Women and Labour in Late Colonial India
The Bengal Jute Industry

The history of labouring women in late colonial Calcutta demonstrates how social constructions of gender shaped their lives.

Samita Sen (Author)

9780521035064, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 14 December 2006

288 pages, 1 map 12 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.452 kg

'… this book is a valuable addition to the history of women in colonised societies. It should be of interest to scholars of different disciplines who are interested in the historical and contemporary nexus between work and stratification.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

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.

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.

Subject Areas: General & world history [HBG]