A Woman's Job

Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-1-009-53665-3
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 200 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 290 g

Reihe: South Asia in the Social Sciences

Against the backdrop of rapid socio-economic change in post-1990 India, scholars and policy makers have expressed surprise at the low rate of women's participation in the workforce, particularly in urban areas. A Woman's Job presents a unique urban ethnography of young lower middle class women's lives in Delhi as they weave in and out of service employment, education, and domestic contracts. Urban, educated, and skilled, these young women seek employment in cafes, malls, call centres, and offices in the globalising landscape of Delhi. Their participation in work enables access to 'things', such as, jeans, smartphones, English language, and the metro, that symbolise global modernity. However, caught in a web of gender, class, and caste inequalities, their identification as 'working' women also generates social anxieties. The book shows how women adopt 'middle-ness' as a strategy of life-making at the multiple sites of work, home, and leisure.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Islam, Asiya

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Dedication; Acknowledgements; Note about anonymisation and translation; Cast of characters; 1. A Woman's Job; 2. Madam English; 3. Fast-forward TATA Nano; 4. Middle class Smartphones; 5. Heroine Jeans; 6. Working Job; 7. Middle Lives.

Über Autor(innen)

Islam, Asiya
Asiya Islam is Assistant Professor in Gender, Development & Globalisation at the London School of Economics. Her research on gender, work, and digital technologies has been funded by the Gates Cambridge Trust, British Academy, and ESRC Digit Research Centre. She has published widely, including in Gender & Society, Gender, Work & Organization, Sociology.