'I am my own person,' women's agency inside and outside the home in rural Pakistan

This paper brings forth cases of women in rural South Punjab, Pakistan who are exercising agency in even the most patriarchal areas in a Muslim country. Central to this paper is two groups of women: those who work outside the house, namely community health workers (Lady Health Workers or LHWs), and home-based workers, who perform care work and informal labor such as handicrafts primarily within the house. Through interviews, focus groups and participant observations, this paper argues that both groups of women exercise agency contingent on their positionality and available resources. In doing so, these women construct and re-construct social geographies that help them navigate power structures enacted through gendered expectations and hierarchies in their homes and communities. The findings of this paper disrupt ideas of women in developing countries, particularly in South Asia and/or Muslim, as a monolithic unit that is often portrayed as oppressed.