Spatial Modesty: The Everyday Production of Gendered Space in Segregated and Assimilative Organizations

Abstract

This article explores the relations between organizational spatiality, gender and religion-informed cultural practices. Theoretically grounded in Lefebvre’s spatial theory and informed by Islamic feminism, it examines the significance of Islamic spatial modesty in (re)constructing and sustaining gender (in)equalities in financial institutions in Pakistan. The analysis reveals that the work-space of Pakistani banks is gendered in ways that reflect the practices of purdah (Islamic modesty), while being adjusted and resisted to fit with the cultural practices of the organization, in what we call ‘selective appropriation of spatial modesty’. The article advances gender and organizational space scholarship by critically assessing Lefebvre’s theory of space through the lenses of Islamic feminism and offers a cultural-religious understanding of space theory.