Gender, Labour and Resistance in Baby Halder's A Life Less Ordinary: Reconstructing Female Agency Beyond Domestic Hegemony

Abstract

Baby Halder's A Life Less Ordinary presents a compelling autobiographical account of gendered oppression, domestic labour, and female resistance within the patriarchal family. While the memoir narrates Baby's extraordinary journey from an abused child bride to an acclaimed writer, it simultaneously portrays numerous women who remain imprisoned within the ideology of domesticity. This paper argues that the memoir constructs two contrasting models of womanhood: one represented by housewives who normalize patriarchal domination through silence and obedience, and the other embodied by Baby, whose transformation into an economically independent domestic worker and author challenges the hegemonic structures governing women's lives. The study demonstrates that Baby's resistance emerges through economic autonomy, mobility, literacy, and authorship. Ultimately, the memoir reveals that liberation is achieved not merely by escaping domestic violence but by reconstructing one's identity outside patriarchal definitions of womanhood.