Skill has no gender: Wood proves no barrier to women in Pindi

Girls taking up carpentry to make ends meet

ISLAMABAD: Like many trade crafts, carpentry is a profession which is almost exclusively practised by men. However, a handful of women in the garrison city are now challenging that exclusivity by taking up the tools to work shoulder to shoulder with men.

Amna, a resident of Banni area of Rawalpindi, explains her journey as, "When I realised that boys were capable of collecting wood and turning it into good furniture and making money, I decided I should learn to do the same. I am competing with men for marketing products, and making furniture."

"Women are making their mark and are equally contributing to the national economy against stereotypes, market-oriented risks and social-cultural hindrances," she said.

Amna said that she trained for three months with an expert male carpenter. Thereafter, she started making small traditional chairs.

“It was a very difficult decision to enter into a profession which has been dominated by men for such a long time,” she said, adding, "Carrying a carpenter's traditional set of tools such as saws and hammers was not an easy but with the passage of time I managed to do it because after the death of my father I was the only breadwinner left in my six-member family,” she said.

“I am the eldest and it is my responsibility to carry the entire burden," she added.

Amna said she was discouraged by people and criticised for choosing this profession but it was better to earn a livelihood with one’s own hands than to seek alms and start begging. She had to take a break in her education after intermediate due to a financial crisis after her father's demise but it was her passion to master a skill.

Another carpenter, Rozina, works in a furniture manufacturing unit along College Road in Rawalpindi.

She says she is proud to adopt this profession since it pays well, allowing her to fulfil her family's basic needs with ease.

Rozina noted that her father was ill and bed-ridden and she has to support three family members.

Apart from working to eke out a living, she said that she had continued her studies and attends classes at a government college for women.

Asked how her relatives had reacted to news that she was working as a carpenter, she said that initially, she faced severe criticism.

“When I proved that dignity was in earning a livelihood and feeding the family not in seeking alms or getting involved in illegal trades, people started acknowledging my efforts and have started praising me. Now men who would taunt me, quote my success instead,” she beamed.

Rozina stated that initially, she was making chairs and tables. She said it was a good omen that our women were entering into professions which were typically confined to men and contributing to the country's development. She also expressed that she noticed a positive change in society's behaviour towards women, which was a source of encouragement for them to enter this kind of profession.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2018.