A Woman's Job: Making Middle Lives in New India

Asiya Islam

doi:10.1017/9781009536646

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.

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A Woman's Job

Making Middle Lives in New India

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-viii

Dedication
pp ix-x

Contents
pp xi-xii

List of figures
pp xiii-xiv

Acknowledgements
pp xv-xvi

Note on anonymisation and translation
pp xvii-xviii

Cast of characters (in order of appearance)
pp xix-xxii

1 - A woman’s job
pp 1-29

2 - Madam | English
pp 30-58

3 - Fast-forward | Tata Nano
pp 59-83

4 - Middle class | Smartphones
pp 84-107

5 - Heroine | Jeans
pp 108-129

6 - Working | Job
pp 130-150

7 - Middle lives
pp 151-164

Index
pp 165-170

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A Woman's Job

Making Middle Lives in New India

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