The Lace Makers of Narsapur
Description
A sensitive and groundbreaking study of women, this examination of globalization in India provides a fascinating case study of its effects on female workers in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Originally published in 1982, the book is an important insight into a group dispossessed before the recent economic boom in India. It details the way in which women have been used to produce luxury goods for the Western market while they are not counted as workers or producers in their fragmented workplaces. Instead, these women are defined as nonworking housewives and their work as leisure activity. With rates of pay far below acceptable levels, pauperization is accelerated and their position in Indian society rapidly deteriorates. An invaluable analysis with implications on the global stage, the case of the lace makers continues to instruct on the real impact of industrial development.
Praise for The Lace Makers of Narsapur
“A graphic illustration of how women bear the impact of development processes in countries where poor peasant and tribal societies are being ‘integrated’ into an international division of labor under the dictates of capital accumulation.” —Chandra Talpade Mohanty, author, Feminism Without Borders
“This classic breakthrough feminist text was of considerable influence in my own research. So little has changed concerning the valuing and vulnerability of women’s work it resonates as rigorously in 2012. Mies has made significant contributions to feminist scholarship, and [The Lace Makers of Narsapur] is iconic.” —Marilyn Waring, feminist economist and Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merita
