Abstract
Gender and the politics of space are closely interrelated. Like many other sprawling cities, in Dhaka slums are the natural consequence of rapid, unplanned urbanization and poor economic growth. Due to extreme poverty and lower level of education, the female slum dwellers face acute gender inequality. The study investigates how women facing gender inequality use home based work as coping mechanism. The study attempts to identify the adaptive micro-scale workspaces and their role in everyday life of female slum dwellers. To explore this and related issues, the study uses interviews, focus group discussion and observation as research tools in Korail slum of Dhaka. Key findings of the study are the pattern of spontaneous cultural adaptations and female workers' ability to create home based workspaces for survival. These will potentially contribute in identifying the spontaneous micro-scale space typologies in adapted gendered spaces. Establishing this facilitates the understanding of their role as coping mechanism against gender inequality, which can guide possible future intervention and/or external support.
Highlights
The Asia/Near East Region (ANE) contains 60% of the world’s slums, which in absolute numbers represents about 550 million slum dwellers [1]
The objective of this study is to examine the underexplored adaptive micro-scale work environments in slums of Dhaka with a focus on how they help in coping gender inequality through home based work
This study aims to explore where, with whom, why and how women work in micro-scale work environments in slums of Dhaka
Summary
The Asia/Near East Region (ANE) contains 60% of the world’s slums, which in absolute numbers represents about 550 million slum dwellers [1]. A megacity of 15.4 million [3] people and capital of Bangladesh has a high concentration of slums in the greater urban area which encompasses approximately 1,530 square km [4] This is a consequence of rapid, unplanned urbanization and poor political and economic decisions. Slums are the natural consequence of rapid, unplanned urbanization and poor economic growth They are directly linked to housing condition of a city, often showing the failures of the sector. Women lag behind socially, economically and politically even though in most cases, they are demographically superior in urban areas This is reflected in the widespread gender gap in the acquisition of ‘human capital’ such as education, and vocational skills and training. Gendered spaces play an important role in balancing this, albeit in a limited capacity
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