Pippa Virdee (Leicester) looks at the history of Pakistan through the lens of gender politics and describes the new opportunities that arose for women in the post-partition period. Nursing, teaching and social work were areas that offered women the opportunity to participate in the social revolution that was unfolding in these formative years. In emphasizing the active and symbolic role of women, Virdee's approach aims at reconceptualizing the history of the new nation-state.
Pippa Virdee's research project "The History of Gender Politics from the Late Colonial Period to Present-day Pakistan" was funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation as part of the special programme Islam.