British-Pakistani homeworkers and activist campaigns, 1962–2002

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the testimony of twelve British-Pakistani women living in Oldham, drawn from a larger study about British-Pakistani women's relationship with formal and informal labour, between 1962-2002. These interviewees were either homeworkers for the garment industry or were the children of homeworkers. Homeworking is the practice of ‘doing paid employment in the home… for an employer, with little control over the way the work is done’. This work was inherently exploitative, given the long hours and menial pay. Nonetheless, my interviewees revealed that they were not passive victims of economic exploitation, despite being amongst the lowest paid workers in twentieth century Britain. Their testimony highlighted how resistance took many forms, as women managed the demands of waged labour with family responsibilities. Alongside small-scale acts of resistance taking place in homes across Britain, formalised activist campaigns emerged from the mid-1970s, with the purpose of informing homeworkers about their employment rights and changing labour laws. A long-held problem for campaigners-who were often white and middle-class- was reaching migrant women. By the 1990s, sources suggest that campaigns addressed this issue by employing South Asian activists, who were often better positioned to build connections with South Asian homeworkers.