Many women belonging to the middle class in Bangladesh are increasingly participating in the public productive sphere and as a result, earn some amount of wages monthly. Working-class women have been participating for a long time.
A significant question arises in this context: Can only participation in the public workspace empower women? Or has it created an additional burden on women?
To answer this question, just consider a tedious description of a day of a middle-class service-holder woman:
Mim (pseudonym) was late for her office. It was not unusual for her as she had to manage all her household chores. After a long wait, she could get into a running public bus. The caretaker yelled at her and ordered that she should get down from the bus. She doesn't listen to him as she doesn't have any other way. Then she had to listen to some remarks like mohila hoia o kono laaz shorom nai. Obosso laaz shorom thakle ki aar bus-e chore?
She didn't pay heed to these comments because she was quite accustomed to these remarks as a regular passenger of public transport. On the other hand, she was afraid of being assaulted on the bus and knew she'd have no one to save her.
After surviving the bus journey, she finally reached the office. When entering the office, she noticed that her male colleagues were making fun of her punctuality. After some time, she received an official notice where she was rebuked for being 15 minutes late.
She didn't react because she violated the office rules. She indeed had valid reasons but she didn't expect them to understand. Moreover, she knew that her male colleagues thought she received special privileges due to her gender identity. So, she just accepted the whole situation without saying anything.
As a senior employee, she had a lot of pressure in the office. After managing the hassles of her work, she left the office at 6pm and reached home at 7pm. When she returned home, she was angry to see all the household chores preserved for her. But it was also included in her routine and she had nothing to say about it -- because she was told that she could pursue her career only after managing her household.
And thus she questions: “Was she leading the life of a human being?”
Does this description reflect the life of a fully empowered person? It can be assumed that a woman who also works outside the household has relatively more economic freedom than the homemakers. But these women are often victims of our patriarchal structures. Some of them can't even utilize their earnings according to their wills.
The subordination of women is not a recent phenomenon. But it is really difficult for me as a woman to regard the subordination of women as a natural phenomenon. Rather I consider this as a historical process. The Marxist feminist lens can be the best way to explore this process.
In The Origin of The Family, Private Property and State, Fredrich Engels described how class society evolved and social inequalities came to the scene from an evolutionary lens. But it also tells us a historical process that ensured the subordination of women in every sphere of their lives.
According to Engels, tribes or clans had the authority to preserve productive resources communally at the earliest stages of human society. There existed a subsistence economy where no surplus production was needed. The household was the basic social and economic unit in which women had supreme control over everything.
On the other hand, men were primarily responsible for hunting and gathering. He believed that women had relatively higher status than men. While gaining the strength of domesticating animals, the scenario got complicated. Then domesticated animals became the ultimate private property of human beings.
This art of domesticated animals gave birth to surplus production. This surplus changed the entire economy. The subsistence economy had transformed into an exchange economy.
It also gave birth to class society. At that stage, the family had gained its importance as a social and economic unit and males tended to have supreme authority over women and children. Thus, the invention of private property led to a lower status for women. The subordination of women was further reinforced by other social phenomena (such as capitalism).
Many Marxist feminists don't agree that gaining a livelihood in a classless society was the sole responsibility of men. But they still believe in the reliability of this theory to understand the historical subordination of women. They also believe that abolishing class society can ensure the freedom of women, though it is a long-term process.
In short, patriarchy is a by-product of economic change (capitalism specifically). According to some of them, joining the public productive forces can improve women's social and individual positions.
At present women are encouraged to prepare themselves for the job sector. It is believed that economic sovereignty is the only precondition to women's empowerment. But is it true or just propaganda to meet the ever-increasing demand for labour in this capitalist system?
Both male and female co-workers are being exploited in this system. Still, women are the worst victims. Even in this age of “sustainable development,” women's labour is far cheaper than that of males. Moreover, the structure and policies are highly disproportionate.
Women can barely take a day off on their period days in many offices. They also have to confront different types of harassment; I recall one of my friends telling me her male colleague regularly harassed her with sexual jokes.
In a patriarchal society like Bangladesh, women have to face many other difficulties outside the workplace and there is also no one to assist with their household chores.
We are quite successful in preparing our girls for the job market. But we can't teach our boys to manage their households. Moreover, glorifying motherhood and multitasking of women in this makes the scenario more complex.
Still, many middle-class women like Mim are doing jobs to be empowered because it is believed that man-like work and economic sovereignty can provide her freedom. But can they enjoy self-sufficiency and freedom? Or do their gender identities hinder the process? The situation of lower-class women is even worse.
Unless our society addresses the hidden structural or gender inequalities within it, it is nearly impossible for women to lead a truly empowered life. In this case, participating in the public workspace only creates some additional burden on them. Else, women will remain labourers who do overtime during their lifespan.
Aditi Sharif is an anthropologist, currently working as a research assistant at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), Dhaka, Bangladesh.
