The Gendered Crisis: Women’s Unpaid Work and Cheap Labour as a Non-traditional Security Threat
It was my summer semester break, and I was visiting my home in Pakistan. I relished the delicious food my mother made every day when I noticed that she got sick from the hot one day, and even then, she continued working in the kitchen. Summers in Pakistan are blazing hot, with severe electricity shortages, and the temperature often exceeds 40°C (104°F). Middle-class families cannot afford the luxury of having an air-conditioner in their kitchens, thus making the kitchen the hottest room. While the less privileged people can hardly afford the perk of having an air-conditioner in their homes, one can imagine the dire conditions in which women work. My mother’s condition made me wonder why a woman working at home does not enjoy the same benefits as any office worker.
