Experiences of women teachers in the Northern Areas of Pakistan

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This thesis studies five women teachers of the Aga Khan Education Service schools in the Northern Areas of Pakistan. It examines how these women manage their responsibilities in the traditional home domain in conjunction with their commitments as teachers. The thesis inquires whether their act of taking up a profession is an attempt to redefine the place of women in the patriarchal culture of the mountain communities of the Northern Areas and examines the extent to which this patriarchy itself is responding to new economic realities. The use of qualitative life history identifies the connection between women teachers' experiences and their present day and historical social context. The study indicates that these women teachers are part of the major socio-economic changes taking place in this mountainous region as it shifts from a subsistence to a cash economy.The study also reveals that patriarchy continues to direct women's lives. Some flexibility in patriarchal norms has allowed women's paid work, which has expanded the traditional familial boundaries and has enabled women to exert some influence on their families and communities. The participants have been able to make only slight changes in traditional patriarchal norms and gendered task division, which still prevail in the wider community and in the organization for which they work. The study is significant as it places the voices of the participants in their broader social and historical context while documenting the historical transition in their lives. It contributes new insights to the literature on women teachers and thus provides some guidance to educators working with or in similar situations.Education and employment became accessible to women in the 1970s. Since then, some women have become teachers and have been involved in community development. The interconnectedness of families, schools and communities blur the boundaries between these spheres of women's work; rather they overlap, so that the women and many other actors rotate through them in "multi-layered cyclic routines." The juxtaposition of women's paid jobs and traditional familial roles has created tensions and has increased women's workloads. The indigenous patriarchal extended families have both aided and hindered the women teachers. The practice of sharing childcare, household and farming tasks helped them fulfill their professional and community commitments. However, the familial demand that teachers continue to do their share of these tasks and remain on the land has created tensions which hinder the participants' work and career aspirations.

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