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The role of economic invisibility in development: veiling women's work in rural Pakistan

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  • Carol Carpenter

Abstract

The thesis in this article is that both women's work and its invisibility are essential to development, and at two levels: to the economy of rural households and to the wider development process. For rural households, the case of Pakistan suggests that the veils that conceal women's work shield a portion of household production from the risks and extractions inherent in their involvement with development. This shielded production depends on off‐farm natural resources of which the use is also veiled. For States and other development interests, the author suggests that women's work constitutes a subsidy which is intentionally invisible. The subsidy of women's labour is linked to a forest‐to‐farm subsidy. Women's invisible work, in other words, is not invisible because it is not seen, but because the process of economic development—for both rural households and States and other development actors—requires that it be hidden.

Suggested Citation

  • Carol Carpenter, 2001. "The role of economic invisibility in development: veiling women's work in rural Pakistan," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 25(1), pages 11-19, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:natres:v:25:y:2001:i:1:p:11-19
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1477-8947.2001.tb00742.x
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    1. Shahnaz Kazi & Bilquees Raja, 1992. "Women, Development Planning and Government Policies in Pakistan," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 31(4), pages 609-620.
    2. SEEMIN ANwAR KHAN & FAIZ BILQUEES, 1976. "The Environment, Attitudes and Activities of Rural Women. A Case Study of A Village in Punjab," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 15(3), pages 237-271.
    3. Kumar, Shubh K. & Hotchkiss, David, 1988. "Consequences of deforestation for women's time allocation, agricultural production, and nutrition in hill areas of Nepal:," Research reports 69, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    4. Sharma, Miriam & Vanjani, Urmila, 1993. "When more means less: Assessing the impact of dairy 'development' on the lives and health of women in rural Rajasthan (India)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 1377-1389, December.
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