Women and Bazaars: Gendering Entrepreneurship in Uzbekistan

Abstract

Despite the developmentalist prediction that with growth bazaars will give way to modern firm-type marketplaces (Geertz in JAMA 68:28–32, 1978), bazaars continue to thrive and play an important role in the lives of Central Asian people. Sites of both rent extraction and economic survival, bazaars comprise around 90% of the retail sector in Uzbekistan (Otajonova in Itogi: kak pomenyalsya riteyl i chto s nim budet v 2022 godu. [Results: how retail has changed and what will happen to it in 2022]. Spot.uz. 2021). Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, bazaars emerged as crucial sources of employment, particularly amongst women facing limited economic opportunities in the post-Soviet era. The shift from a planned to a market economy, coupled with weakened legal frameworks and a frayed welfare system, drove women into bazaar trade. Whilst some regarded this shift as a tradition revived, others viewed it as a transgression of gender norms.Whilst prior research on post-Soviet bazaars primarily focused on their institutional roles and functions, recent scholarship has shifted towards exploring the lived experiences of bazaar dwellers. Unfortunately, women’s voices often remain marginalised in these accounts. Drawing upon Scott’s concept of infrapolitics and Kandiyoti’s patriarchal bargain, I delve into the lived experiences of women traders in bazaars, showcasing the ways in which they challenge, renegotiate, and reconstruct prevailing patriarchal norms and gender roles. The bazaar, I argue, serves as a locus of gender norm contestation and norm building.