Creating an Oral History Archive of Government Work: The Women in Public Service in Pakistan Project

ABSTRACT

The Women in Public Service in Pakistan (WPSP) oral history project records the professional life histories of women employed in public sector institutions. Our aim in this article is twofold. First, we discuss the nature of public sector employment (sarkari nokri) and review the data and literature on women’s participation in public sector work in Pakistan. These sources reveal that the trajectory of women’s employment in the public sector has been shaped by “gender mainstreaming,” which, in turn, is driven by global treaties and goals. Then, after describing the project design, we explore our narrators’ assertions of status, ability, and achievements as they navigate patriarchy. We argue that women public sector employees have collectively forged a social identity and modified the terms of patriarchy as it applies to them. This article presents women’s public sector employment as a coherent subject of study across a range of sectors of work from education to the civil service. This article also demonstrates that oral history methods enable a substantial intervention in the study of government employment in Pakistan. As such, this rich archive of women’s experiences serves public, scholarly, and institutional interests; is comparable to oral history projects on government in other parts of the world; and intervenes in ongoing debates about digital oral history. At the same time, the WPSP oral history project is unique in its use of an oral history method to study government employment in Pakistan. Our methods, approaches, and conclusions are instructive both for scholars of near-contemporary history in Pakistan and for oral historians seeking to establish their own projects on women in public life.

KEYWORDS:

• archive
• government
• gender
• South Asia
• work

Acknowledgments

This project was made possible by funding through the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) Faculty Initiative Fund and funds from the Humanities and Social Sciences Department research budget between 2019 and 2022. Colleagues at LUMS (including Dr. Saba Pirzadeh, Professor Ali Khan, Ms. Hinna Zahid, and Mr. Naseer ud Din) and the team at The Gad and Birgit Rausing Library at LUMS (especially Mr. Nadeem Siddique and Mr. Imran Siddique) provided critical administrative support. Students at LUMS who identified new participants, interviewed them, and transcribed interviews include Sharmeen Azeem, the Oral History Workshop spring 2022 team (Tasmir Aziz, Mahnoor Naeem, Zil e Huma, Zarmeen Sajjad, Sundus Noor Aslam, Ameena Naweed, Zoya Imran, Muhammad Junaid, Kainat Bashir, Hiba Humayun, Mahnoor Lali, Huzaifaa Farrukh, and Rida Arif), transcribers Muhammad Hamza and Mohammad Faizan Attique Bhatti, and research assistants Hira Iqbal and especially Manahil Raza. Zeyna Malik, our summer 2022 WPSP high school intern, also carried out and transcribed two interviews. Thanks to Hina Gul Roy in Islamabad for transcribing. At the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMass Boston), Elora Chowdhury and Christa Keller read and offered feedback on early versions of this article, and Nick Jurovich joined the WPSP Board and reviewed project documentation and procedures. Our greatest debt is to our interviewees who made this project possible by sharing their stories with us.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00940798.2024.2321316

Notes

^1. The project has been supported by grants from the LUMS Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and the 2021–22 LUMS Faculty Initiative Fund. These grants have supported research assistantships and professional transcription services. Ethics approval for the project was granted by the LUMS Institutional Review Board (IRB) in July 2020.

^2. Maira Hayat, “The Bureaucrat’s Wage: (De)Valuations of Work in an Irrigation Bureaucracy,” Anthropology of Work Review 41, no. 2 (2020): 86–96.

^3. Pablo Yanguas and Badru Bukenya, “ ‘New’ Approaches Confront ‘Old’ Challenges in African Public Sector Reform,” Third World Quarterly 37, no. 1 (2016): 136–52, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01436597.2015.1086635?journalCode=ctwq20

^4. Matthew Hull, Government of Paper: The Materiality of Bureaucracy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 35–36.

^5. Charles Kennedy, Bureaucracy in Pakistan (Karachi, PK: Oxford University Press, 1987), 106.

^6. This term is not to be found in any legal documents pertaining to Pakistan’s bureaucracy but is the most widely used and understood term for federal officers. It has been used by the Federal Public Service Commission in conducting examinations of these posts and thus persists in common parlance. We use it here as it was the term most commonly employed by our interviewees.

^7. Ishrat Husain, Report of the National Commission for Government Reforms on Reforming the Government in Pakistan (Islamabad, PK: National Commission for Government Reforms, 2012).

^8. Civil Service of Pakistan (Composition and Cadre) Rules, 1954, Establishment Division, Government of Pakistan, https://establishment.gov.pk/SiteImage/Misc/files/Civil%20Service%20of%20Pakistan.pdf.

^9. “393 Pass CSS Exam out of 20,262 candidates, announces FPSC,” Nation (Lahore, PK), December 8, 2022, https://www.nation.com.pk/08-Dec-2022/393-pass-css-exam-out-of-20-262-candidates-announces-fpsc.

^10. Report of the Pay and Services Commission, 1959–1962 (Karachi: Government of Pakistan, 1962), 358.

^11. Shenila Khoja-Moolji, Forging the Ideal Educated Girl: The Production of Desirable Subjects in Muslim South Asia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2018), 69.

^12. Khoja-Moolji, Forging the Ideal Educated Girl, 69. See also Pippa Virdee on women’s ambassadorial roles and their experiences of the glamor and freedom of work in PIA. Pippa Virdee, “Women and Pakistan International Airlines in Ayub Khan’s Pakistan,” International History Review 41, no. 6 (2019): 1341–66.

^13. Pakistan’s National Action Plan for Women was created as an outcome of participation in the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. See Asian Development Bank, Pakistan Country Gender Assessment (Manila, PH: Asian Development Bank, 2016), https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/institutional-document/218821/pak-gender-assessment-vol1.pdf; Shirin Rai, Nafisa Shah, and Aazar Avaz, Achieving Gender Equality in Public Offices in Pakistan (Islamabad, PK: United Nations Development Programme [UNDP], 2007), https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/rai/outreach/undp_report.pdf; Salma Nasser, “Boxed Women in Public Administration—between Glass Ceilings and Glass Walls: A Study of Women’s Participation in Public Administration in the Arab States,” Journal of International Women’s Studies 19, no. 3 (2018): 1–13; Pilar Domingo et al., Women’s Voice and Leadership in Decision-Making: Assessing the Evidence (London, UK: Overseas Development International, 2015), https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/57a08977e5274a31e00000c4/Womens_Voice.pdf.

^14. Ayesha Masood, “Influence of Marriage on Women’s Participation in Medicine: The Case of Doctor Brides of Pakistan,” Sex Roles 80 (2019): 105–22, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-018-0909-5.

^15. UN Women and UNDP Pakistan, Gender Equality in Public Administration: Pakistan Case Study (Islamabad, PK: UNDP, 2018), https://www.undp.org/pakistan/publications/gender-equality-public-administration-pakistan-case-study.

^16. Annual Statistical Bulletin of Federal Government Employees 2018–19 (Islamabad: Pakistan Public Administration Research Center, 2019), v; Annual Statistical Bulletin of Employees of Autonomous/Semi-Autonomous Bodies/Corporations Under the Federal Government for 2018–19 (Islamabad: Pakistan Public Administration Research Center, 2019), v.

^17. “Pakistan Sees Growing Presence of Women in Bureaucracy and Armed Forces,” Express Tribune (Pakistan), March 8, 2022, https://tribune.com.pk/story/2346969/pakistan-sees-growing-presence-of-women-in-bureaucracy-and-armed-forces.

^18. This consideration of the progression of public discourse and policy on women’s recruitment should be read alongside Ayesha Jalal’s critique that these privileges are accrued by very few women in Pakistan. See Ayesha Jalal, “The Convenience of Subservience: Women and the State of Pakistan,” in Women, Islam and the State ed. Deniz Kandiyoti (London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 1991), 77–114.

^19. Hadia Majid, “Female Labor Force Participation in Pakistan,” in Voices on South Asia: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Women’s Status, Challenges and Futures, ed. Emma J. Flatt, Vani Swarupa Murali, and Silvia Tieri (Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2020); Fatima Najeeb, Matias Morales, and Gladys Lopez-Acevedo, “Analyzing Female Employment Trends in South Asia” (Policy Research Working Paper no. 9157, World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020), http://hdl.handle.net/10986/33362.

^20. Najeeb, Morales, and Lopez-Acevedo, “Analyzing Female Employment Trends”; see also Ramsha Jahangir, “Women, Minorities Have Minor Share of Government Postings,” DAWN (Pakistan), September 23, 2018, https://www.dawn.com/news/1434457.

^21. The reports we draw on are listed here and referenced again at later points in this essay. Ayesha Khan, Zonia Yousuf, and Sana Naqvi, “Women Politicians Navigating the ‘Hostile Environment’ in Pakistan,” IDS Bulletin, 51, no. 2 (2020), https://bulletin.ids.ac.uk/index.php/idsbo/article/view/3100/3101; “Women Journalists Demand Protection from ‘Vicious’ Social Media Attacks by ‘People Linked to Govt,’ ” DAWN (Pakistan), August 12, 2020, https://www.dawn.com/news/1574031.

^22. Zahid Gishkori, “Female Officers Being Denied Due Promotions?,” News (Pakistan), March 10, 2020, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/626818-female-officers-being-denied-due-promotions.

^23. Fouzia Nasreen Sultana and Jannatul Ferdous, “Women Elites (Civil Service) in Bangladesh: A Governance Paradox,” Society and Change 11, no. 1 (2017): 26–37, https://societyandchange.com/uploads/1518075208.pdf; Pauline Amos-Wilson, “Women Civil Servants and Transformational Leadership in Bangladesh,” Equal Opportunities International 10, no. 5 (2000): 23–31, https://doi.org/10.1108/02610150010786157.

^24. Mariam Mufti, “Devolution and the Multilevel Politics of Gender in Pakistan,” in Handbook on Gender, Diversity and Federalism ed. Jill Vickers, Joan Grace, and Cheryl N. Collier (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020), 263–78; Nasira Jabeen and Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, “Gender and Local Governance in Pakistan: Promoting Participation through Capacity Building,” South Asia Studies: A Research Journal of South Asian Studies 25, no. 2 (2010): 255–81.

^25. Huma Yusuf, The Evolving Role of Women in Pakistani Politics (Oslo: Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre, 2013), https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/164192/c832356e4ede2cff568363e27bb152b0.pdf.

^26. Farzana Bari, “Women Parliamentarians: Challenging the Frontiers of Politics in Pakistan,” Gender, Technology and Development, 14, no. 3 (2010): 363–84; Ayesha Khan and Sana Naqvi, “Dilemmas of Representation: Women in Pakistan’s Assemblies,” Asian Affairs, 51, no. 2 (2020): 286–306.

^27. Nasira Jabeen, “Gender and Management: Factors Affecting Career Advancement of Women in the Federal Civil Service of Pakistan” (PhD diss., University of Sterling, 1999).

^28. Ayesha Masood, “Doing Gender, Modestly: Conceptualizing Workplace Experiences of Pakistani Women Doctors,” Gender, Work and Organization 26, no. 2 (2019): 214–28.

^29. Maryam Tanwir, “Gender Neutrality and the Pakistani Bureaucracy,” Journal of International Women’s Studies 15, no. 2 (2014): 143–64.

^30. Nighat Ghulam Ansari, “Women in Pakistan Civil Service,” in Women in Governing Institutions, ed. Nizar Ahmed (London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan 2018), 209–27.

^31. Sadaf Ahmad, “Pakistani Policewomen: Questioning the Role of Gender in Circumscribing Police Corruption,” Policing and Society 30, no. 8 (2020): 890–904.

^32. Hull, Government of Paper, 68.

^33. UNDP Pakistan, Gender Equality in Public Administration: Pakistan Case Study (UNDP 2017), 2.

^34. See for instance this collection of essays: Anjali Bhardwaj Datta, Uditi Sen, and Mytheli Sreenivas, eds., “A Country of Her Making: Women’s Negotiations of Society and Politics in Post-colonial India,” South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 44, no. 2 (2021): 218–27, https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2021.1899170.

^35. Domingo et al., Women’s Voice and Leadership, 60–83.

^36. A recent article based on the WPSP oral histories examines the role of families and education institutions in enabling women’s participation in the CSS. See Sana Haroon, “Women’s Participation in the Central Superior Services of Pakistan 1973–2020,” Contemporary South Asia 31, no. 2 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2023.2206997.

^37. Ralph Braibanti, Research on the Bureaucracy of Pakistan: A Critique of Sources, Conditions, and Issues (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1966); Charles Kennedy, Bureaucracy in Pakistan (Karachi, PK: Oxford University Press, 1987).

^38. See Saeed Shafqat, “Pakistani Bureaucracy: Crisis of Governance and Prospects of Reform,” Pakistan Development Review, 38, no. 4 (1999): 995–1017, see esp. 1006–7; Andrew Wilder, “The Politics of Civil Service Reform in Pakistan,” Journal of International Affairs, 63, no. 1 (2009): 19–37, see esp. 23, 27–28; Saeed Shafqat and Saeed Wahlah, “Experimenting with Democratic Governance: The Impact of the 2001 Local Government Ordinance on Pakistan’s Bureaucracy,” in Pakistan 2005 ed. Charles Kennedy and Cynthia Botteron (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006): 205–8.

^39. Ilhan Niaz, “Advising the State: Bureaucratic Leadership and the Crisis of Governance in Pakistan, 1952–2000,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 21, no. 1 (2011): 41–53.

^40. Wilder, “The Politics of Civil Service Reform in Pakistan,” 29.

^41. Ali Waqar, “Fawad Hassan Fawad Arrested by NAB in Ashiana Housing Scam,” DAWN (Pakistan), July 5, 2018, https://www.dawn.com/news/1418132

^42. Tariq Butt, “Govt Directs Bureaucrats to Stay Away from Media Platforms or Face the Music, News (Pakistan), July 26, 2020, https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/692324-govt-directs-bureaucrats-to-stay-away-from-media-platforms-or-face-the-music

^43. Hobbs raised some important considerations of how to ethically anonymize participants in her discussion of “unnaming” Vietnam war veterans who had elected to be named and settled on using first names only. Mia Martin Hobbs, “(Un)Naming: Ethics, Agency, and Anonymity in Oral Histories with Veteran-Narrators,” Oral History Review 48, no. 1 (2021): 59–82.

^44. Crystal Mun-hye Baik, “From ‘Best’ to Situated and Relational: Notes Toward a Decolonizing Praxis,” Oral History Review 49, no. 1 (2022): 3–28.

^45. Elise Chenier argued further that there is the possibility that the digital may “mimic, replicate, and transform the practices of domination that continue to marginalize, ignore, and exclude women.” Elise Chenier, “Oral History’s Afterlife,” in Beyond Women’s Words: Feminisms and the Practices of Oral History ed. Katrina Strigley, Stacey Zembrzycki, and Franca Iacovetta (New York: Routledge, 2018), 279.

^46. Pippa Virdee, “Histories and Memories in the Digital Age of Partition Studies,” Oral History Review 49, no. 2 (2022): 328–45.

^47. Donald A. Ritchie, “Oral History in Federal Government,” Oral History Review 30, no. 2 (2003): 77–79.

^48. Donald A. Ritchie, “Top Down / Bottom Up: Using Oral History to Re-Examine Government Institutions,” Oral History 42, no. 1 (2014): 47–58.

^49. Janice W. Fernheimer et al., “Sustainable Stewardship: A Collaborative Model for Engaged Oral History Pedagogy, Community Partnership, and Archival Growth,” Oral History Review 45, no. 2 (2018): 321–41.

^50. Eleonara Anedda, “ ‘I Hope to Be Part of South Phoenix History’: Community College Students Becoming Oral Historians,” Oral History Review 50, no. 1 (2023): 103–20.

^51. Kathryn L. Nasstrom, Tracy E. K’Meyer, and A. Glenn Crothers, “Making Better Historians: Using Oral History and Public History to Enhance Historical Training,” Oral History Review 50, no. 1 (2023): 121–40.

^52. Farida Shaheed, “Contested Identities: Gendered Politics, Gendered Religion in Pakistan,” Third World Quarterly 31, no. 6 (2010): 851–67. See also Tanwir, “Gender Neutrality and the Pakistani Bureaucracy.”

^53. Khalid Chauhan, Gender Inequality in the Public Sector in Pakistan: Representation and Distribution of Resources (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

^54. Where we quote from our interviews, we use italics to denote speech that was originally in Urdu and has been translated by the authors for this article.

^55. PQA, interviewed by Sana Haroon, Islamabad, PK, March 13, 2020, transcript, # SH 008, Women in Public Service in Pakistan (WPSP) Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, pp. 10–12, 16. PQA joined the CSS in the Audit and Accounts sector. Except where noted otherwise, all interviews were held on Zoom.

^56. SN, interviewed by Mahnoor Naeem, March 11, 2022, transcript, # OHW-MN-2, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, p. 4. SN joined the CSS and has held prominent positions in the Information and Broadcasting sector.

^57. NN, interviewed by Hira Iqbal, March 24, 2021, transcript, # HI 002, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, p. 8. NN works in Library and Information Science in the Punjab provincial government.

^58. Sadia Toor’s important body of work, from which this discussion is condensed, reminds us that patriarchal norms are not limited just to Islamic states. Sadia Toor, “The Political Economy of Moral Regulation in Pakistan: Religion, Gender and Class in a Postcolonial Context,” in Routledge Handbook of Gender in South Asia, ed. Fernandes Leela (London, UK: Routledge, 2014) and Sadia Toor, “How Not to Talk about Muslim Women: Patriarchy, Islam and the Sexual Regulation of Pakistani Women,” in Introducing the New Sexuality Studies: Original Essays and Interviews ed. Steven Seidman, Nancy Fischer, and Chad Meeks (New York: Routledge, 2011), 166–74.

^59. Ayesha Khan, “Women’s Empowerment and the Lady Health Worker Programme in Pakistan” (report, Collective for Social Science Research, 2008, pp. 9–10); Afiya Shehrbano Zia, Faith and Feminism in Pakistan: Religious Agency or Secular Autonomy? (Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic Press, 2018).

^60. FA, interviewed by Sana Haroon, Lahore, PK, December 19, 2019, transcript, # SH 005, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, p. 14. FA, now retired from the CSS, was the first woman to join the District Management Group in 1976.

^61. RJA, interviewed by Sana Haroon, March 21, 2021, transcript, # SH 016, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, p. 19. RJA joined the civil service in 1986 and has worked in the revenue collection and law-and-order sectors.

^62. SS1, interviewed by Sameen A. Mohsin Ali, September 25, 2020, transcript, # SM 004, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, p. 12. SS1 is a member of the Pakistan Administrative Service.

^63. KK, interviewed by Sana Haroon, Lahore, PK, September 18, 2019, transcript, # SH 006, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, p. 20. KK joined the District Management group and has worked in roles across the revenue, legal, and policy sectors.

^64. Zahid Gishkori, “Women Bureaucrats Allegedly Being Denied Due Promotions: Report,” Geo News (Pakistan), March 10, 2020, https://www.geo.tv/latest/276511-female-officers-allegedly-being-denied-due-promotions-in-bureaucracy-report.

^65. SS1 interview, p. 12.

^66. Group interview conducted by Sana Haroon, September 20, 2020, transcript, # SH 014, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, p. 15. FY worked in the Establishment Division but left the service in 2008.

^67. Haroon, “Women’s Participation in the Central Superior Services of Pakistan 1973–2020.”

^68. Sadaf Ahmad, “Coping with Conundrums: Lower Ranked Pakistani Policewomen and Gender Inequity at the Workplace,” Gender and Society 36, no. 2 (2022): 264–86, https://doi.org/10.1177/08912432211067968; Sara Rizvi Jafree, Women, Healthcare, and Violence in Pakistan (Karachi, PK: Oxford University Press, 2017).

^69. SW, interviewed by Manahil Raza, December 3, 2021, transcript, # MR 017, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, p. 6. SW, now retired, served in senior positions in Azad Kashmir for many years.

^70. SS, interviewed by Sana Haroon, Lahore, PK, November 20, 2019, transcript, # SH 002, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, pp. 11–14. SS joined the District Management Group and has served in the planning and development sector.

^71. KK interview, p. 18.

^72. Ahmad, “Pakistani Policewomen,” 890–904.

^73. RA, interviewed by Sana Haroon, Islamabad, PK, June 30, 2020, transcript, # SH 009, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, pp. 8–9. RA joined NADRA, an autonomous government agency, in a marketing role.

^74. RA interview, pp. 10–11.

^75. SJ, interviewed by Sana Haroon, September 19, 2021, transcript, # SH 017, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, p. 10. SJ spent many years working as a doctor in the public sector and retired recently.

^76. SL, interviewed by Sana Haroon, Islamabad, PK, July 16, 2020, # SH 010, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, pp. 13, 14, 18. SL, now retired, worked at a public sector medical college and then a hospital.

^77. SJ interview, pp. 7–8.

^78. SJ interview, p. 24.

^79. AS, interviewed by Sameen A. Mohsin Ali, June 23, 2021, transcript, # SM 009, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, p. 8. AS, now retired, worked as a lecturer in the public sector before joining the District Management Group.

^80. SN, interviewed by Hira Iqbal, August 12, 2021, transcript, # HI 009, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, p. 5. SN grew up in a small village, migrating to Lahore to complete her education. She took the CSS examination and joined the Postal Service.

^81. TA, interviewed by Hiba Humayun, March 23, 2022, transcript, # OHW-HH-1, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, p. 9. TA worked in the Establishment Division in personnel administration and later in the Economic Affairs Division.

^82. RN, interviewed by Manahil Raza, December 15, 2021, transcript, # MR 010, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, pp. 7–8. RN took the CSS exam in 2014 and works in the Inland Revenue Service.

^83. AZ, interviewed by Sundas Noor Aslam, March 2, 2022, transcript, # OHW-SN-1, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, p. 4. AZ is a CSS officer working in the maritime affairs sector.

^84. SY, interviewed by Sana Haroon, Islamabad, PK, July 24, 2020, transcript, # SH 012, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, p. 4. SY is an educator who started her career as a government schoolteacher, moving up through the ranks after acquiring additional qualifications that allowed her to be promoted.

^85. FN, interviewed by Zarmeen Sajjad, March 18, 2022, transcript, # OHW-ZS-2, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, pp. 3, 9. FN works at a public sector university.

^86. MH, interviewed by Sameen A. Mohsin Ali, September 8, 2020, transcript, # SM 003, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, p. 6. MH works for the Inland Revenue Service.

^87. KK interview, p. 8.

^88. KK interview, pp. 6–7.

^89. EI, interviewed by Sana Haroon, Lahore, PK, December 12, 2019, transcript, # SH 004, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, p. 5. EI took the CSS exam in 1998 and joined the Customs group, serving in prominent roles at home and abroad over the course of her career.

^90. The consistency of our narrators’ accounts of their reliance on hired domestic workers signals these relationships are a subject for further study.

^91. SH, interviewed by Zoya Imran, April 30, 2022, transcript, # OHW-ZI-2, WPSP Oral History Archive, Gad and Birgit Rausing Library LUMS, Lahore, PK, p. 5. SH is a doctor and has worked in a number of public sector hospitals.

^92. Ahmad, “Coping with Conundrums,” 264–86.

^93. Domingo et al., Women’s Voice and Leadership, 1.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Lahore University of Management Sciences [FIF695-2122-HSS].

Notes on contributors

Sana Haroon

Sana Haroon is Professor of History and Asian Studies at UMass Boston and codirector of the Women in Public Service in Pakistan Oral History Archive and was Visiting Professor at LUMS in 2019–20. She works on social organization and authority under the administrative and legal regimes of colonial South Asia and postcolonial Pakistan and historical methodologies for the study of Muslim South Asia.

Sameen A Mohsin Ali

Sameen A. Mohsin Ali is Assistant Professor of International Development at the University of Birmingham and codirector of the Women in Public Service in Pakistan Oral History Archive. She works on governance and reform through the lens of bureaucratic and party politics, institutional design, and the politics of aid (primarily in Pakistan). She was previously Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.