Asian Women in Dundee – Work and Education
- woventogetherdundee
- Jun 24
- 13 min read
Tucked away in the University of Dundee Archives is a collection of interviews from ten women who travelled to Scotland from India and Pakistan between 1955 and 1991 to make Dundee their home. They were conducted as part of a History dissertation from 2007 by Christine Landsburgh, which includes 155 pages of transcripts from recordings on nine CDs. Christine wanted to demonstrate that women of the Asian Community in Dundee did not fit the stereotypical image of the female immigrant, who were often negatively seen as being resistant to change, dependent on their husbands and unconcerned about employment.
Christine was born in Walsall, West Midlands, but was brought up in India. Her family had settled there several generations earlier to work for the East India Company. When India gained independence in 1947, all non-Indians were given the choice of becoming Indian citizens or leaving the country. Many of Christine’s relatives did leave, but her immediate family chose to remain.
In 1976, Christine left India and returned to Walsall where she taught what became known as English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). “I began to feel I needed to give back to the community of the sub-continent,” she recalls, “to help them to settle and adapt to life in a strange land.” Moving to Dundee, she continued this work at the Mitchell Street Centre, teaching mostly Asian women and men, but also those from the Middle East and China. Along with Farzana Chaudhry, she was also instrumental in setting up the Asian Women’s Group, Khawateen, where she met the women that she interviewed for her dissertation.
Each of the ten women described the challenges and experiences of adapting to new jobs and expectations. They worked as assistants in the family shop, in offices, as assemblers in the mills and factories, as cleaners and as volunteers. They also chose to enrol as students for their future careers.
In many cases, the women’s husbands had come beforehand to find work in Dundee, only sending for their wives and families when they were earning enough to support them. There had been a small South Asian community in Dundee since the 1920s with the men working originally as salesmen (see Indian Pedlars in Dundee). By the 1960s, a local labour shortage had developed in the jute mills, due to the growth of new industries offering better pay for skilled workers. Many newly settled Asian men (particularly those who had initially come to study Jute Technology at the Technical College) were thus able to find work in some of the mills. Bowbridge Works in the Hilltown became particularly noted for taking on Asian workers – supposedly because one of the foremen had lived in Lahore for a time. The factory became known as “the Mother of Indians and Pakistanis”.
The jute industry had always depended on a largely female workforce, and this continued to be the case in the mills’ declining years. In Jute No More: Transforming Dundee, Valerie Wright explains: “Women were largely employed in mechanised assembly line work as this required less strength and skill which ensured that they could be paid a lower wage.” Some Asian women thus also found employment in the mills and had the challenge of juggling work and home life.
The quotations here are taken from Christine’s transcripts of her interviews. Their names have been changed to preserve their privacy. Sadly, since the interviews were undertaken, many of the women have passed away.
Mills and Factories
In the post-war period, several large companies moved into the town, particularly from the US. These companies, most notably NCR and Timex, were attracted to Dundee by relatively cheap labour and regional investment grants from the Government. Successful British companies were also expanding, such as Smedley’s Canning Company, which had factories in Dundee (on the Kingsway) and Blairgowrie. Some of the women enjoyed working for these companies, while for others it was merely a means to an end.
Laxmi
In 1967, aged 25, Laxmi arrived at London Heathrow with her husband, having travelled from a Himalayan town in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Whilst in India, her husband had applied to work in Dundee and with his work permit, he arrived with Laxmi to take up a job at Bowbridge Works.
While her husband worked at one jute factory, Laxmi managed to find work at another, at Clepington Works on Arklay Street. She recalled: "The jute factory job was very dirty work... but I had to do it. Needs must!” She recounted a humorous story about her early working days:
“I started working at this jute factory and… when I went back on the second day he [the supervisor] came and said ‘We haven't got any work for you today so I want you to do some sweeping and brush the place.’ Well I was horrified and said ‘Not blooming likely! Do you think I've come all the way from India to sweep the floors?... I’m not using the jharoo [broom] here.’ So one of my friends explained to the gaffer that so-and-so says she doesn't want to do ‘brush work’… So he said, ‘Well tell her not to bother coming to work here tomorrow.’ So I said ‘fair enough’ and didn't go back and got myself another job the next day. Episodes like this were upsetting because I’d never done anything like this in India as we have jamadars [sweepers] to do this kind of work... I didn't know any different... In my own way I was right to refuse because we had never been brought up to this kind of work, so I refused. I didn’t know that everyone in Britain cleaned their own toilets”.
Laxmi stayed in her next jute factory job for about six months then found another job at Smedley’s Canning Factory then later at NCR. “I didn't like working with the jute and also in those days you could ask around and find something else. The work at Smedley’s involved working with water constantly and it was cold and uncomfortable. After that I went to work at NCR and worked there about three and half years... We [Laxmi and her husband] both ended up working there on the same shifts and went to work and came home together.”
By the time of the interview in 2007, Laxmi had retired.
Sukhvinder
Before Sukhvinder came to the UK, she lived in a village in India where her family were farmers. They sold much of their land and came to live in England. Her father had moved earlier and set up home in Bradford where she and her mother joined him. After spending a few years working in a Bradford jute and wool mill, she moved to Dundee in 1967.
Sukhvinder was used to factory work and applied for a job in the jute mills. She obtained her first job (at Manhattan Works on Dundonald Street) through word of mouth from other Indian women who were already working in the mills. She started work at 7am and finished at 4.40pm. At the time she lived just a couple of minutes’ walk away from the mill. “I worked on the machines, with the bobbins. When the bobbins were full, I would cut them free and replace them with empty spools... and we did this at 15-20 minute intervals.” Although she never was injured at work (“The machines were stopped to allow the bobbins to be taken off”), the environment was not ideal – the dust “would get in your eyes and the machines ran really very fast.”
Sukhvinder recalled that she was always treated well and shown “great kindness, even when I wasn't able to speak English.” This she had to learn on the job. “I hadn't studied in India and didn't get any education here either.” At the mill “they spoke English but demonstrated as they spoke – ‘you do it this way or that way.'”
Sukhvinder went on to work at Timex, where her English language skills improved – “they did something and I understood what was being said. When you listen for a while and that in that company, you begin to understand.” Her job as an assembler required her to “put winders into watches...all day... My shift started at 8am and ended at 4:30pm... I had to catch a bus from Dens Road, which stopped outside the factory.”
During this time Sukhvinder had a young daughter who would go to daycare. However, when she gave birth to her son, she gave up working for a year. In 2007, Sukhvinder had retired from working while her husband managed his own newsagent’s shop.
Razia
In 1969, 26-year-old Razia landed at London Heathrow from Pakistan, then travelled up to Dundee to meet her husband. He was already living and working in Dundee with his fellow countrymen at the jute mills. She recalled: “They worked in… the jute factories, because after all, how many of these poor guys were going to be educated? Some were illiterate, some had had some education; they all came to work in the factories. So they all worked and lived together; that is two or three in one house... that’s how they lived, my husband too, with them... but once I arrived we got our own house. We didn't live with anyone else.”
After a year, Razia began working at Smedley’s Canning Factory. Her shift started at 7.30am and finished at 5.30pm. At the time she had a baby son who she gave to a neighbour to look after. “She just looked after my child at home. Her husband was a Pakistani. He said she would look after my child for me and she would take a fee for doing so." It was convenient to drop him off in the morning then pick him up in the evening.
Razia worked at Smedley’s for three months before moving to a factory near Dura Street. Her husband was also employed there, but she worked the day shift while he had to work nights. After eight years, she and her family went back to Pakistan but returned to Dundee a year later where she acquired a job at a mill in Lochee. There were many Pakistani women working at the factory, “about ten or twelve on the two shifts... They treated us very well. They didn't ever criticize our work and say ‘you haven't produced enough’... As a result, I was happy to do two shifts and they never found fault or complained about my work… Over time I just got better and better at the job and was able to cut a large amount at this factory.”
“I was taught how to wind the yarn onto the bobbins/spools... and soon I was able to do it quite quickly. I didn't know how to work the machines though, so I was trained for a couple of weeks and before long I was on my own, working at top speed… The product would be wound onto the spools and taken into the centre, box after box to be used in the machines... The strands would be wound onto the spools and the bobbins were made up to go into the machines and twenty were inserted at one go… I was able to fill two crates [in one shift] because I began to work quite fast. I was very efficient at my job.” Like Sukhvinder, she recalled “there was a lot of dust... the dust went up our noses but we didn't have a mask to wear or anything like that... [I was] strong as an ox!... and I'm still fine.”
After 17 years doing the same job, Razia took on an easier part-time post as a cleaner at the University of Dundee Dental School, where she was working at the time she was interviewed in 2007.
Family-Run Businesses
Many of the husbands of these ten women worked in their family’s shop or set up their own. This was a “pioneering trend” as Bashir Maan writes in his book The New Scots. “The old hands who had saved enough from peddling bought shops, in order to accommodate their sons or brothers who had joined them... and who were unwilling to go into peddling or were unable to find other employment.” So, being a family business meant that the wives were also expected to contribute, though this was not always the case.
Harpal
Harpal came from a village in India called Chakothi where her father was a farmer. He grew watermelons, sugar cane, sweetcorn and wheat chillies. She arrived in London in 1955 aged 24, then moved to Dundee. Her husband's father had come over in the 1940s and was one of the early group of Asian immigrants who had set up their own businesses. The family had a draper’s shop on Arbroath High Street where, after her children had left home, Harpal helped out as an assistant. By 2007, she had retired and had been a widow for many years.
Sushma
Sushma arrived in the UK from India in 1962 aged 22. At first she lived in Glasgow, where she married and worked in a solicitors’ office. She then lived for a few years in Edinburgh, then in 1984 she moved to Dundee with her husband and two children.
Her husband set up and ran his own retail and restaurant business. “I stayed at home for ages,” she recalled. “I didn't go to work till the kids were quite grown up… [then I] started working with solicitors again and worked at Thornton’s [for a] few years and then moved on to the Council.” In 2007, she was still working as an office administrator.
Usha
Usha arrived in Dundee in 1974 aged 20, having come from Pithoragarh, a Himalayan town in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. After raising their three children, she and her husband set up a grocery shop. She remarked, “I had no problems with life, no worries.” In 2007, she was working as a cleaner and customer assistant in Debenhams.
Ayesha
At the age of 24, Ayesha flew into Manchester Airport from Pakistan to meet her husband and his family. They then travelled onto Dundee, where her husband’s family ran a shop. Sadly, Ayesha did not have favourable memories from this period in her life: “He wanted me to go [to the] shop with him and I would never get paid... and I was going in a family business and working for nothing.”
Back in Pakistan, she had gained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Urdu. “I wanted to do something here to be able to... cope in this life. And my husband said ‘you don't need to work. Why are you talking like that?’”
Years later, after the birth of their son, she left and finally divorced her husband and started volunteering in a school. That led to her getting two part-time jobs. She remembered: “Once I started earning my own money... I went and I brought myself a gold bracelet just before Christmas. I thought I better treat myself!” In 2007, Ayesha still worked as a classroom assistant.
Education
Education was important for many of these women, not only to distinguish themselves from other people in their community but also to enhance their life standards and to encourage other people in their community to do the same.
Shabana
Shabana came from an inner-city area of Lahore in Pakistan. In 1959, aged three, she arrived at Manchester Airport with her mother and brother to meet her father. He had come to the UK six years earlier to earn money to send back home. Originally they settled in Longside, Manchester. As she was growing up, her father placed great importance on education and felt she should have as many opportunities as her brother. Shabana said that her father was unusual in this respect; he made sure they did homework and read newspapers.
After getting married, she came to live in Dundee in 1989. Her husband had studied at university in Glasgow and he “preferred it to the life in England.... he thought the people were more friendly... the open air and everything, so he looked for jobs up here and the reason he came here was because of his job.” By 2007, Shabana was working as an Adult Education Worker, ESOL tutor, Interpreter and Community Worker.
Shahida
In 1970, Shahida arrived in the UK aged two from a village in Bajaar, Pakistan. Her father had arrived a decade prior to this and worked in a mill foundry in Bradford. Like Shabana's father, he placed strong emphasis on education. “My dad was quite strict on that – he made sure that we went to good schools… He’d always make sure he would go to our parents evening even though [he] did not understand much complex English. His English was very limited but he would always take a translator with him... He used to bother to make sure he got someone who would come along with him, just because he wanted to know what we were doing in school and how well we were doing.” Shahida’s mother told her: “Make sure you work hard at school, and make sure you’re very respectful and make sure you don’t mix with these wrong type of children, ’cause these children can lead you onto a wrong path.”
After 21 years living in Bradford, she moved with her husband to Dundee in 1991. She began studying for a degree in Psychology at Abertay University while her husband managed a grocery shop. She became a student ambassador for the Equality Group at Abertay, as well getting involved in the Khawateen Group and Dundee International Women’s Centre.
At the time of her interview in 2007, she hoped after completing her postgraduate studies to work in a primary school. She remarked, “I think the only way forward is by gaining knowledge... it shines throughout your life because you see a lot of things in a different way… Obviously [in] the era that my parents came here… they were farmers back in Pakistan, they had their own land, they were actually very very wealthy people but when they came here they were your average person working for a living. And I would really be proud to see our Asian people moving more forward towards education and gaining... and maybe changing themselves as well.”
Rashmi
A third generation of Pakistani immigrants, Rashmi was born in Manchester where she lived for about five years, then moved with her family to Dundee in 1991. She reflected on the different working attitudes from her mother’s generation where in Pakistan “it’s still not moved on... women wouldn’t be working as much there. There wouldn’t be a need to work either.” She added that she can “manage my own finances, like I can spend all my money, rather than give it to my Mum. It is just more living in Scotland… you do sort of live with the culture here… you can't survive without working really”. In 2007, she was a full-time student at Abertay University studying for a BA in Business Studies & Accounting. Although she hoped to get to married one day, she stated: “I don't think I’d agree if they wouldn’t let me work and have basically equal say.”
For these ten women, working in factories, shops and offices was not just a means to put food on the table and clothe their families. They did not want to stay at home all day waiting for their children and husbands to return home from school or work. Educating themselves was not a gesture to please their parents or avoid family life. They wanted to improve their future prospects and in doing so perhaps influence positive change in their communities. Christine summed up their experience in her dissertation, writing that “their diverse backgrounds, migratory patterns and experiences and strong work ethic have despite cultural and economic constraints made a significant contribution to the economy and culture of Dundee.”
By Johanna Steele
Sources
“Asian Women in Dundee: An Oral History”, University of Dundee dissertation by Christine Landsburgh, March 2008. University of Dundee Archives, RU289/700
Emails from Christine Landsburgh to the author, 2025
Bashir Maan, The New Scots: The Story of Asians in Scotland, 1992
Janice Murray & David Stockdale (eds), The Miles Tae Dundee, 1990
Jim Tomlinson, Carlo Morelli and Valerie Wright, The Decline of Jute, 2011
Jim Tomlinson & Christopher A Whatley (eds), Jute No More: Transforming Dundee, 2011
Christopher A Whatley (ed), The Remaking of Juteopolis: Dundee c.1891-1991, 1992
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