Title: Gender, Liberalisation and Empowerment: Responses of Lower-Middle Class Women in West Bengal, IndiaSubmitted by: Dr Ruchira Ganguly-Scrase, School of Humanities & Social Sciences, Charles Sturt University, AustraliaSince the formulation of liberalisation policies it is widely understood that the privatisation of public sector enterprises, reduction in investment in public sector units and lower government expenditure on poverty eradication programs have hurt the interests of women. Based on recent participant observation and extended interviews among clerical and semi-professional women workers in West Bengal this paper examines the apparent paradox between feelings of empowerment and the reality of the overall negative impact of structural adjustment policies on women in India. Against the overwhelming evidence on the negative impact of economic liberalisation, it was found that women do not perceive themselves to be the victims of the New Economic Policy. Instead they emphasise their own sense of self-worth and advancement of women's everyday lives. While readily admitting that liberalisation may not have benefited women in particular, they emphatically deny that women have been disadvantaged by it. This paper presents an ethnographic account of their views which draw upon notions of gender equality that are incorporated into the public discourse and popular media. The paper focuses on the significance of women's agency in light of their class position. Return to Abstracts menuCarol Burnett Phone: 61 - 3 - 9349 1899 Email: c.burnett@asialink.unimelb.edu.au
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