December 15, 2002

Even the women who work outside the home are extremely circumscribed in their mobility and control over their resources, concludes Saba Gul Khattak from a survey she conducted

Has women’s mobility, which is an indicator of their empowerment, increased due to joining waged work? Are women more mobile and therefore more confident about their presence in the public sphere? The response to the question whether women step out of the house besides going out to work was evenly divided with almost the same pattern in all sectors...

To the question whether women need permission to step out of the house, 48 per cent, 59 per cent, 61 per cent and 56 per cent women in plastics, pharmaceuticals, garments and food industries respectively said that they need permission. A small percentage of women said that they go out alone, unaccompanied by anyone.... With regard to where women can go alone, a large majority replied that they go shopping or visit friends and relatives. A sizable percentage ... also said that they go everywhere alone.

However, it should be noted that the total number of respondents in this category was very small since they belonged to the small percentage category who had said that they can go out without permission. Data analysis thus indicates that women’s mobility, despite their paid work is extremely restricted. This is also borne out by the fact that men and boys have assumed responsibility for grocery shopping, (since traditionally men go out while women are discouraged from venturing out) to a degree in order to free up women’s time for paid work.

A large majority of women have taken the decision to work themselves. Does this reflect autonomy on the part of these women? Other data does not corroborate the presence of autonomy because women have taken up jobs due to economic hardships their family is facing rather than any desire for independence. Furthermore, due to the twin ideologies of work and gender, most women want to stop working once their family is financially secure. Only 2-3 per cent women stated that they want to work for financial independence. Thus the fact that they are working does not contribute to women’s own sense of empowerment because they find the fact that they are working to be lowering their social status.

We investigated for any change in women’s status within the household resulting from their paid work as this might lead to improved status and self-perception. A majority of women reported that their decisions regarding household matters received importance.... We explored the nature of the decisions that received importance from those who had answered in the affirmative. The majority responded by stating that all decisions were given importance, however, others emphasized that they could purchase whatever they needed or that they were consulted with regard to construction of their home and marriage proposals and some said that only decisions related to food were given importance.

It is also interesting to note that many women reported that their fathers take decisions regarding household expenditure followed by themselves rather than their mothers.... Mother’s decisions were in the range of 10-12 percent while husbands taking these decisions were even less. It thus appears that women who have entered paid work have acquired the confidence and assertiveness to take decisions related to the household.

A good method to assess for empowerment is to look for personal spending and savings as this serves to indicate a woman’s control over resources, especially resources that she generates. A small percentage of respondents in the survey said that they keep part of their income for personal expenses... However, approximately 20 per cent said that their savings are used for transport expenditures while around the same percentage of women cited personal expenditures, followed by expenditures on making clothes and spending on food.

We also inquired whether a portion of their income was saved for the respondent’s future. 61 per cent and 55 per cent women working in the food and garments sectors said that nothing is saved for their future, and 44 per cent women from plastics and pharmaceutical sectors respectively said that nothing is saved for their future. This is either due to the fact that a high percentage of these respondents are married or that the households are extremely impoverished. The person who saves for the respondent’s future is either her mother or the respondent herself. A very low percentage of fathers, husbands or brothers save for the respondent’s future. This is probably due to the fact that the mother takes on this role and for cultural reasons it is considered inappropriate for the male members of the family to take the respondent’s money for saving it for her future (usually marriage).

We can thus infer that women’s control over the resources they generate is limited. The savings that some of them are able to accumulate are spent either on transport or used for items of daily use such as clothing or food. In very few cases is money saved for the respondent’s future. One assumes that the level of poverty within the households is high, therefore, the percentage of women who save is low and furthermore, those who do save, end up spending their savings on necessities rather than luxuries. Some women consider this a small luxury/comfort as they avoid having to walk to and from work.

Survey data leads us to conclude that women are extremely circumscribed in terms of their movement and mobility. This is due to the fact that women’s bodies are sites of contestation and control. Therefore, they (especially unmarried ones) seldom have complete control over their mobility. However, women appear to have gained some ground in the private sphere due to their remunerative work as they have a greater say in household decision-making even though their decision-making is mostly confined to issues that are associated with women. With regard to control over resources, including the ones they generate, women seem to have very limited control as evidenced from the little power they have over their income and savings.

Excerpted with permission from
Women, work and empowerment
By Dr Saba Gul Khattak
PILER, Piler Centre, ST-001, Sector X, Sub-sector V, Gulshan-i-Maymar, Karachi-75340
Email: b.m.kutty@cyber.net.pk
Tele: 021-635-1145. 30pp.

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