Women and Labour in Late Colonial India: The Bengal Jute IndustrySamita 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. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 Migration recruitment and labour control | 21 |
womens work in the rural economy | 54 |
womens work in the mills | 89 |
4 Motherhood mothercraft and the Maternity Benefit Act | 142 |
wives widows and prostitutes | 177 |
6 Workingclass politics and womens militancy | 213 |
| 248 | |
| 264 | |
Other editions - View all
Women and Labour in Late Colonial India: The Bengal Jute Industry Samita Sen No preview available - 1999 |
Women and Labour in Late Colonial India: The Bengal Jute Industry Samita Sen No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
Amrita Bazar Patrika Ananda Bazar Patrika argued Baranagore became Bengal Jute Benthall bhadralok Bihar Bombay brideprice Calcutta caste Census of India cent CID IB colonial Comm Curjel Report Dasgupta Delhi District domestic Dufferin Report earnings economic employed employers employment female gender Government of Bengal Hindu Hooghly household Howrah husband Ibid IJMA IJMAR increasingly Judl Jute Factory jute industry jute mill jute mill owners jute workers Kankinara Labour in India labour market large numbers legislation living male workers marriage maternity benefit middle-class Midnapore migration mill managers mill towns mother motherhood Muslim Muzaffarpur Naihati nineteenth century number of women occupations organised Orissa paid Patna Peasant police prostitutes purdah RCLI recruitment role rural sardars sexual Shyamnagar Shyamnagar Jute skill social spinning strikes tion Titagarh trade unions urban village wages WBSA weavers widow remarriage wife wives woman women and children women workers women's labour workforce working-class