Women’s Exclusion from Trade Unions in Pakistan

Bibliographic Data

ID12175348
AuthorsAhmad Nadeem (0009-0006-1457-0321, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan, corresponding author)
Year2025
Publication date2025-11-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritical Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0896-9205 • E-ISSN: 1569-1632
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/08969205251362417
OpenAlexW4416279563
LanguageEN
References cited34

I examine the structural exclusion of women from trade unions in Pakistan through a historical-sociological lens, grounded in extensive original research. Based on 25 life-history interviews, participant observation, and nearly a decade of experience as a factory worker and union organizer in Punjab, I trace the historical and ongoing struggles of working-class women in labor movements. While feminist activism in Pakistan has achieved legal gains, it often overlooks the lived experiences of working-class women. Meanwhile, trade unions remain male-dominated, reproducing patriarchal hierarchies that limit women’s participation and leadership. Using Marxist-feminist and Anarcha-Feminist theory, and informed by the Dar es Salaam School of History, I analyze how class, gender, and neoliberal restructuring intersect in women’s exclusion from organized labor. I argue this exclusion is structurally embedded in the political economy of labor and call for reimagining trade unionism around women’s labor, agency, and collective resistance to build emancipatory politics in Pakistan

Factory (object-oriented programming · Neoliberalism (international relations · Politics · Resistance (ecology · Restructuring · Social exclusion · Trade union · Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies · Labor Movements and Unions · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · Industrial Relations

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