Description
The belief is current among both educated and non-educated in India that employement has raised the status of women both in family and in society. How far is this belet valid?
The author, a socioligist of long standing, examines this belief in her book, and to do so she collected data from among white employees in Trivandrum which is the capital of Kerala State. To make sure that her respondents were employed long enough to give valid answers to her questions, the author had interviewed only those workers who has had a minimum of three years (or more) of service. The white worker employees were selected from the government, the university, and the banks. Having interviewed the white worker employees, the author found it necessary to under- take a comparison between employed and unemployed women to be doubly sure of the validity of the belief, namely that employment per se as against age, education, family type, place of residence plays a crucial role in raising the status of women. Analysis of the data confirmed the belief that employed women wield more power and more influence than unemployed women both in family and outside. As a result, such women enjoy more freedom than the unemployed women, and if married, their free- dom is not curtailed by the whims and caprices of their husbands who in traditional Hindu society want to lord over their wives. A penetrating study and a micro analysis, the author's analysis is a welcome contribution to the study of the sociology of Indian women.
