Women incorporate the care economy into their daily work. A snap shot of the life of a woman worker in Peshawar outskirts, Meena, provides us with a idea of how women workers spend their daily lives. Meena, like many others we have interviewed, has been working for the last 13 years in a small tailoring/boutique shop. Earlier, she worked from home (mostly stitching clothes or embroideries). She could not remember the exact number of years she has worked, saying it seems forever. She is the youngest of seven sisters. Ever since she lost her father, 25 years ago at the age of 13, she has been taking care of her ailing mother who decided that her youngest daughter was not to get married so as to look after her. A few months ago, when the mother fell extremely ill, Meena's sisters persuaded their mother to agree to Meena's marriage. The unstated logic was that after the mother's death, there would be no one for Meena to live with and a single woman living by herself in a village is not socially acceptable. Meena would need a man's presence in the house; therefore, marriage appeared to be an appropriate solution. The mother agreed, presumably, reluctantly.

By any standards, and particularly by local standards, this is an extremely late marriage for Meena at the age of 38. Meena's responsibilities at work-place, like her household responsibilities, have increased over the years. He responsibilities include looking after her mother; cooking, cleaning, and repairing the mudwalls of the house during the rainy/monsoon season. Moreover, she is now pregnant. Her income (Rs. 2,500) is hardly enough for household expenses and her mother's medicines. She has hardly any money left to spend on herself. This has been the pattern all her life. In the past, Meena used to bring home some work to earn additional money, however, this has become virtually impossible at present because her ailing mother demands more attention as does her relationship with her husband. In fact, she showed us some of the quilting work that has been lying with her for the last six months due to lack of time.

Meena's story is unusual in that she has managed to work outside the house, within the restricted atmosphere of a village on the outskirts of Peshawar.

However, in terms of the care economy, she has had to suffer in terms of a late marriage just so she would continue to take care of her mother. In return, her mother would probably leave her the one-room, one verandah house where they live.

Thus, not only do women workers incorporate the care economy and productive labour into their daily lives, they also have to pay for it in other ways.

In Meena's case, it was her late marriage and late high-risk pregnancy. Quite often women's marriages do not take place because they bring home money that helps meet the family's expenses. Thus, there work deeply impacts their personal lives. Late marriage or the absence of marriage affects their self-image, as subtly enforced 'spinsterhood' is not a phenomenon to look forward to.

Our study for PILER demonstrates that women are joining the workforce due to worsening economic conditions. Their economic contribution to the household is crucial for survival. The fact that they are bringing in an income has contributed very little to any radical change in the position and status within the household or for that matter in the public context. In fact, their relative power position continues to depend upon traditionally drawn parameters and criteria of gender roles to which women themselves adhere diligently. In fact, the larger system of gender relations ensures that there is some degree of convenience to subservience, which is taken as a given by many women.

Capital, local, national and international, thus colludes with patriarchy to maintain a system that ensures profit through by maintaining the systems of gender relations that subordinate women. The case of Pakistan proves that patriarchal controls have not relaxed; in certain instances they have been strengthened to the detriment of women's empowerment. Home based subcontracted work, just as contract work at factories has been built up and is thriving due to the usurpation of the rights of workers.

A majority of women workers feel that they cannot exercise choices vis-à-vis the conditions of work and remuneration. While male family members do not object to their work, they are not supportive in the sense of proactively helping the women in their work. In the same vein, middlemen and manufacturers are able to keep costs under control and avid confrontations with labour by distributing work to individual workers in different settings. Where small shops or factories are concerned, workers are not allowed to organise or bargain because they run the risk of losing their jobs if they do so. Hence, labour regulations are made inapplicable. Employers often act as benevolent patriarchs who might provide a loan or other help on a personalised patronage basis.

Although women's contribution to the national economy is now widely acknowledged and recognised, much of this contribution is taking place outside the formal sector. Women are at the bottom rungs of the informal sector with very few chances of upward mobility. Their own ability to conceptualise and implement alternative strategies that will bring about an improvement in their working conditions, their remuneration and their level of empowerment in their context of their gender relations is extremely limited. For any effective resistance strategies to be effected, multiple stakeholders need to be involved actively to canvass for improvement in the overall picture.

The lack of legal protection as well as implementation mechanisms compounds the bleak situation further. While it is easy to advocate at the end of a research that the affectees should organise themselves, we should realise that it is usually quite difficult for those who are victimised by a particular system to organise against it, especially when everything is pitted against them. In this particular instance, patches of resistance are few and far between. For any effective action, several actors will need to take responsibility. These include civil society institutions such as community-based organisations and non-governmental organisations, the media, government as well as international development institutions.