Women's Work

Paper Summary:

This report discusses Fatima Mernissi's memoir "Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood". The essay explores the different kinds of "women's" work as found in Fatima Mernissi's memoir about the Moroccan domestic harem in which she grew up and the lives of the women who lived there.

From the Paper:

"Production is often paid work. It is work that generates income. Traditionally, women's production work has been considered secondary to the "real work" of men. Cottage industries (like my grandmother's pies) are a good example of women's production. In Dreams of Trespass the author states that the gatekeeper's wife Luza "went to work. She was a first-rate cook and accepted occasional assignments outside our home when the money was good" (p. 21). However, the writer's aunt explained that only poor women took paid work. A "respectable" man provided a home for his wives so they did not have to go into the streets and be exposed to the dangers of the world. A woman doing production work was fairly rare for those living in the harem where Fatima lived (and not socially approved). As Yasmina, the writer's grandmother who lived in the country, explained, "both men and women worked from dawn until very late at night. But men made money and women did not" (p. 63). In other words men were involved with production; women usually did other kinds of work."

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