Women and work in precolonial India: a reader

A compilation of ancient Indian texts with feminist perspectives on women’s work

Women and work is an important dimension of the ongoing debate on gender parity. This book is a compilation of essays related to traditional perceptions of women’s work juxtaposed with recent feminist writings on women’s space in India’s labour history. The essays highlight the points and counterpoints of the ongoing debate on the nature, quantification and monetary valuation of women’s work.
Beginning with writings on the theme of women and work, and going on to historically plot women’s agency in labour processes, this book seeks to provide a panoramic survey of women and work in precolonial India. It is an endeavour to salvage the available data on women’s work―paid and unpaid as well as visible and less visible―in order to highlight their contribution and indicate the changes in women’s labour history.