Women and Labour in Late Colonial India
Women and Labour in Late Colonial India
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Samita Sen's history of labouring women in Calcutta in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries considers how social constructions of gender shaped their lives. Dr Sen demonstrates how - in contrast to the experience of their male counterparts - the long-term trends in the Indian economy devalued women's labour, establishing patterns of urban migration and changing gender equations within the family. She relates these trends to the spread of dowry, enforced widowhood and child marriage. The book provides insight into the lives of poor urban women who were often perceived as prostitutes or social pariahs. Even trade unions refused to address their problems and they remained on the margins of organized political protest. The study will make a signficant contribution to the understanding of the social and economic history of colonial India and to notions of gender construction.
- Broad-ranging examination of labour and gender issues in social and historical context
- Interdisciplinary perspective: economic and social history, gender studies, colonial history
- Accessible and well written
Reviews & endorsements
"Women and Labour in Late Colonial India is an excellent example of women's history. In this book, Sen forces us to look at how women's lives as jute mill workers followed different trajectories than those of men, weaves a story of the complex relationship between gender and class, and insists we view the historical construction of gender as a process deeply embedded in economic, political and social processes...a must read for scholars and students of colonial history, labor history, and women's history." The Historian
"This work is an important explanation of the interplay of gender and class." Choice
"...ambitious study...Sen's work is thorough and informative...Sen's quest for working-class women's history in Bengali jute mills was a very challenging one, and she productively pushes our knowledge and questions further." American Historical Review
"Sen ventures into new territory with her assertion that gender is not secondary, but indeed primary, to the analysis of factory work. This is a must read for scholars and students of colonial history, labor history, and women's history," The Historian
Product details
- Published: May 1999
- Format: Hardback
- ISBN: 9780521453639
- Length: 286 pages
- Dimensions: 236 × 161 × 24 mm
- Weight: 0.595kg
- Contains: 1 map 12 tables
- Availability: Available
Table of Contents
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- List of acronyms and abbreviations
- Glossary
- Map: location of Jute mills along river Hooghly
- Introduction
- 1. Migration, recruitment and labour control
- 2. 'Will the land not be tilled?': women's work in the rural economy
- 3. 'Away from homes': women's work in the mills
- 4. Motherhood, mothercraft and the Maternity Benefit Act
- 5. In temporary marriages: wives, widows and prostitutes
- 6. Working-class politics and women's militancy
- Select bibliography
- Index.
- Show more
