Gender in the Market Economy

Contents: 1. Gender Discrimination and Inclusive Growth/Jasbir Singh. 2. Social and Spatial Meanings of Respect/Nitya Rao.
3. The Emerging Market of Care Work/Vinita Singh and Kalinath Jha. 4. Feminine Representation and Identity as the Vulnerable Workforce in the Indian Cinema Industry/M.N. Nirmala. 5. Ghataks, Marriage Bureaus, Astrologers/Madhurima Mukhopadhyaya. 6. Internet Arranged Marriages/Namratha Mogaral. 7. Caste-Based Prostitution/Anwesha Ghosh. 8. Mysore Kalyanam/Moly Kuruvilla and Dilshad Valasseri. 9. New Market Economy and Problems of Women’s Health in India/Heena K. Bijli. 10. Unbelievable/Kalpana Mehta and Nalini Bhanot.  11. Mental Health/Suneha Kandpal. 12. Colonizing Distress/China T. Mills. 13. Reproductive  echnologies/Sudeshna Mukherjee.
14. Beauty and the Market/Bikram Keshari Mishra.

It has almost been two decades since; under the aegis of structural adjustment programme; Indian economy has underwent major changes from socialistwelfarism to the market-driven capitalist economy. In this light, this book is an initiative towards understanding how patriarchal hegemonic forces structure gender-based exploitations in the globalized, capitalist market. In spite of expansion of choice in selection of goods and services for the middle and upper middle class under market-driven capitalist economy, the economy has failed miserably to address the challenges faced by socially and economically disadvantageous populations of the country. Women particularly are the victims of both capitalist commodification and patriarchal subjugation.

Since each economic act or transaction occurs against a geographically and culturally specific web of social histories, institutional arrangements, rules and connections, this book explores commodification of gender by global market economy in many hitherto unexplored areas like care work, marriage, vaccines, children’s mental health, reproductive technologies, management of weight and beauty, and so on. By exploiting cheap labour, market economy may have expanded women’s economic participation but failed to liberate them from their oppressive gender roles and class character. This book is a collection of articles which argue how women are systematically disadvantaged then men in different dimensions. The book will be a welcome resource to academic researchers and students of gender/women’s studies, sociology, economics and development studies. (jacket)