Spinning a Yarn, Women and Handicrafts: Development or Marginalization?

Khan, N.S.
ASR Publications, year unknown.

Chapters: 1. Introduction; 2. Baluchistan, Punjab, Sarhad, Sindh; 3. Exploring Other Dimensions.

This report is a look at handicrafts as a means of mainstreaming women in the developmental process in Pakistan. It points out the fact that women have always played a major role in mainstream production, although the contribution of women is never mentioned in national statistics, acknowledged by employers, or even admitted to by the males members in their households. National planners are also oblivious to this contribution, and it is basically because national plans have differentiated between women and men, and have increasingly been marginalizing women, that women are now perceived to be playing less of a role in the society. However, when the national planners do try to integrate women into the developmental process, the efforts are at involving them in the petty production of small commodities, which are largely considered to be 'feminine tasks'. Thus, instead of strengthening the position of women as workers in the areas in which they do work, and empowering them to challenge the exploitation of their labour, most programmes designed for the development of women only reinforce this exploitation. At the same time they reinforce the incorrect assumption that women are unskilled and that the only work they are capable of doing is to cut, sew, embroider etc, all of which are assumed to be traditional tasks of women, and therefore acceptable to women, and to society at large. The report points out that the myths associated with these stereotyped roles of women need to broken to enable women to develop their labour, in terms of their own knowledge as well as marketable goods, rather than predetermining their roles. Since this process will take time, therefore there are some crafts within the arena of so-called women's crafts, that could be used as 'entry points', especially if their use value were to be re-established, and/or a new use put upon the skill. Thus, the report also explores these crafts, province wise.

Key words: Women, Development, and Handicrafts.