Drawing on evidence from qualitative field research, this article explores how Pakistani female development practitioners experience their work situations as they are shaped both by local sociocultural norms and globalized development agendas. In this context, policies at global and national levels demand that more female development practitioners work in remote rural places in Pakistan, thus creating new employment opportunities for some Pakistani women. This article argues that, in this work environment, these women are exposed to different expectations about their gender behaviour and that they therefore develop physical strategies on the one hand and discursive strategies on the other in order to negotiate gender relations in a way that allows them to engage in formal employment. This article adds to under‐researched debates on gender and work in Muslim countries as well as to debates in critical development and gender studies.

Intersectionality" as a concept is increasingly finding its way into development work. In order to develop an understanding of the concept, this article shows how intersectionality can be used as a conceptual framework to analyse identity-based development claims. The article builds on qualitative research with people living in the countryside in northwest Pakistan to develop an intersectional methodology to engage with development claims. It uses a three-step analytical model to identify subject positions from which different people negotiate "eligibility for development'' and ''responsibility to develop". The paper shows how frequently used categorisations such as gender and class should be complicated by development practitioners and worked with in a more nuanced way.L'« intersectionnalité » en tant que concept figure de plus en plus dans le travail de développement. Afin de développer une manière de comprendre le concept, cet article illustre comment l'intersectionnalité peut être utilisée comme cadre conceptuel pour analyser les affirmations de développement basées sur l'identité. Cet article prend pour point de départ les recherches qualitatives menées avec des personnes vivant dans les campagnes du nord-ouest du Pakistan afin de mettre au point une méthodologie intersectionnelle pour traiter de ces affirmations de développement. Il a recours à un modèle analytique en trois étapes pour identifier les positions de sujet à partir desquelles différentes personnes négocient l'« éligibilité pour le développement » et la « responsabilité de se développer ». Cet article montre comment les catégorisations fréquemment utilisées comme le genre et la classe devraient être compliquées par des praticiens du développement et être traitées de manière plus nuancée.A nivel del trabajo de desarrollo se incorpora cada vez más el concepto de "interseccionalidad". Con el fin de fomentar la comprensión de dicho concepto, el presente artículo examina cómo la interseccionalidad puede ser utilizada como marco conceptual para analizar las afirmaciones basadas en la identidad realizadas en torno al desarrollo. Con el propósito de contribuir a crear una metodología interseccional que permita valorar tales afirmaciones, el artículo se apoya en investigaciones cualitativas realizadas con campesinos del noroeste de Pakistán. Al respecto, utiliza un modelo analítico que incluye tres etapas y que posibilita identificar posiciones del sujeto a partir de las cuales las personas procesan la noción de "idoneidad de desarrollo" y de "responsabilidad para desarrollar". El artículo revela que las personas implicadas en el desarrollo deberán complejizar las categorías de género y clase, frecuentemente utilizadas, empleándolas de manera más matizada.

This paper aims to explore some of the manifold and changing links that official Pakistani state discourses forged between women and work from the 1940s to the late 2000s. The focus of the analysis is on discursive spaces that have been created for women engaged in non-domestic work. Starting from an interpretation of the existing academic literature, this paper argues that Pakistani women's non-domestic work has been conceptualised in three major ways: as a contribution to national development, as a danger to the nation, and as non-existent. The paper concludes that although some conceptualisations of work have been more powerful than others and, at specific historical junctures, have become part of concrete state policies, alternative conceptualisations have always existed alongside them. Disclosing the state's implication in the discursive construction of working women's identities might contribute to the destabilisation of hegemonic concepts of gendered divisions of labour in Pakistan. Discourses of Gender Identities and Gender Roles in Pakistan: Women and Non-domestic Work in Political Representations AbstractThis paper aims to explore some of the manifold and changing links that official Pakistani state discourses forged between women and work from the 1940s to the late 2000s. The focus of the analysis is on discursive spaces that have been created for women engaged in non-domestic work. Starting from an interpretation of the existing academic literature, this paper argues that Pakistani women's non-domestic work has been conceptualised in three major ways: as a contribution to national development, as a danger to the nation, and as non-existent. The paper concludes that although some conceptualisations of work have been more powerful than others and, at specific historical junctures, have become part of concrete state policies, alternative conceptualisations have always existed alongside them. Disclosing the state's implication in the discursive construction of working women's identities might contribute to the destabilisation of hegemonic concepts of gendered divisions of labour in Pakistan.

This paper aims to further discussions on access to "foreign" worlds, limits in knowledge production, and the role of gender relations in field research. What follows is an engagement with arguments developed by Hanna Papanek and Carroll Pastner in this journal some decades ago. They both drew on fieldwork experiences in Pakistan to argue that foreign women fieldworkers can (sometimes) take advantage of ambiguities in the social structures of Purdah societies, that is, societies characterized by "sexual segregation and the seclusion of women" (Pastner 1982:262), to flexibly position themselves and to be able to interact with both men and women. This paper rethinks their arguments and evaluates the current situation on the basis of fieldwork experience as a foreign woman in Pakistan in the late 2000s. It argues that possibilities for foreign women to get physical access to men's worlds, although still available, remain limited and in some ways have become more restricted (including access to women's worlds) due to political developments in recent decades. The paper also argues that, irrespective of the feasibility of physical access to other gender's worlds, it is necessary to reflect on subjectivities through which access to "foreign" worlds is mediated and knowledge is produced.

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