Silent Voices, Untold Stories : Women Domestic Workers in Pakistan and their Struggle for Empowerment
by Ayesha Shahid
Edition statement:1st Published by : Oxford University Press (Karachi) Physical details: xxiii,247 Pages 23x15 cm | HB ISBN:9780195477306. Year: 2010| Item type | Current location | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode |
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Books
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General Stacks | 305.4305491 A976S 2010 (Browse shelf) | Available | 17156 |
Include Appendix, Bibliography, Notes and Index
This book is a socio-legal study about law, empowerment and access to justice for women domestic workers in Pakistan. The study advances the argument that women's lives are shaped by sharp gender and socio-economic disparities leading to unequal power relations vis-a-vis their employers, state and society. Access to justice through the formal legal system is very often contingent upon the socio-economic position of the user. Women in domestic service have to negotiate the barriers of poverty and inequality before being able to employ the law as their ally. To analyse the efficacy of formal law as a measure for achieving justice for women domestic workers, a small empirical component is also included in the study. These responses from the field open an often closed window into hidden lives. The voices and experiences of women domestic workers expose various aspects of domestic service carried out in the privacy of homes. These lived realities also highlight that despite being poor, illiterate and having no means to take recourse to justice, domestic workers can still not be called passive victims because in their own ways they resist oppressive forces and struggle hard for the sake of their families. The study finally argues that in the presence of plural legal frameworks, formal law alone cannot empower women in domestic service. Therefore for an effective implementation of law it is equally pertinent to look into other non-legal strategies so that access to justice can be made possible for these women. --Book Jacket.
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