Purdah to Profession

Modernization involves changes that must be, implicitly, many faceted. A society which adopts new scientific techniques and innovations and does not allow women to come out of purdah will have failed in its endeavours to advance. The struggle for Independence in India saw many women woman come to the forefront from their cloisters-home and children. In her book, Indira Chauhan writes about working women based in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. The work studies the theme from various angles including the reaction of kin to the working woman and the attitude of children to working mothers. It also focuses on the kind of problems the woman has to face outside the home-sexual harassment, discrimination in terms of both pay and position, etc. To round up the study, Chauhan talks about the hobbies, personality traits and the hopes and yearnings of working women. She furnishes data to support her contention that modernization of women is a myth in spite of the assertionso f pandits that they enjoy equal status with men. Here is a book that every woman will enjoy because it is about her-whether she is employed or not.