Gendered norms of work are considered important determinants of women’s labour force participation, and there are now concerted policy efforts to make norms equitable. In the context of a small fishing village in the Sindh province of Pakistan, we explore notions of self-perceived agency and empowerment when, in the face of adversity, norms are broken in practice but sustained in principle. We find that women articulate their empowerment not from the perspective of being able to realise their potential for their own selves but from the perspective of sharing their husband’s burdens and contributing to the family above and beyond themselves. Counterintuitively, it seems that it is precisely sustaining the male breadwinner norm in principle that allows the practice of norm-breaking to be empowering.
Read abstracts for other chapters in the book here.
Co-authored by Rashid Memon, Hadia Majid, Marta Bivand Erdal.
