The new-age woman

Urban society witnessed significant growth in female work force while many women still not given ‘permission’.

LAHORE: In a society where women are often relegated to second class citizens and have had to fight for their right to share public spaces such as the work place. In spite of such repercussions, urban society has witnessed a significant growth in the female work force. While many women are still not given ‘permission’ to work outside their homes and the ones that are drop off the radar once they get married or have children continuing the ineptitude of fulfilling corporate demands.

However, in a stroke of luck and technological break through, the digital media has miraculously become the messiah for women with intelligence, passion and the commitment to stand up for themselves.

Digital media has brought a number of success stories and one of the most successful stories has been of Salma Jafri, the CEO of World PL.net. She owns several internet based companies, works from home and employs people from all over the globe to run her digital enterprise. “The internet has made it possible for a lot of people to work from home, create networks and friendships of their own choice along with a viable way of earning that support — their educational and professional skills,” says Jafri.

Interestingly Jafri began her journey as a young mother who missed the “emotional and financial fulfilment of work” and so launched her business ‘WordPL’ on the website Elance that allowed her the invaluable ability to structure her work around her life, and not the other way around. Jafri’s tagline has been, “The commute is a state of mind.”

The fashion blog Style Stripped run by an anonymous female fashion blogger provides another angle of emancipation that may not necessarily be linked to financial success. “I started this blog not because I wanted a career in fashion or to make money but simply to voice out and connect with people who would have the same level of understanding of fashion as I do,” says the lady, whose preferred mode of communication is via email to preserve her identity.

Her blog offered her the space needed to speak out and connect with people who shared a similar passion for fashion without revealing their personal details. Our anonymous star rose to fame to such an extent that even international buyer’s would seek her sage consultation on Pakistani fashion. Her credible reporting and wide spread readership finally accorded her a position as a judge on the fashion jury of the famed Lux Style Awards this year.

The barometer to gauge how serious an enterprise blogging has become can be assessed by the fact that Blog Awards were hosted last year and awarded 41 blogs in a range of categories. One of the winners, popular news anchor and now blogger is Naveen Naqvi. “I think the internet is giving a voice not just to women but Pakistanis who are disillusioned with mainstream media networks, especially with sites such as Cafe Pyala, appear to be emerging as a real force. For women, who are being made to become increasingly invisible in society, it is an opportunity to reclaim public space.”

Another interesting phenomenon that has taken society by storm is social networking. Sabeen Syed, a fashion buyer operating from Houston for instance admits that “Social networking via Facebook is also a crucial aspect of my business as much as holding exhibitions is”. She began her business of exhibiting designer clothes from Pakistan at her home in 2009 and has grown rapidly through her publicity on Facebook.

Similarly many female bakers offering fancy cup cakes and occasion cakes such as Signature Cakes by Bano in Lahore and Cup Cakes by Cookie in Karachi have been able to market their brands for free to a wider audience in the privacy and convenience of their homes. The flipside of course is that only women of urban areas with technological feasibility can only are able to reap the benefits of the spiralling trend. “I am not entirely sure that it is ‘emancipating’ for a woman to conduct a business on the internet. If the question is that of economic self-sufficiency, Pakistani women have been working from home in small-medium enterprises since forever,” commented Naqvi.

Class dynamics play an important factor in determining the use of digital media but age and generation gaps are another obstacle in the process; women of age are not fully conversant with their mobile phones let alone computers. However, with only a small cross section of the population making head way through digital media, with 18 million internet users in Pakistan, it is only a matter of time when this becomes a force to reckon with.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2011.