ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to show the conflict and contradiction in the attitudes of the wider society toward the women, its reflection in their ambiguous position in society, and its embodiment in the personal lives of the traders. Many characteristics of the women become tinged by their ambiguous social positions their image, dress, behavior, respectability, financial security, and aspirations. The most sensitive indications of the marginal quality of the lives of Lusaka's female traders, their ambiguous position in society, and their internalization of society's contradictory and conflicting attitudes and values, are their aspirations for their daughters' futures. The marginal status of the traders is apparent in all aspects of their lives: their passivity and appearance at work, their limited hope for improvement, their ambiguous role as both wife and provider. All urban women internalize society's ambivalent attitudes and exhibit conflicting and contradictory values in their personal lives that reflect their ambiguous position in society.
