “Exploring the gender bias in Pakistan’s labor statistics” 4: “A situational analysis of female entrepreneurs in rural Pakistan: challenges and way-forward” Part II: The gendered underbelly of the modern workplace 5: “Becoming a doctor: narratives of professional choice in Pakistan” 6: “The work of war: making soldiers in the Pakistan army” 7: “Agents or victims? The resilience and agency of female home-based workers in football supply chains” 8: “Gender contestations in the political workplace” Part III: Gender in reproductive work 9: “Negotiating masculinity in a feminized occupation: narratives of male domestic workers employed by foreigners in Islamabad, Pakistan” 10: “Reproduction, domestic service and femininities at work in Lahore” Part IV: Gendered resistance at work 11: “Gender dimensions of Punjab peasants’ movement: a study in resistance, agency and the gendered limits” 12: “Paid care economy and workers’ power: a study of the Lady Health Workers’ movement in Pakistan” 13: “Earning respect and money: gendered embodiment, sexual labor, and power among gender non-conforming Pakistanis” Conclusion Chapter 14: “Towards more dignified work and lives for people of all genders in Pakistan”