The Woman Field Worker in a Purdah Society

Abstract

In a purdah society, where women are either physically or socially secluded, it goes without saying that only a woman field worker (anthropologist, doctor, teacher, village development worker, etc.) can hope to reach the women at all. The foreign woman field worker, however, not only has access to local women but can occupy a surprisingly flexible position in local society. She can then move with ease among local men, as well as local women, if she wishes to define her own role in this way, and if her own background enables her to do so. Western women, particularly, are often able to define their roles with a flexibility which is not available to full-fledged participants in the local culture, even when these have been influenced by Western education. This holds true only as long as the foreign woman remains truly an outsider, for on this depends her ability to maintain her local role according to a definition largely provided by herself. When she begins to conform to local mores, marries, or involves her...