Woman''s Job - Making Middle Lives in New India

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.

List of contents

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.

About the author

Asiya Islam is Assistant Professor of Gender, Development and Globalisation at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research on gender, work and digital technologies has been funded by the Gates Cambridge Scholarship, the British Academy and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit). She has published widely, including in the journals Gender and Society, Gender, Work and Organization and Sociology.

Product details

• Authors: Asiya Islam, Asiya (London School of Economics and Polit Islam, Asiya (University of Leeds Islam
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.2025
• EAN: 9781009536653
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0953665-3
• No. of pages: 194
• Series: South Asia in the Social Sciences
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Women's Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban, 21st Century, India, New Delhi, Gender studies: women, Sociology: work & labour, Gender studies: women and girls, Urban communities, Early 21st century c 2000 to c 2050, Sociology: work and labour, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Labor / General, For higher / tertiary / university education, National Capital Territory of Delhi