Gender Role Stereotyping Of Women As Housewives In Conventional Pakistani Society

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the short story, The Spell and the Ever Changing Moon (2014) by Rukhsana Ahmad, from the feminist perspective. A close reading of the text reveals that facing everyday challenges and juggling between multiple roles is a common practice for middleclass house wives in Pakistani society. The economic instabilities added with emotional, psychological as well as physical abuse plays a vital role in their oppression and humiliation on regular basis. These roles as assigned to them define their social standing and suffering becomes their destiny. Multiple roles of such women and social expectations outside and inside the house define their way of living. Each and every movement and thought becomes codependent on their social familial roles. Being selfless becomes an obligation and ‘sacrifice’ becomes convention for middle class women who spend their whole lives living under the thumb of their men folk. Moreover, the movement and status of women inside and outside the home is also a major concern addressed in this paper including the concept of home, and its significance in lives of Pakistani women.

The Existential Alienation of the Feminine Self in This House of Clay and Water by Faiqa Mansab

“…An important social marker for men to isolate women in marriage through patriarchal control is the understanding that women do not contribute to the economic empowerment of the family and men are solely responsible for breadwinning (Isran & Isran, 2012). Another important reason for the isolation of women in marriage is the stereotypical role assigned to women as housewives where they are considered only good enough for domestic labor (Saeed & Zainab, 2017). Unfortunately, religion also at times becomes a source to justify the male domination and control of women in marriage (Raday, 2003;Qadir & Riaz, 2015;Wood, 2019).…”