Interview by S. Haseeb Hussain Shah Jaswinder Gill, married Indian women who decided to run a shop independently
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What made you think that you can own and run a shop independently? I am not from a wealthy and educated background. My husband has always been very kind enough in accepting my decisions and supporting them. He wasn’ t educated either but he always provided his full support to me. We had to do something for ourselves. My husband used to do construction work but still we had to earn more money for our family especially in this recession time period. That is when I decided to take this step. I am happy that I made equal effort with my husband towards my family.
Did you find any problems while working?
Well, There has been many occasions when people came in shop stealing stuff and i was unable to chase them. I received many racial comments from young customers too, later on I invested and installed CCTV cameras that reduced such issues.
Did your background and culture had any affect over your job role?
If you look at my family background, this is a very bold decision taken by me and few of my relatives strongly opposed it too, expressing that it is husbands responsibility to provide me everything. Coming from a respected family background this was a huge problem which I had to face because normally in our culture women tend to stay at home. What is your opinion on gender specific job roles? Do you think it still exists or its does not matter these days? My opinion has changed after my experience. I think women are capable of doing all the jobs that men do. Women should not just sit at their homes, they should live their lives according to their desires and also play equal role as man or their husband towards their family. Women have equal rights as men and this gender role, no more exists nor it matters.
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