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Klappentext Samita Sen's history of laboring women in Bengal in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries considers how social constructions of gender shaped their lives. The author demonstrates how the long-term trends in the Indian economy devalued women's labor! 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 study will make a significant contribution to the understanding of the social and economic history of colonial India and to notions of gender construction. Zusammenfassung In a history of labouring women in Calcutta! the author demonstrates how social constructions of gender shaped their lives and how the long-term trends in the Indian economy devalued their labour. The study makes a significant contribution to the social and economic history of colonial India. Inhaltsverzeichnis 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.
