The author first locates present-day feminist debates in the context of the intellectual controversies on labour which accompanied the growth of social and women workers’ movements in 19th and early 20th century Europe. The labour conditions in the readymade garments industry–a key sector in many Asian economies–are highlighted, with special reference to women stitchers in Bangladesh and women homeworkers in West Bengal. The book also provides a wide-ranging overview of the processes of agrarian modernization and their impact on rural women. Peter Custers discusses themes such as the commercialization of production, and feminist interpretations of the spread of high-yielding varieties of seeds in combination with agrochemical inputs in India. The reader, further, is taken to Japan, where companies have developed management practices that have transformed Fordism. The author offers an original interpretation of Japanization, and uses both Marxist and feminist concepts to explain why the state has promoted the employment of middle-aged women as part-time wage labourers.
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