Women in Kolkatas IT Sector Satisficing Between Work and Household [Paperback]

Based on a survey of women workers in Kolkatas IT sector, this book argues that growth of the IT sector has created a demand for skilled professionals. This has provided scope for highly educated urban women to create a space of self-expression and enjoy enhanced status and prestige within their families. These women workers carefully plan their career and daily activities, keeping in mind the need to balance diverse and conflicting needs of work and home. This kind of decision-making occurs outside the utilitarian framework and is better framed in terms of Herbert Simons satisficing approach, which takes into account the bounded rationality of agents. Written in lucid, non-technical language, the book will be an invaluable addition to existing works on gender and labour studies and will be of interest to social scientists undertaking research on gender, labour and the IT sector. ?

Affording new insights into the vibrant IT sector in Kolkata, India, this analysis of a survey of women workers argues that the growth of Kolkatas IT hub has created a demand for skilled professionals that in turn offers enhanced status for educated women.

Chapter 1. Women, Work and Agency: An Introduction.- Chapter 2. Women, work and exploitation: A binary perspective.- Chapter 3. Women and work: Towards an alternative approach.- Chapter 4. NabadigantaWomen workers in Kolkatas IT sector.- Chapter 5. Agency and satisficing in Kolkatas IT sector.- Chapter 6. Work, Satisficing and Agency.

Zakir Husain is Associate Professor in the Humanities and Social Sciences Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. After completing his doctorate in resource management, he has worked on education, health and gender issues. He has published extensively in journals like Ecological Economics, Social Indicators Research, Journal of Cultural Heritage and Economic & Political Wl3B